Introduction: Quality of Life in Countries Undergoing Rapid Social Change

Social Indicators Research -     

In memoriam Karl Otto Hondrich (1937–2007)

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Subjective Attendants of Unification and Transformation in Germany

The article is concentrated on negative aspects of quality of life, mainly anomie. Anomic attitudes have been thematized since the beginning of sociological analysis as phenomena accompanying rapid social change and economic crises. It is shown to what extent the processes of unification and transformation in Germany after 1990 are accompanied by a fragile perceived quality of life. That such a problematic has become virulent at the beginning of the nineteen-nineties indicates the fact that the unification of Germany and the transformation process of the former socialist states are undoubtedly part of the great rapid societal changes of the past decades.     

German Sociologists are Looking for the ``Good Society'

The ``Good Society' was in the center of interest of the recentGerman Sociological Congress. The question for the goodness ofsocieties included defining and measuring quality of life andthe construction of social indicators. The feasibility of a goodsociety turns out to be a very complicate question but we can notavoid to strive for it.     

Rudolf Andorka March 30, 1931–May 30, 1997

Social Indicators Research -