Background and Objectives
The International Society for Quality of Life Studies (ISQOLS) - www.isqols.org , has been conducting international conference since 1996. However, these have all been held in either the USA (Williamsburg, Charlotte, San Diego and Washington), Europe (Frankfurt, Girona and Florence), or South Africa (Grahamstown). Now, for the first time, the ISQOLS international conference is to be held in Asia. It is very auspicious that this 10th conference be located in Asia where quality of life issues and research are becoming so important.

Thailand is a very suitable host country for this conference on life quality. In 2007 a highly successful conference on happiness was held in Bangkok. The 'International Conference on Happiness and Public Policy' was run under the auspices of the Public Policy Development Office, under the Office of the Prime Minister. It attracted over 500 participants, received considerable press coverage, and placed Thailand at the forefront of world interest in the link between happiness and public policy. The conference proceedings were used as the basis of a book 'Happiness: New Paradigm, Measurement, and Policy Implications', which has been contributing to policy formulation process.

Since the 2007, the whole notion of population happiness and other subjective indicators informing public policy has developed rapidly. Two major forces have been at work. The first is an initiative undertaken by the OECD Global Project on Measuring the Progress of Societies. The second force has been supplied by the Report by the Commission on the 'Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress' which also recommends the collection of subjective indicators as part of National statistics.

Since 2008, ISQOLS has been an Associate organization to the Global Project. This collaboration was most recently marked by a joint OECD/ISQOLS conference in Florence, July 2009. This strong link with ISQOLS is very appropriate since the society has a broad interest in measuring life quality, is truly multidisciplinary in its membership, and has strong links to the three leading journals in the area. ISQOLS members are the Editors of these journals as Professor Alex Michalos (Social Indicators Research), Professor Robert Cummins (Journal of Happiness Studies), and Professor Joe Sirgy (Applied Research in Quality of Life).

This 10th ISQOLS Conference will provide a contemporary focus for quality of life research in Asia, not just in terms of findings but also in terms of understanding and application. Such application may be at the level of whole societies or at the level of groups with special needs or individuals. The aim is to use this material to 'build a happier tomorrow'.

Conference objectives

The conference aims at generating new ideas and new frontiers of knowledge contributing to the academic world and government public policies. Specifically, conference objectives are:
  • Create an environment that is a catalyst for bringing people from a variety of disciplines together to further research on Quality of Life and Happiness: Interdisciplinary

  • Increase visibility and relevance of Quality of Life and Happiness research to the public sector and the population at large

  • Provide Academic Journal Publication Opportunities for the participants

  • Provide an opportunity to foster policy development to improve people' quality of life