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"'All men, everywhere, have asked the same questions: Whence we come, what kind of thing we are, and at least some intimation of what may become of us . . .' So begins Nobel Prize-winning scientist George Wald's 1970 Massey Lectures, now in print for the first time ever. Where did we come from, who are we, and what is to become of us - these questions have never been more urgent. Then, as now, the world is facing major political and social upheaval, from overpopulation to nuclear warfare to environmental degradation and the uses and abuses of technology. Using scientific fact as metaphor, Wald meditates on our place, and role, on Earth and in the universe. He urges us to therefore choose life - to invest in our capabilities as human beings, to heed the warnings of our own self-destruction, and above all to honour our humanity."--

Every person aspires to a good life. But what does "a good or a better life" mean? This report looks at the most important aspects that shape people's lives and well-being: income, jobs, housing, health, work and life-balance, education, social connections, civic engagement and governance, environment, personal security and subjective well-being. It paints a comprehensive picture of well-being in OECD countries and other major economies, by looking at people's material living conditions and quality of life across the population. The report responds to the needs of citizens for better information on well-being and to the needs of policy makers to give a more accurate picture of societal progress. The report finds that well-being has increased on average over the past fifteen years: people are richer and more likely to be employed; they enjoy better housing conditions and are exposed to lower air pollution; they live longer and are more educated; they are also exposed to fewer crimes. But differences across countries are large. Furthermore, some groups of the population, particularly less educated and low-income people, tend to fare systematically worse in all dimensions of well-being considered in this report. For instance they live shorter lives and report greater health problems; their children obtain worse school results; they participate less in political activities; they can rely on lower social networks in case of needs; they are more exposed to crime and pollution; they tend to be less satisfied with their life as a whole than more educated and higher-income people.

Life imprisonment is the punishment most often imposed worldwide for what societies regard as the most serious offences. Yet, in Asia the phenomenon has never been studied systematically. Life Imprisonment in Asia fills this major gap. It brings together thirteen new essays on life imprisonment in key jurisdictions in the region. Each chapter consolidates what is known about the law and practice of life imprisonment in the jurisdiction and then explores aspects of the imposition or implementation of life sentences that the authors regard as particularly problematic. In some instances, the main issue is the imposition of life sentences by the courts and their relationship to the death penalty. In others, the focus is on the treatment of life sentenced prisoners. In many instances, the most prominent question is whether life sentenced prisoners should be released and, if so, according to what processes. In the overview chapter, the editors place the complex picture that emerges of life imprisonment in Asia in a global context and point to reforms urgently required to ensure that Asian life sentences meet international human rights standards. Life Imprisonment in Asia should be read by everyone who has an interest in just punishments for serious offences, not only in Asia, but throughout the world. It will be an invaluable tool for lawyers, criminologists, policy makers and penal reform advocates in the region and beyond. Dirk van Zyl Smit is Emeritus Professor of Comparative and International Penal Law, University of Nottingham and Emeritus Professor of Criminology, University of Cape Town. Catherine Appleton is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Research and Education in Security, Prisons and Forensic Psychiatry, St Olavs Hospital and at the Department of Mental Health, Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. Vucong Giao is Head of the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law and Director of the Research Center for Human and Citizens Rights under School of Law, Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU-LS).

The authors examined the relationships among life role salience, role strain, coping efficacy, and life satisfaction for adults (N = 125) who combine multiple life roles. Causal modeling procedures were used to test hypotheses based on D. E. Super's (1980, 1990) life‐span, life‐space theory and the social cognitive career theory (R. W. Lent, S. D. Brown, & G. Hackett, 2000). They hypothesized that high role salience would be related to high levels of role strain and that coping efficacy would mediate the impact of role strain on participants' life satisfaction. Results indicated that the proposed model fit the data for the present sample.