This book presents a comprehensive view of the state of social progress worldwide over an entire 50-year period beginning 1970. It discusses original time-series research for the period 1970-2018 as well as contemporary trends in quality of life and well-being research for the period since 2018, and provides innovative research findings into the nature, history, and status of 160 of the world’s economically advanced and developing nations. Among the topics included are discussion of the worldwide development trends occurring with especially vulnerable population groups, such as children and youth, the elderly, women, persons with disabilities, sexual minorities, and economic migrants. Further, this book reports social indicator trends at four unit of analysis: individuals, nations, world regions, and for the world-as-a-whole.

This book presents the Balanced Development Index (BDI), measuring socioeconomic development in twenty-two European OECD member countries in a period 1999-2017. Compared to other composite measures of development, BDI looks beyond traditional development indicators, such as GDP, to create an index which gives equal weight to social, economic, objective, and subjective aspects of development. The BDI aggregates forty-two detailed indicators into four composite middle-level indexes: external economic (characterizing functioning of national economies in their international surroundings), internal economic (characterizing various aspects of domestic economic conditions), social expectations (public hopes and fears concerning economic, political and social conditions), and current social condition (including both objective and subjective social indicators)—which are, in turn, aggregated into the general BDI index.

This volume presents an account of how people in sub-Saharan Africa have fared under changing life circumstances of the past centuries until the present. By introducing the geography of the region it traces a time line of different historical periods that have shaped livelihoods of ordinary people of the region, and addresses the major milestones in political and economic development. It focuses on social indicators pointing to significant changes that have affected the health, education and wealth of sub-Saharan Africans and their outlook on the future since the wind of change blew through the region. With case studies and vignettes the book highlights how individual citizens across the 44 different countries of sub-Saharan Africa experience well-being and express their aspirations for the future. This book provides relevant material for practitioners and policy makers, including community and development workers, in non-governmental and other organizations in sub-Saharan African countries.

This book focuses on the drivers of Jihadist terrorism and explains how a better understanding of these drivers can lead to more effective counterterrorism policies all over the world. It builds on results of the extensive body of quality of life studies to document the historical, geo-political, economic, religious, cultural and media drivers of Jihadist terrorism. Guided by a major theme this book shows that the significant gains we have made in combatting Jihadist terrorism are not enough, but that we need to embrace a much broader and comprehensive view of the antecedents and the sustaining enablers of this threat to help guide any sustainable efforts. It proposes interventions designed to effectively treat the causes of this insidious disease. This book is of great interest to new media, policy makers concerned about national security as well as people and academic scholars whose research interest involves conflict and conflict resolution, religious studies, terrorism and counterterrorism, Islamic history, and Islamic geo-politics.

This book honors the work of Ruut Veenhoven, who has been a pioneer and leader in the field of happiness studies for the past 50 years. It brings together experts in the field discussing Veenhoven’s work as well as taking up themes from his workshops over the years to analyze how and where the field has expanded following his research. Veenhoven’s contributions include developing theories and measuring instruments, creating the world’s first and largest database of happiness research, founding the world’s first and most frequently cited Journal of Happiness Studies, and student development in and popularization of the field of happiness studies. He has extensive publications through the International Sociological Association and the International Society for Quality of Life Studies, and the research field of happiness studies would not have become as broad today without his enormous contributions. Friends and former students of Veenhoven provide both academic and anecdotal discussions in this festschrift, which is important for anyone interested in the development of happiness research.

This open access book defines happiness intuitively and explores several common conceptual mistakes with regard to happiness. It then moves on to address topical issues including, but not limited to, whether money can buy you happiness, why happiness is ultimately the only thing of intrinsic value, and the various factors important for happiness. It also presents a more reliable and interpersonally comparable method for measuring happiness and discusses twelve factors, from A to L, that are crucial for individual happiness: attitude, balance, confidence, dignity, engagement, family/friends, gratitude, health, ideals, joyfulness, kindness and love. Further, it examines important public policy considerations, taking into account recent advances in economics, the environmental sciences, and happiness studies. Novel issues discussed include: an environmentally responsible happy nation index to supplement GDP, the East Asian happiness gap, a case for stimulating pleasure centres of the brain, and an argument for higher public spending.

Despite the sustained scholarly attention that the United Nations and international NGOs have received in the twenty-first century, they still remain under-researched from a management studies perspective. This volume brings together rich analyses of these organizations’ functioning, arguing that they are best understood as intermediaries between international decision-making and funding bodies in the developed world and initiatives that take place on the ground, primarily in the Global South. Based on current management research, this follow-up to Rethinking International Organizations (Berghahn, 2002) provides a wealth of both empirical and theoretical insights, along with practical recommendations how these organizations can function more effectively.

The book is a cutting-edge contribution to the debate which has occurred for some time on the pros and cons of secondary education becoming more closely and explicitly related to preparing young people for the world of work. The book provides concrete examples of the vocationalisation of secondary education, with particular reference to the situation in Africa. The target audience for the book includes policy-makers, practitioners, administrators, education planners, researchers, teachers and teacher educators with a concern about the relationship between secondary education and education for the world of work (with particular reference to technical and vocational education and training - TVET.) The book appears in the Springer book series on ‘Technical and Vocational Education and Training: Issues, Concerns and Prospects’ and compliments the ‘International Handbook of Technical and Vocational Education and Training’ and other publications in the’ International Library of TVET’ all of which are publications of the ‘UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for TVET’ in Bonn, Germany

What drives government popularity? For decades, scholars, journalists, and political pundits alike have converged on a single answer: the economy. A rising economy lifts the popularity of the government, and if the economy's fortunes turn south, so too does that of the government. This conventional wisdom informs politicians' decisions as well as the scholarly commentary on parties and elections. Yet the conditions that underlie this model have changed in many countries as globalization has shifted control away from national policymakers, as non-economic cultural issues have risen in importance, and as our politics have become more polarized. At the same time, since the Great Recession in 2008 persistent economic volatility has kept the economy on the agenda. What, then, fuels government popularity in our current volatile environment? Are political fortunes tied to economic stability, as in the past? Or has the economy-popularity link-the popularity function-been severed by a host of new and less predictable factors in post-industrial societies? To answer these questions, Economics and Politics Revisited uses data from the Executive Approval Project (EAP), a cross-nationally comparable data on leader popularity, to model the fundamental dynamics of government support in advanced industrial democracies. Eleven country-specific chapters, each written by experts in the politics of the country, examine the role of economic performance in generating leader support in each country. In all cases, chapter authors show that the economy matters for popularity. However, the economy-popularity link is stronger in some countries than others. Further, chapters leverage EAP series to highlight change over time. Pooled analyses extend these findings, highlighting how the public's responses to the economy are reduced when political campaigns shift to non-economic issues and when parties are polarization on non-economic issues. Collectively, the volume highlights how evolving issue agendas are changing the nature of political accountability in advanced industrialized democracies. While the economy remains important, the book calls on students of political accountability to give greater attention to the role of non-economic issues. Comparative Politics is a series for researchers, teachers, and students of political science that deals with contemporary government and politics. Global in scope, books in the series are characterized by a stress on comparative analysis and strong methodological rigour. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research. For more information visit: www.ecprnet.eu . The series is edited by Nicole Bolleyer, Chair of Comparative Political Science, Geschwister Scholl Institut, LMU Munich and Jonathan Slapin, Professor of Political Institutions and European Politics, Department of Political Science, University of Zurich.