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 th...

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 rou...

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.