Rose, Richard

Public services are the bedrock of modern society. They impact on people’s everyday lives to a greater or lesser degree: from education and health services to public transport, refuse collection and state pensions. This report explores the interaction between individuals and institutions, analysing to what extent the key social services are responsible for shaping the quality of people’s lives. Drawing on findings from the second European Quality of Life Survey, carried out by Eurofound in 2007 across 28 countries in Europe, the report gives a wideranging picture of the diverse social realities in Europe today. It assesses the multiple influences at work in society – such as access to health services, quality of local environment, racial and ethnic mix, as well as police, legal and political bodies – in the light of individual income, gender and age. An executive summary is available.

Quality of life touches on areas of life relevant to everybody, such as relations with family and friends, as well as on issues pertaining to public policy, such as housing and social relations in the community. This report draws on two rounds of the European Quality of Life Survey, carried out by Eurofound in 2003 and 2007, to give a wide-ranging picture of the diverse social realities in Europe today. It explores patterns of stability and change in the quality of life of the EU population as a whole and questions whether overall quality of life is deteriorating or improving in the different countries.

This timely report draws on some of the findings of the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS), along with other pieces of key research, on issues affecting quality of life in the candidate country, Turkey. Never before has a candidate country as unique and diverse as Turkey raised such interesting challenges for the EU. A country of contrasts, Turkey embraces many anomalies which are increasingly being placed under the spotlight, given its EU candidacy status.

This report summarises the main findings of the survey as presented in the reports and explores the implications of these findings for EU policy, along with challenges for future policies. Among the more interesting findings are the perception of strong social support networks across Europe, the differences in levels of satisfaction both within and between countries, and the variation in perceived sources of tension in EU countries. Another key finding is the significant impact of social circumstances on perceived quality of life – for example, the strong influence that individual income levels, as well as national prosperity levels, appear to have on subjective well-being.

This analytical report addresses the interesting theme of participation in civil society, exploring the diverse range of activities that constitute active participation. A central part of the analysis involves identifying factors that influence participation, or in other words understanding why some people are active in civil society and why others are not. In doing so, it underlines that wide range of factors – from individual to national resources and from sociological to historical influences – that determine the level and type of participation.