Wellbeing and
Quality of Life after
the Financial Tsunami:
Implications for Social Policy
David Phillips
Sociological Studies
University of Sheffield
Overview
What is social policy?
 What is quality of life?
 The social division of welfare and wellbeing
 The extent of the global financial tsunami
 Implications for social policy
 implications for quality of life

Social Policy: the five “Giants”
[Beveridge Report, 1942]
Want
 Disease
 Ignorance
 Idleness
 Squalor

[poverty]
[poor health]
[lack of education]
[unemployment]
[bad housing and poor
environment]
UK Social Policy Expenditure
2004/5




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


% of UK Government spending on social policy:
Social security
28 [want / idleness]
Health
17 [disease]
Education
13 [ignorance]
Housing etc
3 [squalor]
Personal social services
5 [mostly child-care]
Totalling two-thirds of public expenditure
Defence
6
Law and order
6
Other
22
Definition of Social Policy
as a field of study
Dean, H (2006) Social Policy
‘Social Policy is the study of human wellbeing. … More specifically Social Policy
entails the study of the social relations
necessary for human wellbeing and the
systems by which wellbeing may be
promoted’.
Central themes of social policy
 social
relations necessary for human
wellbeing [between the state and
individuals, among individuals,
individuals and communities etc.]
 systems for promoting wellbeing [not
only government systems – they
include, fiscal, occupational, market,
third sector and family]
 The social division of welfare [policy]:
social, fiscal and occupational
Quality of Life
Phillips, D. (2006)
Quality of Life:
Concept, Policy and
Practice. London,
Routledge
Quality of life constructs: 1


Individual: utilitarianism; subjective wellbeing,
happiness, hedonism and eudaimonism; selfreported health-related quality of life; basic needs;
basic capabilities; and individually-oriented
perspectives on poverty (absolute, overall, relative)
Social: socially-oriented perspectives on poverty
(for example, citizenship threshold, social needs);
normative and consensual approaches to HealthRelated Quality of Life; Sen’s, Nussbaum’s and
Alkire’s capability(ies) approaches; the Human
Development Approach; Prudential Values; Doyal
and Gough’s Theory of Human Needs; and
outcome-oriented approaches to social exclusion
Quality of life constructs: 2


Collective: process- and causally-based
approaches to social exclusion; social capital
and social cohesion, and their individual
elements comprising, networks, trust, altruism,
reciprocity and other, other-regarding norms.
Overarching and holistic: Bernard’s democratic
dialectic; Hancock’s Mandala of Health model;
Berger-Schmitt and Noll’s overarching quality of
life model; Beck et al.’s social quality approach.
Core attributes of quality of life
Avoiding pain and harm
 Basic needs
 Autonomy to pursue individual wellbeing
 In a functioning society and polity
 With wide networks, a strong civic culture,
 Trust, reciprocity & other-regarding values
 In a sustainable global environment
 And in a fair and equitable society

Definition of quality of life
Quality of life is both an individual and
collective attribute.
At the individual level it includes objective
and subjective elements. People’s
objective quality of life requires that their
basic needs are met and that they have
the material resources necessary to fulfil
the social requirements of citizenship.
People’s subjective quality of life
depends on them having the autonomy
to make effective choices to
‘enjoy’ – enhance their subjective wellbeing, including hedonism, satisfaction,
purpose in life and personal growth
 ‘flourish’ in the eudaimonic, otherregarding, Aristotelian sense of fulfilling
informed as well as actual desires and
 participate in the full range of social
activities of citizenship.

Collective quality of life
People’s collectively focused quality of
life requires global environmental
sustainability, both physical and social,
and the following social resources
within the communities and societies in
which they live:
civic integration, synergy and
integrity; extensive weak network
links and bridging ties at all levels of
society;
 wide ranging integrative norms and
values including trust, reciprocity
and other-regarding behaviour;
 and societal norms and values
relating at least to fairness and
equity and possibly to some degree
of social justice and egalitarianism.

The global financial tsunami
Catastrophic in 2008 for USA, UK, EU
 Severe implications for international trade
 Large-scale unemployment in the West
 Prospects for 2009 are very bad for USA, UK
and the EU (and probably Japan)
 Prospects perhaps less bad for China and
India
 Prospects uncertain for rest of East Asia.

… and in Taiwan

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“Taiwan 's economy shrank by 8.4% in the year
to the fourth quarter. The fall in output was the
largest since records began to be kept in 1952.”
(Economist, February 21, 2009)
“Several economists are now forecasting that
Taiwan’s GDP will contract by 3% or more this
year, which would be the steepest downturn in
Taiwan’s history. By far the gloomiest is …a
horrendous 11% drop in 2009”. (Economist,
February 14, 2009)
NB Economist Annual Review, published in late
2008 predicted 1.5% growth in Taiwan’s GDP
Projected World Growth
[IMF January 2009]
Long term international prospects
Uncertain!
Possibly protectionism and nationalism
with potential reduction in migration
 Perhaps destabilisation of USA’s political
hegemony [cf interesting noises from
Hilary Clinton re Russia and China!]
 Probably economic strengthening of China
and India – and some parts of East Asia
compared to Europe
 Russia an enigma

Implications for social policy
Depends upon

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length and depth of the recession
unemployment level
balance between tax revenues and public
spending commitments
extent of previous social policy expenditure
and welfare state profile
individual and family savings
family solidarity [already changing in the
West – moving away from individualism back
to being more family-oriented]
Implications for quality of life:
individual level

Avoiding pain and harm
 Probably

greater reliance on family
Basic needs
 Reduction
or cessation of state benefits: more
stringent, means-tested, absolute povertyoriented state measures in countries suffering
most

Autonomy to pursue individual wellbeing
 Possible
rise in fascism and ultra-nationalism
– political fundamentalism
Implications for quality of life:
collective level 1
In a functioning society and polity
 Uncertain implications
 Wide networks, strong civic culture
incorporating trust, reciprocity & otherregarding values
 If nationalism increases then there may
be higher homogeneous social
cohesion

Implications for quality of life:
collective level 2
In a sustainable global environment
 Mixed – reduced consumption is
positive; potential relaxing of controls is
negative
 And in a fair and equitable society
 Inequality might decrease in times of
recession – but the poor will suffer the
most in terms of absolute deprivation

And finally:
the social division of wellbeing 1

In the traditional high-spending ‘welfare
state’ nations such as the UK, probably a
move away from social, public
expenditure based approach towards the
privatisation or family-isation of welfare /
wellbeing, encouraged by fiscal policies,
perhaps coupled with a reduction of
occupational welfare
And finally:
the social division of wellbeing 2
In East Asia perhaps the present
emphasis on family self-reliance might be
consolidated and strengthened
 Perhaps there might even be welfare
convergence – converging towards an
East Asian model!
