PROYECTOS DE INVESTIGACIÓN DE LA UNIVERSIDAD ANTONIO NARIÑO

This review of a range of concepts in the broad area of living conditions and quality of life has sought to clarify the meaning of core concepts, and to identify which are most valuable in the

context of the Foundation’s future monitoring activities. In concluding this section, it is worth bringing out the key implications of the discussion so far.

The Foundation’s monitoring activities are to be centrally concerned with living conditions and quality of life, so it has been critically important to clarify at the outset how these key terms are generally understood. We have seen that ‘living conditions’ generally refers to the circumstances of people’s everyday life, whereas quality of life is a broader concept, referring to the overall well- being of people living in a society. Concepts of well-being are culturally relative, so monitoring quality of life necessarily has both scientific and value-based dimensions.

We have argued that a central element in improving quality of life is now seen to be enabling people, as far as possible, to attain their own goals, within the constraints imposed by economic sustainability and respect for the rights and needs of others. Accepting this perspective entails recognising first of all the diversity of outcomes that people may pursue in their quest for quality of life, rather than seeking to prescribe a specific set. It then focuses attention on the resources and contexts that condition, facilitate and constrain such personal quests.

A variety of other related concepts, such as social exclusion and inclusion, social cohesion, social integration and social capital, social quality, human development and liveability have also been reviewed in this section. We have argued that quality of life can serve as an overarching frame, encompassing many of these other concepts that apply at the level of the individual, family, community and society: notably opportunities, disadvantage and exclusion, social cohesion and social capital. Combating social exclusion and promoting an inclusive society, for example, involves enhancing the capacity of people to participate in the life of their society, which is central to quality of life. Similarly, authors elaborating on the concept of social quality have emphasised elements such as socio-economic security and empowerment, which have played a central role in our discussion of quality of life.

The breadth and depth of the notion of quality of life mean that monitoring is indeed challenging. Seeking to monitor quality of life will entail focusing not just on outcomes and subjective assessments, but also on resources and other constraints in the various arenas in which people operate. This has to include not only individual but also collective resources, notable social provision in areas such as education, health care, housing, and social services, widely seen as fundamental to the quality of life but often inadequately captured. However, this also means that such monitoring has the potential not only to track key changes in society, but also to reveal both underlying causal processes and emerging trends and concerns for the future. As developed below, these are central to the role that the Foundation can play in this area.

We have already emphasised that monitoring living conditions and quality of life is not to be seen as a purely ‘scientific’, value-free exercise, which could be carried out without reference to ‘desirable’ versus ‘undesirable’ social change in the societies in which it is taking place or without abstracting from a society’s goals. Instead, it is in essence a normatively based exercise, and its value is enhanced by the extent to which it taps into the central concerns and goals of a society.5 This means that, in the Foundation’s work, the European policy agenda has to be to the forefront in developing and following through the conceptual framework for monitoring of living conditions and quality of life. So the key focuses of that policy agenda are central here, and have to be examined in some depth.

For many years from the original establishment of the EEC, its main objective was to create an area where free movement of goods, services, capital and people would enhance economic growth. The predominant focus was economic rather than social. However, in more recent years that focus has shifted. The EU has an increasing interest and competence in social policy, partly in the light of the perceived need to offset some of the potential negative effects of creating the single market. Important landmarks in the development of that competence were the 1989 Social Charter, the Social Protocol of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, and Articles 136 and 137 of the Amsterdam Treaty requiring the Community to support Member States’ action to combat social exclusion. The concerns of European policy now encompass raising living standards and improving living and working conditions, strengthening social cohesion and combating exclusion, promoting equal opportunities, and sustainability. Thus the social policy agenda has expanded and deepened in scope, as we detail below, but with a continued emphasis on the long-standing goals of achievement and maintenance of high levels of health and social protection.