A report provided an overview of research regarding well-being as a concept and its utility in future policy-making. It said that well-being remained a contested concept, with a wide variety of definitions.
Source: Fiona McAllister, Wellbeing Concepts and Challenges, Sustainable Development Research Network (020 7468 0468)
Links: Report
Date: 2005-Dec
A new book examined how the quality of people's lives was affected by particular social problems.
Source: Robert Lauer and Jeanette Lauer, Social Problems and the Quality of Life, Open University Press (01280 823388)
Links: Summary
Date: 2005-Dec
Sustainable development indicators for 2005 indicated that all regions had made improvements in areas including employment, burglary and vehicle crime, pensioner poverty, fuel poverty, household waste recycling rates, and river water quality.
Source: Regional Sustainable Development Indicators 2005, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (08459 556000)
Links: Report | DEFRA press release
Date: 2005-Dec
A report mapped out an alternative to an unsustainable future of widening inequality, soaring material demands, and runaway fossil fuel consumption.
Source: On the Move: Review 2005 - 2006, Sustainable Development Commission (020 7944 4964)
Links: Report
Date: 2005-Dec
A report presented updates of data for natural resources, material flows, environmental taxes, and environmental protection expenditure.
Source: Environmental Accounts: Autumn 2005, Office for National Statistics, Palgrave Macmillan (01256 329242)
Links: Report
Date: 2005-Nov
A report said that a lack of joined-up thinking, conflicting government strategies, and poor leadership meant that the English regions were not delivering on sustainable development.
Source: The Next Steps: An independent review of sustainable development in the English regions, Sustainable Development Commission (020 7944 4964)
Links: Report | SDC press release
Date: 2005-Nov
A report said that there was a gap between government rhetoric on health inequalities and the reality. Society continued to be modelled on the needs of competitive, entrepreneurial, educated, white people in middle England - at the expense of health and well-being.
Source: UK Health Watch 2005: The experience of health in an unequal society, Politics of Health Group (contact@pohg.org.uk)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2005-Oct
A new book explored concepts of quality of life in older age in the theoretical literature, and presented the views of a national sample of people aged 65 or older. It offered a broad overview of the quality of life experienced by older people using a number of wide-ranging indicators.
Source: Ann Bowling, Ageing Well: Quality of life in old age, Open University Press (01280 823388)
Links: Summary
Date: 2005-Oct
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on its sustainable development strategy.
Source: Government Response to the Committee s Thirteenth Report of Session 2003-04 The Sustainable Development Strategy: Illusion or Reality?, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response (pdf) | MPs report
Date: 2005-Aug
A new set of indicators was published to help councils and their partners evaluate the quality of life in specific local areas.
Source: Local Quality of Life Indicators: Supporting local communities to become sustainable, Audit Commission (0800 502030)
Links: Report | Audit Commission press release
Date: 2005-Aug
An article used longitudinal evidence to help understand anger, and distinguish between people for whom anger was an occasional experience - and therefore quite normal - and those for whom it was more persistent. Children from lower social classes were more likely to be reported as frequently irritable or having tantrums. Women were more likely than men to report being persistently angry in adulthood. But boys were more likely than girls to be reported as frequently angry. Anger seemed to wane with age in both childhood and adulthood.
Source: Eirini Flouri and Heather Joshi, 'Anger, irritability and hostility in children and adults', Seven Deadly Sins: A new look at society through an old lens, Economic and Social Research Council (01793 413000)
Links: Article | ESRC press release
Date: 2005-Jun
A paper summarized an accounting system bringing together the activities of paid work, unpaid work and consumption, through measures of the time devoted by different sorts of people to each of them.
Source: Jonathan Gershuny, What Do We Do in Post-industrial Society? The nature of work and leisure time in the 21st century, Working Paper 2005-07, Institute for Social and Economic Research/University of Essex (01206 873087)
Links: Working paper (pdf)
Date: 2005-Jun
The Environment Agency published its review of the state of the environment in England and Wales in 2005. Of eight core aspects, water and air quality showed most improvement.
Source: State of the Environment 2005: A better place?, Environment Agency (08459 333111)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary | Water UK press release
Date: 2005-Jun
A paper examined the paradox that people generally felt busier than they did previously, whereas the evidence (from time diary data) suggested that societies had somewhat less - or at least no more - work overall.
Source: Jonathan Gershuny, Busyness as the Badge of Honour for the New Superordinate Working Class, Working Paper 2005-09, Institute for Social and Economic Research/University of Essex (01206 873087)
Links: Working paper (pdf)
Date: 2005-Jun
A government booklet provided a snapshot of the country's environmental, social and economic performance. A new set of 68 indicators included 'traffic lights' to signal where there had been improvement, deterioration or no change. The indicators highlighted the links between people's lifestyles, industry, health, the environment and other issues, and would be used to map the government's progress in delivering its sustainable development strategy.
Source: Sustainable Development Indicators in Your Pocket, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (08459 556000)
Links: Booklet (pdf) | DEFRA press release | CPRE press release
Date: 2005-Jun
A discussion paper examined the state of knowledge about happiness, and how happiness should affect public policy, including policy on health. A happier society required a greater focus on how we treated each other in inter-personal relationships, rather than on economic dynamism or objective outcomes.
Source: Richard Layard, Happiness and Public Policy, Discussion Paper 14, LSE Health and Social Care/London School of Economics (020 7955 6840)
Links: Discussion paper (pdf)
Date: 2005-May
A new book defended 'Western' lifestyles against criticism. It said that people were not sufficiently grateful for the "great advantages" that capitalism, industry, science and democracy had brought them.
Source: Richard North, Rich is Beautiful: A very personal defence of mass affluence, Social Affairs Unit (020 7637 4356)
Links: Summary
Date: 2005-Apr
A new official series of indicators of environmental progress - the 'sustainable consumption and production indicators' - was published for the first time. It showed that good progress had been made in reducing emissions of air pollutants, improving river quality, and redeveloping previously developed land. But further progress was required on reducing household and road transport impacts; and the use of water, and the levels of aviation emissions, showed no signs of 'decoupling' from economic growth.
Source: Sustainable Consumption and Production Indicators, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (08459 556000)
Links: Report (pdf) | DEFRA press release
Date: 2005-Apr
A new book examined the paradox that - according to the evidence - people had grown no happier on average in the previous fifty years, even as average incomes had more than doubled.
Source: Richard Layard, Happiness: Lessons from a new science, Allen Lane (fax: 0870 850 1115)
Links: Summary | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Mar
A new book sought to provide an overall assessment of the record of Labour governments since 1997. It said that Britain was safer, better educated, and better off all round: but most people believed otherwise.
Source: Polly Toynbee and David Walker, Better or Worse? Has Labour Delivered?, Bloomsbury Publishing (020 7440 2475)
Links: Summary | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Mar
A new book explored the relationship between happiness and success, and the ways in which early experience, parents and education influenced each individual's capacity for happiness.
Source: Paul Martin, Making Happy People: The nature of happiness and its origins in childhood, Fourth Estate (0870 787 1724)
Links: Summary | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Mar
A paper tested empirically whether certain frequently used measures of well-being were actually desired by people. The results indicated that variables such as labour market situation, health, housing conditions, and social relations significantly influenced people s satisfaction, other factors being equal.
Source: Orsolya Lelkes, Knowing What Is Good For You: Empirical analysis of personal preferences and the 'objective good', CASEpaper 94, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion/London School of Economics (020 7955 6679)
Links: Paper (pdf) | Abstract
Date: 2005-Mar
A report proposed ways of measuring sustainability performance using quantitative data. By converting environmental and social benefits and costs into monetized values, the approach was designed to allow organizations to account for these impacts in a way which was consistent with other activities.
Source: David Bent, Accounting for the Bigger Picture: Driving sustainable performance through measurement, Forum for the Future (020 7251 6070)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2005-Feb
A paper said that individuals who experienced a fall in income were less satisfied than those who had a steady income: but individuals who experienced an increase in income were also less satisfied. This suggested that income was a poor proxy for satisfaction. The process of 'adaptation' to rises in income masked long-term differences in outcomes for individuals, and made subjective assessments of well-being a flawed basis for judgements of inequality or social justice.
Source: Tania Burchardt, One Man's Rags are Another Man's Riches: Identifying adaptive preferences using panel data, CASEpaper 86, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion/London School of Economics (020 7955 6679)
Links: Paper (pdf) | Abstract
Date: 2005-Jan