Measuring local well-being: towards sustainability? : a case study of developing quality of life indicators at Blyth Valley Borough Council

• Main Author: Scott, Karen E.
• Published: University of Newcastle Upon Tyne 2008
• Subjects: 323.0420942884
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.492438

The UK Government encourages all local authorities to develop Quality of Life Indicators (QLIs), a non-mandatory policy instrument intended to measure local well-being within the paradigm of Sustainable Development (SD). QLIs are embedded in, and are instruments of, New Labour's Local Government Modernisation Agenda (LGMA) and their expressed desire to mainstream SD. In this agenda, there is an increasing emphasis on local communities as the sites not only of policy focus but also of responsibility for policy creation, creating powerful discourses of community participation in local government. QLIs are viewed as a tool to help local people create a shared vision for their area, to engage as 'active citizens' in the creation of 'sustainable communities'.