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The Pursuit of Human Well-Being

The Untold Global History

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Editors:
  1. Richard J. Estes

    1. School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA

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  2. M. Joseph Sirgy

    1. Pamplin College of Business Department of Marketing, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, USA

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Provides a positive perspective on the history of well-being
  • Discusses the concept of well-being within the context of different philosophical and religious traditions
  • Offers a clear overview of well-being and quality of life in different regions and sub-regions of the world

Part of the book series: International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life (IHQL)

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Table of contents (20 chapters)

  1. Regional Analyses of the History and Contemporary State of Well-Being Since World War II

    1. Well-Being of Circumpolar Arctic Peoples: The Quest for Continuity

      • Birger Poppel
      Pages 565-605

  2. Special Issues Related to the Well-Being of Nations and Population Groups

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 607-608
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    2. The History of Well-Being and the Global Progress of Women

      • Elizabeth Eckermann
      Pages 609-637

    3. The Role of Technology in the History of Well-Being: Transformative Market Phenomena Over Time

      • Audrey N. Selian, Lee McKnight
      Pages 639-687

  3. Epilogue

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 689-690
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    2. The History of Well-Being in Global Perspective

      • Richard J. Estes, M. Joseph Sirgy
      Pages 691-741

  4. Back Matter

    Pages 743-808
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Keywords

About this book

This handbook informs the reader about how much progress we, the human race, have made in enhancing the quality of life on this planet. Many skeptics focus on how the quality of life has deteriorated over the course of human history, particularly given World War II and its aftermath. This handbook provides a positive perspective on the history of well-being. Quality of life, as documented by scientists worldwide, has significantly improved. Nevertheless, one sees more improvements in well-being in some regions of the world than in others. Why? This handbook documents the progress of well-being in the various world regions as well as the differences in those regions. The broad questions that the handbook addresses include:
  • What does well-being mean?
  • How do different philosophical and religious traditions interpret the concept of well-being within their own context?
  • Has well-being remained the same over different historical epochs and for different regions and subregions of the world?
  • In which areas of human development have we been most successful in advancing individual and collective well-being? In which sectors has the attainment of well-being proven most difficult?
  • How does well-being differ within and between different populations groups that, for a variety of socially created reasons, have been the most disadvantaged (e.g., children, the aged, women, the poor, racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities)?

Reviews

“This is an immensely important milestone in the global cultural history of wellbeing, and it will be a superb resource for anyone wanting a comprehensive global overview of philosophies, concepts, and socio-economic and political histories relating to wellbeing, as well as a rich source of basic information on contemporary objective and subjective indicators. … As an extremely ambitious collection offering encyclopedic coverage of historical and contemporary information relevant to wellbeing worldwide, this is impressive.” (Neil Thin, Margarita Tarragona, Paul Wong, Rebecca Jarden, Jonathan Bartholomaeus and Aaron Jarden, International Journal of Wellbeing, Vol. 7 (1), June, 2017)

Editors and Affiliations

  • School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA

    Richard J. Estes

  • Pamplin College of Business Department of Marketing, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, USA

    M. Joseph Sirgy

About the editors

Richard J. Estes is Professor Emeritus of Social Work and Social Policy in the School of Social Policy & Practice of the University of Pennsylvania. He specializes in international and comparative social welfare, social policy, and social development. He has been the recipient of many awards and prizes for his contributions to comparative social development. In addition to the present volume, his books include The Social Progress of Nations, 1984; Trends in World Social Development, 1988; Health Care and the Social Services,1984; Towards a Social Development Strategy for the Asia and Pacific Region (with Edward Van Roy), 1992; Social Development in Hong Kong: The Unfinished Agenda, 2005; Medical, Legal, and Social Science Aspects of Child Sexual Exploitation, 2007; Advancing Quality of Life in a Turbulent World, 2007; Social Progress in Islamic Societies: Social, Political, Economic, and Ideological Challenges (with Habib Tiliouine, Dordrecht NL: Springer), in preparation; and Human Well-Being: The Untold Global History (with M. Joseph Sirgy, Dordrecht HL: Springer), in preparation, 2015.

M. Joseph Sirgy is a management psychologist (PhD, University of Massachusetts, 1979), Professor of Marketing, and Virginia Real Estate Research Fellow at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). He has published extensively in the areas of marketing, business ethics, and quality of life (QOL). He is the author/editor of many books related to quality-of-life and well-being research. In 1998, he received the Distinguished Fellow Award from ISQOLS. In 2003, ISQOLS honored him as the Distinguished QOL Researcher for research excellence and a record of lifetime achievement in QOL research. In 2012 he was awarded the EuroMed Management Research Award for outstanding achievements and groundbreaking contributions to well-being and quality-of-life research.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Pursuit of Human Well-Being

  • Book Subtitle: The Untold Global History

  • Editors: Richard J. Estes, M. Joseph Sirgy

  • Series Title: International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39101-4

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-39100-7Published: 19 January 2017

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-41641-0Published: 03 April 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-39101-4Published: 09 January 2017

  • Series ISSN: 2468-7227

  • Series E-ISSN: 2468-7235

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXXVI, 808

  • Number of Illustrations: 74 b/w illustrations, 253 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Quality of Life Research, Positive Psychology

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