Abstract
Improving quality of life (QoL) is one of the main goals of many public policies. A useful tool to measure QoL needs to get a good balance between indicators guided by theories (top-down approach) and indicators defined by local people (bottom-up approach). However, QoL measurement tools often neglect to include elements that define the standard of living at local level. In this paper, we analyse the correspondence between human development index, as an indicator adopted by governments to assess QoL, and the elements defined by local people as important in their QoL, called here local means. Using a free-listing technique, we collected information from 114 individuals from Kodagu, Kartanataka (India), to capture local means defining QoL. We then compared local means with the indicators used by Human development report (HDR) of Karnataka, the main measurement tool of QoL in Kodagu. The list of local means included access to basic facilities and many issues related to agriculture and natural resources management as elements locally defining QoL. We also found that HDR does not capture the means defined by people as indicators of QoL. Our findings suggest an important gap between current QoL’s indicators considered by public policies and the means of QoL defined by people. Our study provides insights for a set of plausible local indicators useful to achieve a balance between top-down and bottom-up approaches for the local public policies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Here we focus on the objective measure of Quality of Life (QoL) which is also referred to as objective well-being, objective welfare, and other near-synonyms. Without entry in their plausible differences, in this paper we use QoL as a synonym of all of them.
References
Alkire, S. (2002). Dimensions of human development. World Development, 30, 181–205.
Bawa, K. S., Joseph, G., & Setty, S. (2007). Poverty, biodiversity and institutions in forest-agriculture ecotones in the Western Ghats and Eastern Himalaya Ranges of India. Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment, 121, 287–295.
Bernard, H. R. (2005). Research methods in anthropology. Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Walnut Creek: Rowman Altamira.
Bhagwat, S. A., Kushalappa, C. G., Williams, P. H., & Brown, N. D. (2005). Landscape approach to biodiversity conservation of sacred groves in the Western Ghats of India. Conservation Biology, 19, 1853–1862.
Costanza, R., Fisher, B., Ali, S., Beer, C., Bond, L., Boumans, R., et al. (2007). Quality of life: An approach integrating opportunities, human needs, and subjective well-being. Ecological Economics, 61, 267–276.
DeLugan, R. M., Hernandez, M. D., Sylvester, D. E., & WefferThe, S. E. (2011). Dynamics of social indicator research for California’s central valley in transition. Social Indicators Research, 100, 259–271.
Demps, K., Zorondo-Rodríguez, F., García, C., & Reyes-García, V. (in press). Social learning across the lifecycle: Cultural knowledge acquisition for honey hunting among the Jenu Kuruba, India. Evolution and Human Behavior.
Deshpande, R. V. (2005). Adolescent fertility in Karnataka: An analysis using RHS-RCH data. The Indian Journal of Family Welfare, 51(1), 38–39.
Dluhy, M., & Swatrz, N. (2006). Connecting knowledge and policy: The promise of community indicators in the United States. Social Indicators Research, 79, 1–23.
Dodds, S. (1997). Towards a “science of sustainability”: Improving the way ecological economics understands human well-being. Ecological Economics, 23, 95–111.
Frønes, I. (2007). Theorizing indicators: On indicators, signs and trends. Social Indicators Research, 83, 5–23.
García, C. A., Bhagwat, S. A., Ghazoul, J., Nath, C. D., Nanaya, K. M., Kushalappa, C. G., et al. (2010). Biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes: Challenges and opportunities of coffee agroforests in the Western Ghats, India. Conservation Biology, 24, 479–488.
García, C. A., & Lescuyer, G. (2008). Monitoring, indicators and community based forest management in the tropics: Pretexts or red herrings? Biodiversity and Conservation, 17, 1303–1307.
Government of Karnataka. (2006). Human development report in Karnataka 2005. Planning and Statistics Department, Government of Karnataka, Bangalore.
Hagerty, M. R., Cummins, A. R., Ferriss, A. L., Land, K., Michalos, A. C., Peterson, M., et al. (2001). Quality of life indexes for national policy: Review and agenda for research. Social Indicators Research, 55, 1–96.
Handwerker, W. P., & Wozniak, D. F. (1997). Sampling strategies for the collection of cultural data. Current Anthropology, 38, 869–875.
Kshirsagar, R. D., & Singh, N. P. (2001). Some less known ethnomedicinal uses from Mysore and Coorg districts, Karnataka state, India. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 75, 231–238.
Macura, B., Zorondo-Rodríguez, F., Grau-Satorras, M., Demps, K., Laval, M., Garcia, C. A., et al. (2011). Local community attitudes toward forests outside protected areas in India. Impact of legal awareness, trust, and participation. Ecology and Society, 16(3), 10.
Malkina-Pykh, I. G., & Pykh, Y. A. (2008). Quality-of-life indicators at different scales: Theoretical background. Ecological Indicators, 6, 854–862.
Masferrer-Dodas, E., Rico-Amado, L., Tomás Huanta, TAPS Bolivian Study Team, & Reyes-García, V. (2011). Consumption of market goods and well-being in small-scale societies: An empirical test among the Tsimane’ in the Bolivian Amazon. Ecological Economics. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2011.08.009.
Max-Neef, M., Elizalde, A. and Hopenhayn, M. (1993). Desarrollo a Escala humana. Conceptos, aplicaciones y algunas reflexiones. Barcelona, Spain: Editorial Icària.
McMhom, S. K. (2002). The development of quality of life indicators—a case study from the city of Bristol, UK. Ecological Indicators, 2, 177–185.
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. (2003). Ecosystems and human well-being: a framework for assessment. Washington: Island Press.
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. (2005). Ecosystems and human well-being: Biodiversity synthesis. Washington: World Resources Institute.
Myers, D. G., & Diener, E. (1995). Who is happy? Psychological Science, 6, 10–19.
Puri, R. K. (2011). Documenting local environmental knowledge and change. In H. Newing, C. Eagle, R. K. Puri, & C. W. Watson (Eds.), Conducting research in conservation: A social science perspective (pp. 146–169). New York: Routledge.
Rahman, T., Mittelhammer, R. C., & Wandschneider, P. R. (2011). Measuring quality of life across countries: A multiple indicators and multiple causes approach. Journal of Socio-Economics, 40, 43–52.
Rawls, J. (1999). A theory of justice (Revised ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sirgy, M. J. (2011). Theoretical perspectives guiding QOL indicator projects. Social Indicators Research, 103, 1–22.
Somarriba, N., & Pena, B. (2009). Synthetic indicators of quality of life in Europe. Social Indicators Research, 94, 115–133.
Swain, D., & Hollar, D. (2003). Measuring progress: Community indicators and the quality of life. International Journal of Public Administration, 26, 789–814.
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by NSF- Cultural Anthropology Program (BSC-0726612) and ANR-French National Research Agency Project (ANR-05-PADD-0XX Public Policies and Traditional Management of Trees and Forests -POPULAR). We greatly appreciate the hospitality, kindness, and friendship of people from Kodagu. We are also grateful to P. Vaast, K.T. Vaast, and C.G. Kushalappa. Thanks to Sumanth and Govind for help with translations. F. Zorondo-Rodríguez thanks the economic support provided by the "Presidente de la República" scholarship (CONICYT, Chile). We appreciate the comments and editing support by H. Leach, A. Luz, D. Calvo, and M. Aguado. We thank the Forest Department of Karnataka (India) for providing the permits to conduct this research.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zorondo-Rodríguez, F., Gómez-Baggethun, E., Demps, K. et al. What Defines Quality of Life? The Gap Between Public Policies and Locally Defined Indicators Among Residents of Kodagu, Karnataka (India). Soc Indic Res 115, 441–456 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-012-9993-z
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-012-9993-z