Interpretivistic Quantification: Tool for Enhancing Quality of Life

Quality of life is fast becoming the standard by which social and institutional well being is assessed, with an equally rapid proliferation of instrumental metrics. Job satisfaction, personal health, and residential care are just a small sampling of the many circumstances for which there is need to satisfy the personal tastes and inclinations of an increasingly well educated and affluent population. None of the measuring instruments directly measure the experience of improved quality of life, however, since what is experienced is itself subjective. The ambiguity of definitions, in fact, has generated widespread disagreement about interpretations and there is a clear need to redress the way in which quantification can be used for quality of life. This book reconfigures the traditional manner of using quantification for obtaining numerical values, therefore, to an information generating process that is itself experientially mediating. Its analysis offers the professional interested in developing quality of life standards the prospect of tailoring such standards to the single individual.