Cross-national Comparison of the Quality of Life in Europe: Inventory of Surveys and Methods

The intention of this paper is to provide thescientific community with information onresearch carried out in the course of thecomparative research programme EuReporting – Towards a European System onSocial Reporting and Welfare Measurement. Thisresearch is being funded by the EuropeanCommission and is being conducted by researchteams throughout Europe. In this paper, we willreport on the findings of the research carriedout by the team in Vienna. The Vienneseresearch team is to assess the existing stockof comparative and cross-sectional surveys inthe field of social reporting and welfaremeasurement. Of concern here is not onlydocumentary work, but also the quality andcomparability of existing survey data. Thefocus of the Vienna project is upon suchcross-national and cross-sectional surveys asthe World Values Survey, the InternationalSocial Survey Programme, the Eurobarometer andthe New Democracies Barometer, as well asnational longitudinal studies.     

Changing paradigms in measuring national well‐being: How does Korea rank “beyond GDP”?

Academics, politicians, and citizens around the world are calling for multidimensional measures of national well‐being to be included in public policy‐making. Under the motto “The Future of Well‐Being,” the 6th OECD World Forum recently pushed forward this debate in Incheon, Korea. Comparing multidimensional well‐being measures across countries, Korea ranks well in income and health, but shows deficiencies in social support, perceived freedom over life choices, air quality, and work‐life balance. Multidimensional measures of well‐being are increasingly being adopted by policy‐makers around the world to improve people's lives.     

Long-term social development of Hungary,measured by social indicators

Social indicators of social structure, urbanisation, level of living and social mobility chances are used to study the development of Hungarian society from the period of capitalist society to the present. The impact of socialist transformations, as well as the influences of the new economic and social conditions appearing in the second half of the 1960's and leading to the economic reforms are especially investigated. Modernization, the decline of inequalities of income and of social mobility opportunities characterized the socialist transformations. Since the mid-60's new tendencies are emerging that need careful investigation.     

Firm Size, Earnings, and Displacement Risk

Analogous to the well-documented firm size-wage differential, there also exists a differential in layoff risk according to firm size. Using Austrian data I discuss several reasons for this puzzle, including on-the-job training and workers' heterogeneity. If less stable (and also less able) workers select themselves into small, unstable, and low-paying firms, predicted layoff risk of workers can be used as a proxy for heterogeneity of workers and therefore be included in wage regressions. Doing this, one half of the size earnings premium can be explained.     

Editorial

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

My Family through the Lens. Photo Interviews with Children and Sensitive Aspects of Family Life

We elaborate on an aspect of photo interviews with children that has so far not been considered sufficiently: Photographs may encourage children to talk about sensitive aspects of family life. The potential and limitations of this aspect are discussed along the lines of visibility and invisibility. Visualisations support children in verbalising their thoughts, but also stimulate narrations on issues that are not displayed. Data are drawn from interviews with fifty 10‐year‐old children who took photographs in their families, and their parents (n = 71). We conclude that visual methods and their combination with a multiple perspectives approach may generate substantial benefits in childhood and family research.