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The NZ Treasury is currently engaged in a project to identify cost-effective interventions to improve outcomes for children and young adults in order to maximise the value of government expenditures across the social sector. The central aim of this paper is to provide an empirically-robust framework to compare intervention across a range of social sectors. There are two key components to the framework. The first is a life-course view of child development that emphasises that experiences and influences in childhood can affect well-being throughout life. The second component involves viewing social expenditures as investments addressed at achieving particular outcomes, typically directed at enhancing well-being. The paper presents evidence from a review of the literature on how the process and experiences of childhood have a later impact on wellbeing; how child development and outcomes are influenced by individual, family and communal factors and how risk and resilience can be used to indicate that an individual is at increased or decreased risk of negative outcomes. Case studies of youth suicide, teenage pregnancy, educational underachievement and youth inactivity provide evidence about what interventions work using key empirical findings from the literature.

This paper provides a review and critical discussion of indicators, which attempt to combine the measurement of sustainability with that of well-being. It starts with some commonly agreed definitions of sustainability, showing how most well-being indicators tell us little if anything at all about this issue. Sustainability is most commonly defined in economics as non-declining utility or well-being over time. Yet, due to its future orientation, most indicators of sustainability such as Genuine Savings (GS) have merely focused on the capacity to provide utility in the future, but have not included the measurement of current well-being. Indicators of well-being such as the Human Development Index (HDI), on the other hand, have typically failed to account for sustainability in their measurement of current well-being. The paper then critically reviews the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) and the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), which are the most prominent examples of an indicator, which attempts to fully integrate the measurement of welfare with that of sustainability into one single indicator. Such an integration, whilst seemingly attractive, is rendered difficult by the fact that what contributes to current well-being need not contribute at all or in the same way to sustainability and vice versa. We also review various proposals of extending a welfare indicator, namely the HDI, with sustainability considerations without full integration of both concepts. All of these proposals suffer from a range of fundamental conceptual problems. As one possible alternative, we propose a combination of the HDI and GS, which holds great promise for an assessment of wellbeing and its sustainability, particularly in developing countries. – environment ; sustainable ; measurement

This paper discusses the intrinsic and instrumental value of governance and social norms to the well being of New Zealanders. The interaction between informal social norms and formal institutions is also discussed. An attempt is made to identify the channels and precise mechanisms through which governance and social norms respectively may impact on well-being. Empirical evidence on these effects is cited, and the relevance of the evidence to New Zealand is assessed. A range of suggestions is then presented for strengthening the governance of public institutions in New Zealand, focusing on improvements to transparency, accountability and integrity within existing constitutional arrangements. Finally, some tentative remarks are made on the potential role of government in influencing the evolution of social norms, and managing tensions between conflicting norms in New Zealand.

The theme of this dissertation is the design of IT artefactsfor increased well-being in the home. The goal has been toprovide a better understanding of the coupling between designand health, and to give examples of how to design for increasedwell-being. The context for the investigation has been thehome, and various research initiatives in smart homes andIT-supported care. We create our reality in the form of material structuressuch as buildings, products, workplaces and homes. Theseartefacts are a reflection of ourselves, we have created themand we understand ourselves through them. Together withimmaterial artefacts like political systems, educationalsystems and healthcare, they constitute our society. Thetotality of these material and immaterial artefacts forms theconditions of our everyday life. This investigation points at anew way to look at artefacts as social actors in an interactiveworld. In this perspective, use becomes a dialogue andcooperation with the artefact. Design work becomes a carefulcreative practice in which the focus is the interplay betweenthe artefact and its social environment. Stress and ill-healthis an indication that there is an unbalance in the interplay.Well-being on the other hand means that there is a balancebetween the artificial world and the individual. Designpractitioners, and others that create our world, have animportant task in designing new artefacts that do not reproduceobsolete or dysfunctional behaviour. Inspired by coping theories, a salutogenic approach todesign aims at identifying and strengthening the aspects ofartefacts that help us handle adversities. This means to createartefacts that form a world, which is comprehensible,manageable and meaningful. People that live in environmentswhere they cannot influence decisions, with high demands andlow control, are likely to become ill. But people that haveenvironments, in which they receive feedback, support and cancontrol their own situation stay well. With new, complextechnology such as ubiquitous computing, it becomes ...

Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted in the 1980s and 1990s in southern Sichuan, this pathbreaking study examines the nature of ethnic consciousness and ethnic relations among local communities, focusing on the Nuosu (classified as Yi by the Chinese government), Prmi, Naze, and Han. It argues that even within the same regional social system, ethnic identity is formulated, perceived, and promoted differently by different communities at different times. Ways of Being Ethnic in Southwest China exemplifies a model in which ethnic consciousness and ethnic relations consist of drawing boundaries between one's own group and others, crossing those boundaries, and promoting internal unity within a group. Leaders and members of ethnic groups use commonalties and differences in history, culture, and kinship to promote internal unity and to strengthen or cross external boundaries. Superimposed on the structure of competing and cooperating local groups is a state system of ethnic classification and administration; members and leaders of local groups incorporate this system into their own ethnic consciousness, co-opting or resisting it situationally. The heart of the book consists of detailed case studies of three Nuosu village communities, along with studies of Prmi and Naze communities, smaller groups such as the Yala and Nasu, and Han Chinese who live in minority areas. These are followed by a synthesis that compares different configurations of ethnic identity in different communities and discusses the implications of these examples for our understanding of ethnicity and for the near future of China. This lively description and analysis of the region's complex ethnic identities and relationships constitutes an original and important contribution to the study of ethnic identity. Ways of Being Ethnic in Southwest China will be of interest to social scientists concerned with issues of ethnicity and state-building. ; The Transformation Fund of the Kenneth S. and Faye G. Allen Library Endowment at the University of Washington Libraries

Formalists have long tried to develop a legal theory, based on the internal rationality of law, which would free it from the influences of instrumentality and ideology. Focussing on the philosophical proposals of Ernest Weinrib, the author argues that this goal is both illusory and undesirable. Weinrib's theory assumes rather than proves the existence of this rationality, which is simply defined as an interrelationship between form and content. In order to maintain the coherence of this fragile relationship, Weinrib is either forced to articulate his theory on such a level of abstration so as to be irrelevant or to reintroduce the values he has tried to exclude. As a result, his theory is ultimately reliant on an ideology which, disguised in the formal equality of corrective justice, defends a notion of abstract rationality at the expense of political and social responsibility. Moreover, that hidden ideology is of a markedly conservative tilt.

The Lisbon summit of the European Council in March 2000 declared the number of people living in poverty and social exclusion in the European Union to be unacceptable, and called for steps to tackle the issue, beginning with the setting of targets for particular indicators. The targets suggested have been broad in nature but have largely concentrated on national averages. This paper seeks to marry this approach with the EU's traditional focus on regional cohesion, by developing regional indicators of well-being and exclusion for EU countries. It draws on a range of sources to put together indicators in five dimensions of well-being: material wellbeing, health, education and participation in two spheres - productive and social. It explores, first, how far national indicators disguise geographical inequalities in these different dimensions; and second, the extent to which regional performance differs according to which dimension is being examined. At the same time, the paper draws attention to the limits of currently available data, in light of the fact that one key aspect of the Lisbon summit conclusions was a commitment to the collection of better data on poverty and social exclusion in the EU.

A plethora of what are loosely described as social and political indicators of well-being exist. Both the range and country coverage of these indicators has increased appreciably in recent years. In this paper we ask what contribution these indicators can make towards our understanding of human well-being. There is currently a vast array of political and social indicators of development. These measures include information on access to services, housing, environmental degradation, income, social participation, inequalities, and time use; while political indicators include measures of political participation, civil liberties, and human and labour rights. While some of these indicators reflect the progress countries are making towards attaining fundamental developmental goals, with several being used to assess progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (in particular measures of income, health, and education status) others act as more intermediate indicators of progress. This paper critically surveys the range of social and political indicators of development currently available focussing particularly on non-income based social and political indicators of well-being.

Some changes that have taken place in psychology are discussed in the light of the presently urgent need for a new science of psychology that addresses the important social issues of our times. Substantial development of the experimental analysis of behavior is urged, through its formulation of research problems related to every aspect of contemporary life, extending from political negotiation and economic decision making to the study of personality and individual differences.

In this paper we use several well-being measures that combine average income with a measure of inequality to undertake international and intertemporal well-being comparisons in transition countries. Our well-being measures drastically change the impression of levels and changes in well-being from a traditional reliance on income measures. They also significantly affect the ranking of countries, when compared to rankings based on real incomes. Due to low inequality and moderate income levels, socialist countries enjoyed relatively high levels of economic well-being. In the transition process, rising inequality and falling incomes have led to a dramatic decline in well-being in many transition countries, and a corresponding worsening in rank when compared to other countries. There is great variance in the income and inequality performance of transition countries. We find a close correlation between income losses and inequality increases suggesting the ability of appropriate policies to reduce the income losses and reduce rising inequality. While the political dimension of transformation remains largely successful, our indicators suggest that most transition countries have yet to reach the level of economic well-being enjoyed in the late 1980s.

Having risen to national attention with his first book, For Common Things, Jedediah Purdy now cements his claim to being one of the most arresting public intellectuals of his generation. In Being America, Purdy turns his erudition and unique perspective to America's relationship with a world that both admires and hates it. Purdy has absorbed insights from people around the world: Westernized Egyptians who consider Osama bin Laden a hero, an urbane Indian who espouses gay rights and the most thuggish kind of Hindu nationalism, Cambodian sweat-shop workers, and others. Out of these conversations – and his inspired readings of political thinkers from Edmund Burke to James Madison – Purdy breathes new meaning into the American values of democracy, liberty, and free trade. Clear-thinking and far-sighted, Being America encourages America to strive to realize the potential it doesn't always know it has. ; https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/books/1164/thumbnail.jpg

The Oromo are one of the most numerous peoples of Africa but general recognition of their distinctive culture and identity is comparatively recent. These essays, through an examination of the Oromo experience, seek to explain why recognition took so long and to analyse some aspects of the Oromo culture. ; CONTENTS: Introduction / P.T.W. Baxter, Jan Hultin and Alessandro Triulzi -- Hawani´s story / Hawani Debella & Aneesa Kassam -- The Development of Oromo Political Consciousness from 1958 to 1994 / Herbert S. Lewis -- The Survival and Recontruction of Orommo National Identity / Mekuria Bulcha -- The Devolopment of Oromo Nationalism / Mohammed Hassen -- Perceiving Oromo,'Galla' in the Great Narrative of Ethiopia / Jan Hultin -- Oromumma: Tradition, Consciousness and Identity / Gemetchu Megerssa --Re-examining the Galla/oromo Relationship, The Stranger as a Structural Topic / Thomas Zitelmann -- Being Gabra Today / Paolo Tablino -- Shifting Identities along Resource Borders, Becoming ad Contrinuing to be Boorana Oromo / Gufu Oba -- The Political Viability of Boorana Pastorialism, A Dicussion of Some Feautyres of the Political Sytsem of the Borana Pastoralists of Southen Ethiopia / Johan Helland -- Power's Ambiguity or the Political Significance of Gada / Marco Bassi -- Sources of Life and Identity / Gudrun Dahl -- Towards a Comparative Ethnography of the Oromo, The Importance of Affines / P.T.W. Baxter -- Keeping the 'Peace of the Waso Boorana', Becoming Oromo through Religious Diversification / Mario I. Aguilar -- Traditional and modern Cooperatives among the Oromo / Tesema Ta'a -- The Becoming of Place, A Tulama-Oromo Region of Northern Shoa / Odd Eirik Arnesen -- Adopting An Ambiguous Position, Oromo Relationships with Strangers / Hector Blackhurst -- United and Divided, Boorana and Gabaro among the Macha Oromo in Western Ethiopia / Alessandro Triulzi -- The Poetics of Nationalism, A Poem by Jarso Waaqo Qoot'o / Abdullahi A. Shongolo -- About the Contributors -- Appendix: Regional Division before 1989 and after 1991.

P r o v i n c i a l a f f a i rs ^ re we being buffaloed so Getty can be Santa? B uffalo Lake apparently irritates the people who use it because the water level goes up and down. In recent times it has been down. I'm told the smell is strong and boats scrape on rocks. Too bad. Why should the rest of the prov­ince cough up $ 14 million or $ 15 million to stabilize the lake level for a few hundred cottage owners, and maybe owners of shoreline property that's ripe for devel­opment? That's the question that theore­tically gets asked when the provin­cial cabinet sets spending prio­rities. It won't be asked this time. Pre­mier Don Getty's Stettler constitu­ency includes the east side of Buf­falo Lake, where all the cottages are located. He likes the project. Wj're dealing with political influence. Buffalo Lake isn't unique. The province already regulates the lev­els cf about 20 other lakes. Most are regulated with weirs but two have water pumped into them. Part of the stabilization work has already been done. Any water pumped from the Red Deer River into Buffalo Lake will flow through Parlby Creek. Two- thirds of the creek has beer, cleared and straightened over the past few years, for rea­sons that have nothing to do with Getty. Ron Moore, the Conservative MLA for the neighboring constitu­ency of Lacombe, says the creek work has been one of his top prio­rities for the least seven years. " Its initial benefit would be to farmers because it controls the flooding of hundreds of acres of hayland," Moore says. Even if the project extends to Buffalo Lake, there's more involved than just fixing the lake level. " The name Buffalo Lake stabili­zation is a little misleading," Moore says, " because it addresses the whole water level in that whole Parlby basin." Pumping extra water down Parlby Creek would solve the worsening water supply problems of the communities of Alix and Mirror in Moore's constituency. " There's all these problems that the stabilization of Buffalo Lake addresses," Moore says. Moore has obviously been chip­ping away at this for years. Lake users have complained since 1978. But the Environment Depart­ment's report on water quality at the lake talks about " renewed in­terest" in the project as the reason for its latest study. A reasonable person assumes the " renewed in­terest" came from Getty. ( The de­partment is not clear on this mat­ter.) The first studies said fixing the water level would cause unaccep­table algae growth. Is a message from Getty's office powerful enough to bend the results? M a r k > L i s a c One hopes not. It is clear, how­ever, that the new report requires careful reading. Sampling of river water has been less frequent in recent years; the report acknowledges some high concentrations of phosphorus could have been missed as a re­sult. Some conclusions are based on assumptions. There's a bald admission that the algae effects are difficult to predict. The scientific side will presu­mably be sorted out in the envi­ronmental assessment, as will the effects on the abundant waterfowl. As for whether the result looks and smells good, the province has some experience with this kind of project. Gull Lake has been topped up with water pumped in from the Blindman River since the mid- 1970s. The stabilization has not been perfect, according to Gull Lake Mayor Ken Fargey. Water levels still fluctuate. There are more weeds and algae than before. Tou­rism has not shot up. On the other hand: " If we hadn't tried to stabi­lize we may not have had a lake." Fair enough. Like Moore says, there are too many people around for a pure environment and there's got to be compromise. Still, it seems like a good bet that one factor in this compromise is Don Getty's Santa Claus concept of politics. Want something expen­sive? Uncle Don will get it for you. But does he ask any other ques­tions along the way?

P r o v i n c i a l a f f a i rs ^ re we being buffaloed so Getty can be Santa? B uffalo Lake apparently irritates the people who use it because the water level goes up and down. In recent times it has been down. I'm told the smell is strong and boats scrape on rocks. Too bad. Why should the rest of the prov­ince cough up $ 14 million or $ 15 million to stabilize the lake level for a few hundred cottage owners, and maybe owners of shoreline property that's ripe for devel­opment? That's the question that theore­tically gets asked when the provin­cial cabinet sets spending prio­rities. It won't be asked this time. Pre­mier Don Getty's Stettler constitu­ency includes the east side of Buf­falo Lake, where all the cottages are located. He likes the project. Wj're dealing with political influence. Buffalo Lake isn't unique. The province already regulates the lev­els cf about 20 other lakes. Most are regulated with weirs but two have water pumped into them. Part of the stabilization work has already been done. Any water pumped from the Red Deer River into Buffalo Lake will flow through Parlby Creek. Two- thirds of the creek has beer, cleared and straightened over the past few years, for rea­sons that have nothing to do with Getty. Ron Moore, the Conservative MLA for the neighboring constitu­ency of Lacombe, says the creek work has been one of his top prio­rities for the least seven years. " Its initial benefit would be to farmers because it controls the flooding of hundreds of acres of hayland," Moore says. Even if the project extends to Buffalo Lake, there's more involved than just fixing the lake level. " The name Buffalo Lake stabili­zation is a little misleading," Moore says, " because it addresses the whole water level in that whole Parlby basin." Pumping extra water down Parlby Creek would solve the worsening water supply problems of the communities of Alix and Mirror in Moore's constituency. " There's all these problems that the stabilization of Buffalo Lake addresses," Moore says. Moore has obviously been chip­ping away at this for years. Lake users have complained since 1978. But the Environment Depart­ment's report on water quality at the lake talks about " renewed in­terest" in the project as the reason for its latest study. A reasonable person assumes the " renewed in­terest" came from Getty. ( The de­partment is not clear on this mat­ter.) The first studies said fixing the water level would cause unaccep­table algae growth. Is a message from Getty's office powerful enough to bend the results? M a r k > L i s a c One hopes not. It is clear, how­ever, that the new report requires careful reading. Sampling of river water has been less frequent in recent years; the report acknowledges some high concentrations of phosphorus could have been missed as a re­sult. Some conclusions are based on assumptions. There's a bald admission that the algae effects are difficult to predict. The scientific side will presu­mably be sorted out in the envi­ronmental assessment, as will the effects on the abundant waterfowl. As for whether the result looks and smells good, the province has some experience with this kind of project. Gull Lake has been topped up with water pumped in from the Blindman River since the mid- 1970s. The stabilization has not been perfect, according to Gull Lake Mayor Ken Fargey. Water levels still fluctuate. There are more weeds and algae than before. Tou­rism has not shot up. On the other hand: " If we hadn't tried to stabi­lize we may not have had a lake." Fair enough. Like Moore says, there are too many people around for a pure environment and there's got to be compromise. Still, it seems like a good bet that one factor in this compromise is Don Getty's Santa Claus concept of politics. Want something expen­sive? Uncle Don will get it for you. But does he ask any other ques­tions along the way?

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed hydropower relicensing, focusing on the status of efforts to recover the costs incurred by federal agencies to administer the hydropower program."