Resolving the Quality of Life/well-Being Puzzle: Toward a New Model *

In this paper, we identify what we feel are conceptually problematic aspects of the existing quality of life/well-being literature. These include the lack of conceptual clarity; the recognition of the importance of both objective and subjective dimensions in quality of life/well-being research despite the fact that much work concentrates on one to the exclusion of the other; and the interdisciplinary yet insular nature of the research offered to date. As an effort to overcome these difficulties and generate greater holism amongst researchers from a variety of disciplines, we have proposed an integrated model of quality of life/well-being which we suggest assists in resolving conceptual difficulties that have long plagued work in this field. Dans cet article nous nous interessons a certains problemes recurrents dans la litterature sur la qualite de vie et le bienetre. Qu'il s'agisse d'une certaine confusion conceptuelle entourant ces deux concepts, ou de la reconnaissance de l'importance egale de leurs dimensions objective et subjective alors que, la plupart du temps, l'on privilegie l'une ou l'autre, ou encore de leur nature par definition interdisciplinaire mais qui n'arrive toutefois pas a produire une recherche decloisonnee, ces problemes persistent et demeurent suffisamment importants pour nuire a l'emergence d'une vision veritablement globale de la qualite de vie et du bien-etre. En guise d'apport destine a surmonter ces ecueils, nous proposons ici un modele conceptuel de qualite de vie et de bien-etre qui, selon nous, est susceptible de provoquer une meilleure integration conceptuelle et, ainsi, amorcer une reflexion menant a la resolution definitive de ces problemes. ********** The quality-of-life/well-being literature is both bounteous and wide ranging, especially in the regional sciences where a multidisciplinary approach has historically been privileged, despite its origins within the economic sciences (Polese 1999). However, it is precisely because of this that the literature has been plagued by conceptual diversity, measurement differences, the absence of theoretical underpinnings, and, perhaps more often than not, a colloquial use of the terms quality of life and well-being such that any specific conceptual or theoretical sense (if indeed one is intended) is often difficult to ascertain. In this paper, we attempt to address some of the challenges that are faced by regional scientists by presenting a new model of quality of life/well- being that we hope will constitute a better conceptual tool than has been presented previously. We begin by briefly considering the thornier aspects of existing quality of life/ well-being research--its diversity, lack of conceptual clarity, and various foci--to underline the inadequacy of the conceptualizations offered to date. We then propose a model in which we integrate what we believe should appropriately be considered in regional sciences as two distinct concepts, i.e. quality of life and well-being. In doing so, we also identify conceptual links between two frequently contrary approaches in the study of quality of life: the objective and the subjective. The Quality of Life/Well-being Literature: Challenges to a Coherent Whole As noted above, there are a number of challenges to developing a meaningful understanding of the quality-of-life and/or well-being literature. The first is to ascertain what, exactly, the terms mean (Clarke 2000 et al; Farquhar 1995); the use of the plural is deliberate because we believe they are distinct concepts. Almost 30 years ago, in one of the seminal geographical studies in this field, Smith (1973) proposed that well-being be used to refer to objective life conditions that apply to a population generally, while quality of life should more properly be limited to individuals' subjective assessments of their lives because of what Smith felt to be the evaluative nature of the term. …

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