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Lead Papers
Dr. Grigori Abramia,William M. Alexander, Ronald Colman, David Del Porto, Dr. Galina Gutina, Xiaohui Hao, Nina Hrycak, Vladimir Ira, Dr. A.Jagadeesh, Raghbendra Jha and K.V. Bhanu Murthy, Ms. Maria V. Kryukova (Ph.D.), Elizabeth(Beth) Lange, Alexander Theodore Lopin,Dr. Sue L.T. McGregor, Kulik Mikalai,Natalya Miroshnichenko, Dr. Khatam Murtazaev, Dr. Yew-Kwang Ng, Anatoly Nikitin and Sofia Nikitina, Anna Olofsson, Logan Perkins, Jeffery J. Smith, Valentin Yemelin and Marilyn Mehlmann,Douglas Worts
The world population is becoming more urban.
It is the quality of the urban environment and its well-being that
constitutes a challenge to any society. Cities are the centres of
economic and cultural life of a nation's population. The public wants
government expenditures to be directed to areas such as urban
development, health, housing, education, crime prevention, recreation,
environmental pollution control, waste management, aesthetic
satisfaction, and many others.
It is important to have social indicators that can tell
us about the quality and costs of essential elements such as:
educational and cultural facilities, suitable community facilities and
services, proper shelter, family life, security from crime, efficient
and environmentally conscious transportation, social justice, aesthetic
satisfaction and minority status.
The scale of values obtained during this World
Congress is providing us with a common unit of measurement. We are
now able to evaluate and compare the same categories of measurement in
different cities.
Over a period of several years, indicators show which
cities are able to solve their problems successfully, which are just
making it, and which are not getting anywhere.
An indicator measures the annual crime rates in
cities and in rural communities. Statistics should reflect different
crime categories, such as violence against people, property crimes,
white-collar crimes and others. Crime is an important indicator of the
quality of life in communities. Low crime rates reflect our success in
supporting healthy local economies and good environmental quality.
Comments and Recommendations from Participants
THE THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT as a method OF COGNITION
Paper by Alexander T. Lopin
Our names: JHY Katima, S. Augustin, B. Lyimo and E. Kilawe
Our opinion:
The paper has explained in detail fundamentals and some examples of the development theory. As for many existing theories, though posed in a logical approach, have suffered a defeat in the implementation and execution. These may be linked however to weaknesses due to the executing agent but it is clear that they also embodied in a sequence of rational and more ideal or logical preference.
Many societies have emerged from different backgrounds in such, the application of the theories may differ from one end to another. In a decentralized global we are living in today it is even difficult to have a common approach although the theory narrates of originating from the same source.
The theory requires high level of thinking of which not many are that much thinkers. Nevertheless many ideas coming by are impeded by the exigency structures, which has to be changed. Changing the structure may lessen the impact in an intended item rendering much more impact in other areas. With the existing local and later global priorities the contradiction may lead to difficulties in application of the theory.
Natural disasters always happen as a surprise. Remedies being made to solve problems sometimes come late and theories are not applicable and yet societies are not that fast to adapt to the changes. It may take longer than predicted theoretically, as points of intervention may be not readily available.
Comments to the paper: which author might give a more clarification on them.
From our stand the theories were well explained. They lack justification on where exactly the starting point should be. Looking at it with an assumption that any point of intervention will give the same results may not be feasible. Nevertheless dictating some personal approaches under the existing egalitarian era may be unsustainable both economically and socially. Where should the inputs come from? Is dynamic thinking at the "global-village" possible? Did the elements of equality and equity consider externalities from both local and global scale perspective?
McGregor has researched and developed a new concept of
quality of life that is indeed multi-dimensional, complex and very subjective. For instance, someone who has changed their
consumption habits to better ensure that their choices will make a better quality of life for themselves, the environment and future
generations, may be seen by others as having a lower or inferior quality of life since they have removed themselves from the
materialistic mainstream characteristic of our consumer society. Someone may feel that an absence of violence and abuse in their life
leads to a higher quality of living even though they have fewer tangible resources, money, or shelter; peace of mind and freedom from
abuse has increased the quality of their daily life relative to what it was like before. Family-life professionals have a role to play in
helping families help individual members identify, clarify and select values that may improve their quality of life.
There are four universal quality of life values which lead to "human betterment" or the improvement of the
human condition. In addition to the value of species survival (human and other living organisms), they include: adequate resources,
justice and equality, freedom, and peace or balance of power.
Since quality of life is at the core of our professional mission, it must be better understood, especially in relation to well-being.
To facilitate this understanding, the following sections will elaborate on the concepts of standard of living, well-being and
welfare since these are often used in conjunction with the discussion of the quality of daily lives of individuals and families.
Del Porto developed the Coefficient of Sustainability as a working tool to measure Sustainability from a variety of perspectives that could be
utilized by practitioners to assess a value for Sustainability that could be understood by a diverse population from businessmen and
planners who will see this as a cost/benefit analysis for budgeting resources and planning to social scientists who would seek to quantify
the externalities imbedded in the concepts "Quality of Life" and measurable by economists when they use the term "Cost of Living"
Colman has researched and developed an indicator to include the quality
of life. Natural resources are explicitly valued; unpaid household work and voluntary work are measured; and costs are distinguished from
benefits. The GPI subtracts rather than adds the costs of crime, pollution and accidents. The index goes up if we have more free time,
greater equality, and a cleaner environment. It therefore more accurately reflects actual changes in our
quality of life.
Lange proposed a value to redefine the quality of life from a consumptive, acquisitive mode to a mode of non-consumptive relatedness. This
mode challenges the frantic pace, exhaustion and burn-out many people feel. It enables people to restore organic connections to time,
space, body and human relations and to engage in non-consumptive forms of fulfillment. Most importantly, it can reduces the depletion
of natural resources for endless material goods and exploitation of human and natural communities for profits.
Ira mentioned that well-being - including stress, life satisfaction, and personal happiness is an important dimension in assessing the
way of living in different places.
Abramia explained that the Georgian Parliament regulates major legal relations in the area of environmental protection on the entire territory of
Georgia and is guided by the following key principles:
· "polluter pays" principle -
· "biodiversity conservation principle"
· "recycling principle"
· "restitution principle"
· "environmental impact assessment principle"
etc.
and "information availability principle" - information on the condition of the environment shall be open and available to public.
Hao explained that China has now established an environmental
protection management system which is supervised legislatively by the National People’s Congress, implemented by the people’s
government at various levels, managed in unified way by administrative departments in in charge of environmental protection and
supervised by various relevant departments in accordance with the laws. There are a set of management system such as Annual check
system, technical supervision system, centralized management by specialized department, monitoring networks etc.
Well-being is a concept central to this explanation of the Kerala
phenomena(Alexander).
Our operational definition within this analysis (securely within the dictionary definition exclusive of income) is a the package of closely
associated measures of human behaviours: infant mortality rate, life expectancy, educational attainment, and total fertility rate. This
definition is also framed by our understanding of human behaviour as a part of human sustainability.
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