Handbook of Quality of Life Research: Place and Space Perspectives

This erudite Handbook demonstrates how multiple approaches have been used to conceptualize, measure, and model the complex issue of quality of life (QOL) and individual well-being, emphasizing place and space as critical factors in a meaningful QOL experience.

The Handbook of Quality of Life Research brings together an international array of esteemed academics who examine QOL through a series of case studies and empirical investigations, covering a range of environmental settings from rural and metropolitan regions to neighbourhoods and home environments to hospitals. Chapters use a range of methodologies and theoretical perspectives to investigate QOL in relation to place and space and their unique impacts on people. In light of the current threat posed by the climate crisis and changing worldwide demographic trends, the Handbook explores issues of migration, the impact of urbanization, the effect of natural environments and environmental degradation on QOL, and a sub-section dedicated to the importance of place for the well-being of older adults.

Offering critical methodological insight into the complex and elusive concept of QOL, this book will be crucial reading for students and scholars of urban geography, social and cultural geography, sociology and sociological theory, and environmental psychology. Also, given presentation of timely empirical findings, it will be an invaluable read for urban and regional planners.

Edited by Robert W. Marans, Research Professor Emeritus, Institute for Social Research and Professor Emeritus of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan, US, Robert J. Stimson, Emeritus Professor of Geography, University of Queensland, and Honorary Professorial Fellow of Geography, University of Melbourne, Australia and Noah J. Webster, Associate Research Scientist, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, US