ABSTRACT
The term ‘quality of life’ refers to the overall well-being of individuals. Its distinctive feature is the attempt to move beyond narrow or one-dimensional views of human personality in assessing people’s situation. In this chapter our focus is on one of the fundamental components of quality of life — objective living conditions and the manner in which individuals evaluate their material situation. The core notion within which these issues are addressed is that it is not simply outcomes that matter, but, rather, the capacity to affect outcomes (see Fahey et al. 2003 for a more detailed discussion of these issues). This chapter will focus on income and current lifestyle deprivation while recognising that, in capturing the resources and opportunities open to people, collective as well as individual resources need to be assessed. Social provision in areas such as health care, housing and social services are fundamental and are addressed in other parts of this book. However, previous research suggests that the aspects on which we concentrate in this part are crucial to individuals’ evaluations of their well-being (Whelan et al. 2001).
