Special Issue on: “Children’s Subjective Well-being”

Guest editors: Mònica González & Sara Malo

(University of Girona, Spain)

The Journal of Social Research & Policy invites original paper submissions for a special issue on “Children’s Subjective Well-Being”, to bring together papers exploring the results of the Children’s Worlds project, the International Survey of Children’s Well-Being (ISCIWeB) in different regions of the world and with children and adolescents of different ages.

 The ISCWeB is a worldwide research survey on children’s subjective well-being (http://www.isciweb.org/). The study aims to collect solid and representative data on children’s lives and daily activities, their time use and in particular on their own perceptions and evaluations of their well-being through a self-administered questionnaire which is filled by the children. The purpose is to improve children's well-being by creating awareness among children, their parents and their communities, but also among opinion leaders, decision makers, professionals and the general public.

Due to considerable differences between children of different ages, the basic questionnaire was adapted for three age groups - 8 years old, 10 years old and 12 years old- and thus there are three versions of the questionnaire, one for each age group. The ISCWeB includes also an adaptation of different psychometric scales such as the Student Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS), the Brief Multidimensional Student Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS) and the Personal WellBeing Index- School version (PWI-SC).

Additional items included on satisfaction with different life domains allow the calculation of a General Domain Satisfaction Index. The new quantitative measurement adopted will help to increase scientific knowledge on children’s subjective well-being through the identification of factors that contribute to their well-being worldwide and others that are country-specific.

In this special issue we encourage researchers that have been involved with collecting and analyzing data under the Children’s Worlds project framework in different countries and regions of the world to report data and/or methodological analyses on issues such as (but not limited to):

·        validity, reliability and factorial structure of the SLSS, BMSLSS and the PWI-SC;

·        cognitive and affective dimensions of subjective wellbeing;

·      psychological and socio-demographical correlates of wellbeing;

·        children’s well-being in regional and national contexts;

·        inter-country comparisons of well-being ;

·        well-being in different age groups (children of different ages and adolescents);

·        public policy implication of well-being scores.

They will allow our readers to know the results of the ISCWeB and to promote debates on innovate and participatory practices in research focused on children and policy-making aimed to improve their s well-being.  

All submissions will be peer reviewed. For guidelines on manuscript preparation and submission, please visit the journal website (www.jsrp.ro)

Please address any inquiries to Mònica González: monica.gonzalez@udg.edu or Sara Malo: sara.malo@udg.edu

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 15th September 2014

Guest editors: Anna Maria Zawadzka & Magdalena Żemojtel-Piotrowska, University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland

Journal of Social Research & Policy invites original paper submissions for a special issue on “Between wealth and well-being: consumption, psychology and quality of life”, to bring together papers concerning mutual relations between growing standard of life, prosperity and well-being in modern societies.

Academics, especially those doing research in psychology, sociology, anthropology and economics, have always been interested in the subject of the impact of cultural, social, and economic change on individuals and societies. Apparently, changes brought about by prevalent growing wealth and consumer culture may have both positive and negative consequences. On the one hand, the changes make life easier and increase the standard of living as well as lead to a rapid advancement of technology. However, focusing on wealth may decrease well-being, sense of affiliation and the quality of social relationships and it may also result in neglect of culture and art and mindless destruction of the natural environment. Therefore, it is really crucial to study and indicate the threats produced by the changes and look for precautions against them. There are a lot of import ant questions to be answered, i.e.:

1. What are the individual and social benefits and costs of the permanent economic growth?
2. Is being wealthy and focusing on consuming and buying a good strategy for happy life? In what way? What kind of consumption may increase our well-being?
3. Is it good to be happy?
4. In what way may the concept of happiness be a product of consumer culture?
5. How can individualistic vs. collectivistic values strengthen the concept of happiness seen as a pursue to wealth and possession? Why?
6. What can stop the development of consumer culture? Is spirituality a good alternative nowadays?
7. What are the strategies to preserve health and well-being? How can we improve the existing measures of the well-being?

We invite original and empirical papers, written in a good English language on the subjects of:

• Consumption, values and social change
• Indications of well-being and ill-being in consumer culture
• Psychological and social costs and benefits of consumption societies
• Values, well-being and quality of life
• Materialism, mercantilism and well-being
• Self-regulation, self-control and consumption
• Money time and happiness
• Social influence, materialism and consumerism
• Self-esteem and consumption
• Consumption vs. spirituality and well-being
• Strategies of healthy and happy life
• Measures of well-being and happiness

All submissions will be peer reviewed. For guidelines on manuscript preparation and submission, please visit the journal website. Please send any inquiries to Anna Maria Zawadzka psyamz@univ.gda.pl, or Magdalena Żemojtel-Piotrowska psymzp@ug.edu.pl

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 30 June 2013

Guest editor: Graciela Tonon, Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora, Universidad de Palermo, Argentina

Guest editor: David Bartram, University of Leicester (UK)

JSR&P invites original paper submissions for a special issue on Migration and Happiness, to bring together papers exploring the intersection of two topics that feature very prominently in public discourse and debates.

Happiness – long a topic of interdisciplinary scholarly efforts among social scientists – has now become a matter of significant interest for public policy-makers as well.  Senior figures in the British government, for example, convene regular meetings of a “Whitehall Well-Being Working Group” to consider happiness dimensions of public policy, and French president Nikolas Sarkozy in 2009 commissioned a report on happiness in France from two well-known economists.

Research on happiness (and the closely related topic of life satisfaction) is particularly innovative in its rejection of a core premise of modern economics: “revealed preferences”.  Instead of assuming that people are better off in “objective” ways e.g. for having higher incomes – and that we can know this via observation of choices and behaviour – happiness studies focuses on the subjective dimension of well-being.  In place of economists’ axioms regarding utility, then, happiness researchers address an empirical question: what are the choices, actions and characteristics that bring happiness? 

There is significant scope for revisiting a number of core issues in research on migration via consideration rooted in a happiness studies perspective.  Examples of questions might include:

• Under what conditions do immigrants of various types end up achieving higher levels of happiness?
• In particular, does greater integration (however conceived) lead to greater happiness?
• Do certain types of government/policy approaches regarding immigrants lead to greater happiness, and do other approaches inhibit happiness?
• What are the happiness consequences of immigration for natives?  Some researchers (as well as politicians and activists) worry particularly about the challenge to national identity believed to follow from immigration; does that challenge find expression in lower happiness among natives?
• To what extent is it legitimate to consider happiness consequences (both for immigrants and for natives) in ethical discussions about migration policies?  For example, if it were established that immigration leads to decreased happiness among natives, what consideration (if any) ought to be given to a finding of that sort in determination of immigration control/management policies?  Observers are divided as to the legitimacy of taking economic consequences for natives into account in ethical discussions of this sort – does shifting the focus to happiness consequences help resolve this type of dispute?
• What are the methodological challenges that arise in researching happiness in relation to migration, and how might those challenges be addressed?
• Again on methodological issues – are there any special measurement issues that arise in regard to immigrants?  Happiness researchers have given extensive consideration to cross-cultural issues regarding survey questions.  What additional considerations might come into play for those who themselves move across cultures?

This list is merely indicative and other ways of making the connection are welcome.

All submissions will be peer reviewed.  For guidelines on manuscript preparation and submission, please visit the journal website.  Please address any inquiries to David Bartram at d.bartram@le.ac.uk.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 31 August 2011

Program evaluation has become a standard practice in the design and implementation of public policy as an outcome of continuing pressures toward effectiveness, efficiency and accountability in public management. Besides the evident improvements entailed by these developments in the area of policy implementation the benefits of these concerns are manifolds: first, there are large and very valuable amounts of empirical evidence that can be used in assessing competing hypotheses regarding phenomena involved in the addressed programs; second, policies gain in quality through evidence based design; and last but not least, an entire area o methodological and disciplinary interrogation is flourishing.

Our special JSR&P issue endeavors to take advantage of this increasing and largely unused body of knowledge by inviting theoretical, methodological and, evidently, empirical articles coming from the area of program evaluation especially from the field of social policy. Research or practice notes and book reviews are also welcome by the editors.

This call for paper is open until April 20, 2011. All submissions will be double peer reviewed.  For guidelines on manuscript preparation and submission, please visit the journal website.  Please address any inquiries to the journal’s email address office@jsrp.ro or to Adrian Hatos at ahatos@gmail.com.