Quality of life and wellbeing: a good life?

Abstract

The concepts 'quality of life' and 'wellbeing' direct us to deeply human and social questions about whether the idea (and project) of wellbeing and the qualities it opens up lead us to a 'good life'. Issues pertinent to quality of life and wellbeing are not purely quantitative (in other words, measurable against numerical targets) but rather fundamentally qualitative and inherently experiential. If we ask 'what is a good life?' we are interested in the dimensions of life, not as a purely philosophical question (itself important), but as a fundamentally social one that expects us to (re)consider the way in which we think about the state of the nation and the types of interventions that are needed to address poverty and inequality.