Quality of Life,Hegemony, and Social Change in Rural Ireland: W. Bence Jones, 'A Landlord Who Tried to do His Duty'

Numerical indexes of quality of lifeprovide a date-specific representation of society, and a time series extends our grasp of events. However, the social processesundergirding date-specific indexes and therelated intervals in time fail to convey therealities of the human experience. Indicesabstract meaning from events and the people whoparticipate in them.Quality of life can rise and fall, and maymove in both directions in a lifetime. Withinthose processes some people are agents ofchange, a status derived from social positionand wealth. The retrospective appraisal of hisexperiences as a resident landlord is used as aschema for an appraisal of William Bence Jones'role in the evolving quality of life inVictorian Ireland.