Long-Term Trends in Quality of Life: An Introduction

Attention for quality of life today is if anything more widespread than ever: it is not just scientists who take an interest, but politicians and policymakers, too. This not only led to increased attention for quality of life in a number of countries, but also to more and renewed attention from supranational organisations such as the OECD and Eurostat. In many cases, this attention led to the new or renewed gathering and analysis of data in the form of social monitors or monitoring systems. Much of the power of social monitors and the social indicators of which they are comprised lies in repetition. The longer the time series, the greater the insight into processes that may potentially play a role. For example: which developments go hand in hand with economic growth and which do not, or to a much lesser extent? But there are also downsides to having a long time series, some of which are substantive, others are methodological. This special issue of Social Indicator Research aims at sharing experiences in relation both to the outcomes of long-term research and to dealing with the methodological challenges.