Societal Transformations and Their Implications for Social Indicators Research: Comments on ‘‘Fifty Years after the Social Indicators Movement: Has the Promise Been Fulfilled?’

Kenneth C. Land and Alex C. Michalos presented a comprehensive review and assessment of the evolution of research on social indicators, quality of life and well-being over the past fifty years. The authors give a summary of the key developments in this research field, highlights strengths and weaknesses, and identifies several under-investigated areas. Most importantly, however, Land and Michalos point to major societal changes currently transforming contemporary societies in a fundamental way and substantially impacting on the future research agenda regarding social indicators, quality of life and well-being. In my presentation, I will focus on this crucial and particularly innovative aspect of Land and Michalos’ contribution. More specifically, my presentation deals with the impacts of three major societal changes on the future research agenda of social indicators research: firstly, impacts of the changing class structure of post-industrial society, secondly, globalization impacts, including its economic, political, cultural and institutional dimensions, and thirdly, the impacts of an increasingly networked digitalization of production and consumption.