Graciela Tonon

Quality of Life in Argentina

This chapter describes results of several research projects developed by the author studying the changes in the level of satisfaction with quality of life of people in Argentina. The research was conducted from 2002 to 2010. The chapter begins with the results of the first research project developed immediately after the national political, economic, and social crisis that besieged the whole country in 2001, and extends to the last survey that took place in 2010. In 2002, 2003, and 2005, the survey applied the Well-Being Index (Cummins et al. 2001). When politics and social conditions began to change in a positive way, another survey was conducted to capture quality of life in relation to human capabilities (Anand et al. 2007). The last project focused on the ESCVP (Tonon 2010), a measure capturing the level of satisfaction with quality of life in the country. The results of these studies show that the average level of life satisfaction is higher than the level of satisfaction with the living conditions in Argentina, in spite of the increases in life satisfaction since the change of government in 2003. Finally, it is important to note that the conjunctive use of qualitative and quantitative research related to quality of life can offer public policy officials better and more complete information to guide future policies.

Measuring Quality of Life and Inequalities in South America

This chapter discusses the development of a model to measure quality of life and different forms of inequalities: social, cultural, political, religious, and economic. It emerges as a result of a project conducted by the Research Program on Quality of Life, created in 2004 in the Faculty of Social Sciences, UNICOM and LOMASCyT Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora, Argentina, which has focused on research into quality of life for young people. Our conceptual framework and domains will produce a survey for which a questionnaire will be consistently constructed to measure quality of life and inequalities, by incorporating indicators that respect social, political, economic, religious, and cultural diversities. The core outputs are new, non-traditional quality of life indicators which can be applied to other populations and in other geographical areas, particularly within Latin America.

Children’s Quality of Life in the Caribbean: A Qualitative Study

Research on quality of life with boys and girls is a relatively recent task related to their position as subjects entitled to the exercise of rights. The complexity and force achieved by this concept requires the construction of methodologies and research techniques consistent with the holistic conception of people’s lives. This chapter sums up the methodological proposition constructed to investigate the quality of life of a group of young middle class girls and boys, who reside in Santa Marta, Colombia. The research, which was developed with a qualitative epistemological approach, has been considered as an innovation in this field. The research in question reflects upon the role of boys and girls in social science research; it points out the conditions provided during the research process, in order to enhance their participation; it comments on the techniques used in the field work; and describes the ways in which the information, thus obtained, may be systematized and validated.

Neighborhood and Housing as Explanatory Scales of Children’s Quality of Life

This article analyzes the work developed with 1062 children aged 8 and 10 – who live in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in large and small cities – with the aim of measuring two dimensions: housing/home and neighborhood, in conjunction with the variable gender. This analysis will comprise housing/home, the place where they sleep, their home situation, their degree of agreement regarding their homes, and the frequency of family activities – in all cases – according to gender; on the other hand, and in relation to the neighborhood, the level of agreement with its characteristics, and their degree of satisfaction with it, will also – in both cases – be carried out according to gender. Regarding the household where the surveyed boys and girls reside, in general lines, they have given highly positive answers both regarding safety itself and as a form of emotional support; they have likewise given highly positive accounts of how they are heard and looked after by their families – though they show less satisfaction with the space they have to study and do their homework in their dwellings, which points to housing issues. As to their neighborhood of residence, 70% of the 8 year-old surveyed boys and girls express that they are highly satisfied. Regarding 10 year-old boys and girls, the percentage drops to approximately 60%.

Rethinking Community Quality of Life in Latin American Countries

The community is a totality which is meaningful to the people that form part of it. In this sense community is more than a geographic concentration; it is a concept that implies the inclusion of diversities and their being allowed to share within it. It is related to social support, intersubjective, participation, consensus, common beliefs, and a joint effort which aims at a major objective: intense and extensive relationships. Quality of life is a multidimensional concept (Bramston 2002) and comprises objective and subjective components (Cummins and Cahill 2000). Quality of life in the community is a specificity of quality of life in general, and community well-being is also a predictor of general well-being (Sirgy et al. 2008). Community implies the existence of social cohabitation which is constructed by society in itself as a foundation of democracy and, in this sense, according to Lechner (2002) politics should also take care of people’s subjective experiences. Collective space in communities has become essential to citizens’ rights, as it should guarantee, in terms of equality, the appropriation of neighborhood space by different social and cultural collectives, genders, and age groups; it is the space of representation in which a society becomes visible and at the same time constitutes a physical, symbolic, and political space. The beginning of this century presents us with new models of community which imply that the traditional concept has changed, together with the way people participate in community spaces. Today, the place of residence is not necessarily the space people identify themselves with, and where they participate. The present social transformations have affected the community’s distinctive traditional characteristic as contained within space limits, to the idea of being formed by a few members that daily meet each other face to face. On the other hand, it is necessary to acknowledge the advent of the digital era and the construction of virtual communities; thus, we should nowadays make reference to communities rather than community. The aim of this chapter is to rethink the concepts of community and community quality of life in Latin American countries, reflected by the voices of actual persons; considering the importance of conversation in the intersubjective relations among people in the community and the construction of a collective scenario for the building of a common ground.

Relevance of the Use of Qualitative Methods in the Study of Quality of Life

This chapter describes the origin and evolution of qualitative studies in the quality of life field. At first it describes the characteristics and specificity of qualitative methods, considering that their main purpose is to understand meaning for participants in the study of the events, situations and actions in which they are involved, the context in which participants act and the influence these methods have on their actions, as well as the process in which the actions take place, which can enable the identification and generation of a new theory (Maxwell, Qualitative research design. An interactive Approach, Sage, New York, 1996). Even though not many studies have been developed by the use of qualitative methodologies, this chapter shows a summary of the studies that had been published in the Official Journal of ISQOLS, Applied Research in Quality of Life, since 2006. At the same time, it shows the qualitative studies produced during the last decade through the Research Program on Quality of Life developed at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora, Argentina. Finally, the chapter will point out that adopting a particular methodology implies a philosophic, theoretical and political decision and, in the case of qualitative methodology, it is an essential approach in understanding people’s experiences of wellbeing and discovering new issues related to quality of life.

Integration of Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Quality of Life Studies

The decision to use a certain research methodology is no minor question on the contrary it implies a philosophical, theoretical, political, and operative decision. The path towards method integration sprang from triangulation, as far as the validation process of the completed research is concerned, and converged in the use of mixed methods as a strategy to complement and expand the combination of the quantitative and qualitative methods. In 1978 Denzin defines triangulation as the combination of methodologies for the study of the same phenomena or process. Some decades before, Creswell, Felters e Ivankova explained that in triangulation each method has the same importance and the work is organized in different sections, with a final discussion at the end, in which the researcher combine the results of the use of both methods. As the idea of triangulation develops, it gives way to the idea of mixed-methods. Apart from Sieberdifferent authors have proposed this new methodological strategy in which researchers can combine both methods at different stages of the project. Actually, mixed-methods are considered a kind of theory and practice analyses in the research field, from different points of view, with the aim of achieving depth and corroborating the results. Achieving method integration in the field of research on quality of life requires that the researcher should articulate the data obtained through qualitative and quantitative means, and produce an integrated analysis of the said data

The Qualitative Researcher in the Quality of Life Field

In the current society, there is a plurality of perspectives about the knowledge of the world and in that stage there is an expansion of the use of qualitative methods as expression of the contemporary interest in the subject-matters, considering the epistemological relevance acquired by the introduction of the subject’s word as a possibility to construct knowledge. The qualitative researcher is expected to feel personally involved in every step of the research process, because every consideration and decision will have to be based on entirely personal grounds. Thus, in this chapter, we shall look into the importance of the qualitative researcher’s leading role in each phase of the research process. We have focused on the task of transcription and quoting of the material of the interviews, since we have detected that, on various occasions, these tasks have not been carried out by the original interviewer. Then, we propose three dimensions for the analysis of the role of the qualitative researcher: personal dimension, professional dimension and political dimension: personal dimension, professional dimension and political dimension. The chapter is completed by a reflection aboutthe qualitative researcher’s role of tutoring young students and researchers who are being initiated in their profession.

Free Time, Friends and Future: A Quality of Life Study with 8 Years Old Children in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina

The aim of this chapter is to show some results of a project for the study and the measurement of well-being and quality of life of 590 boys and girls of 8 years old, living in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. We use the International Survey of Children’s Well-Being, with the intention of collecting information on the well-being of boys and girls. In this chapter we will focus on the results obtained for the dimensions: friends, use of free time, more about you and your life, facts of life and the future. The results showed that concerning friendship, 66% of the 8 years old boys and girls indicated to completely agree with respect to the kindness of their friends while 75% said that they have sufficient amount of friends. About the use of free time, half the children carry out after school activities nearly every day, and a quarter of them once or twice a week. About their life, the facts of their life, and their future, 80% totally agree with the lives they lead, while 64,44% express that their lives are completely in accordance with what they want them to be. On the other hand, 86% completely agree to the fact that they have a good life. As to the question of having what they want from life, the percentage is 68%, while 77% assert that their lives are excellent.

Communities and Capabilities

The relation between capabilities and communities is a particular relation not very studied and this is the reason of organizing the Special Issue. Traditionally, the capability approach has been criticized because of being considered an exclusively individual approach. In that respect, Robeyns (2005) explains, in reply to the comments that label the capability approach as individualistic that “ groups and social structures can easily be accounted for in the capability approach, but scholars tend to disagree upon whether that is sufficiently done” (Robeyns 2005, 107). The beginning of this century presents us with new models of community which imply that the traditional concept has changed, as the present social transformations have affected the community’s distinctive traditional characteristics (Tonon 2017, 3). Currently different contemporary concepts of community can be identified namely, as a mode of existence, as a social connection, as a mobilization project, or as a political space (Torres Carrillo 2002). The capability approach consists in the identification of freedom as a major principle of development; furthermore, the analysis of social and economic policies aims at establishing empirical connections which render the focus on freedom coherent and convincing as a guiding perspective in the development process. In this respect, the capability approach represents a theoretical proposition in order to assess, namely: life satisfaction; perception of social situations; design for public policies which affect economic development; social policies; and international development (Sen 2000, 16). For Robeyns (2005, 94) “the core characteristic of the capability approach is its focus on what people are, in fact, able to do and to be; that is, on their capabilities.” Capability is the actual ability which allows individuals to accomplish valuable life functionings by reflecting alternative combinations of their performance—the aforementioned performance being everything these persons manage to accomplish or become in the course of their lives. It is further directly related to people’s well-being and freedom, while exerting an indirect influence over economic production and the process of social change (Sen 2000, 36). Richardson (2007) points out that, according to Sen (1985), capability is referred to what people may really choose; “and one can really choose a given functioning or achievement only if, having chosen it, one’s choice is respected and executed and