Visiting scholars award - Further details

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF RESEARCH GROUP PROPOSAL

Communicating Between the Universal and the Local: Conceptualising the Relationships between Poverty, Inequality and the Quality of Life

It is increasingly accepted that livelihoods are socially and culturally constructed in specific societal contexts. The purpose of this research is to develop a conceptual and methodological framework for understanding the social and cultural construction of well-being in specific societies. A key theoretical challenge confronted by this research programme is to comprehend and explain the relationship between 'universal' and 'local' models of well-being. It will explore the ways in which the 'universalising' tendencies of theory and policy can be informed by 'local' models of how people construct their well-being and, importantly in developing countries, how poverty is constructed.

The proposed research will draw upon three distinctive conceptual approaches to the study of poverty, need and well-being developed by academics at the University of Bath. These are: The Resource Profiles Approach as developed by the Centre for Development Studies; The Theory of Human Needs of the Department of Social and Policy Sciences and the Quality of Life work in the WHO Centre for the Study of Quality of Life. Theoretical and methodological dialogues between these frameworks will result in an integrated conceptual and methodological framework for analysing poverty, inequality and the quality of life in specific contexts. Empirical studies in four countries will demonstrate the usefulness of the integrated framework.

The proposed framework conceives of three contextual concepts within which the construction of well-being must be located: the social and cultural context, political economy context and policy regime. In terms of the processes of constructing well-being, the strengths of the framework is that it will allow us to explore how people's own 'local' models of well being and quality of life affect how they 'choose' to deploy and negotiate their resources to achieve well-being and quality of life outcomes. In testing the framework the research programme will:

a. Explore the relationships between objective states of well-being and subjectively reported quality of life.
b. Recognise the ways in which existing policy regimes affect the quantity and quality of resources which people are able to deploy, as well as their choices as to how to use them.
c. Consider the ways in which the inequality of distribution of different categories of resources both between households within communities, and between individuals in households is implicated in the processes of constructing an objective state of well being and a desired quality of life.

The programme will consist of 3 phases. Phase one of the project will involve conceptual and methodological development. Phase two will be empirical studies. The final phase will be analysis and writing-up. The programme incorporates an integrated user consultation and dissemination strategy from its outset.

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