Quality of Life - An Assessment Tool

Several means of assessment have been used to evaluate the implications of urbanisation and urban development on people’s lives, including those related to housing. One of the emerging and promising concepts for examining such impacts is quality of life (QOL). In fact, concerns about enhancing QOL have remained either an explicit or implicit goal of public policy in almost all societies for several decades.

Despite this, it is only recently that the concept has achieved popular use as an instrument for measuring the impact of development policies, and QOL issues have become the focus of planners and policy makers in cities in industrialised and developing countries. Research has started to give attention to the QOL concept, seeking to explore the components which determine QOL and identify mechanisms which could contribute to improvements in QOL (DAS 2008). Pioneering studies in the field have been conducted by researchers in western nations who come from numerous disciplines such as planning, architecture, sociology and psychology. Beside researchers, international organisations such as the United Nations (UN), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and World Health Organisation (WHO) have established their own measurements of QOL (Lee 2008).

The list of reasons for undertaking a study on QOL is long (Sufian 1993). Since cities are the epicentre of human activities, and thus are considered the pivot of contemporary existence, it is important to understand the spectrum of conditions that contribute specifically to the quality of urban life. The measurement of QOL can be a tool for grasping these conditions and hence can be used as a diagnosis tool by policy makers. It is believed that assessing QOL provides information which is of relevance for the design and evaluation of public policies as well as, for the discussions regarding the proper way to organise societies (Rojas 2009). As a measuring tool, QOL is distinct in that it provides a human dimension to measuring the progress in planning and developing procedures by allowing for an integration of indicators which take into consideration and gauge people’s values, preferences and opinions (Young 2008).

Another important reason for the interest in QOL lies in the question of the effective allocation of scarce resources. Most developing world cities lack accurate, current data

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on land conversion patterns, the number and conditions of housing units, infrastructural deployment patterns subdivision patterns and so forth (Davis 2007). Together with the scarcity of resources it becomes necessary to find the most efficient way of distributing such resources in line with the needs and the priorities of people. This can be achieved by using the results of the related QOL research as input in the decision-making processes. Such studies provide the means for producing appropriate policy recommendations for authors (Ulengin et al 2001).

It is argued that planners need to pay close attention to the concept of QOL in order to assess the effects of plans and projects on the places and lives of all citizens. The main purpose of planning is to help ensure that the future is somehow better than the past, and with QOL research it is believed that a better understanding of people’s needs regarding different living aspects could be achieved (Massam 2002). Notwithstanding this, very little has been done to examine the impact of housing on QOL.

1.5. The Jordanian Case Study

Jordan is part of that developing world facing dramatic urbanisation forces which strongly reshape people’s lives and impose enormous challenges upon decision makers.

Relative to wider global change, Amman, the capital of Jordan, has transformed dramatically, becoming massively urbanised and growing extensively beyond its traditional boundaries. Over its relatively short modern history, Amman has experienced extensive alteration, being sent into spirals of urban growth with a vast increase in population and considerable spatial, social, and economic transformations.

This massive growth was however, accompanied with deteriorations in the urban and social fabric of the city, resulting in severe challenges facing officials and policy makers (Abu Khalil 2009; Al-Asad 2006; El-Ghul 1999). Many aspects of urban living in Amman are nowadays in need of considerable attention, as the quality of its urban services have not kept up with the extensive growth it has experienced. It is evident today that Amman is embarking on a new heightened era of urban, spatial and perhaps socio-economic restructuring that is in need of great attention (Daher 2011).

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Housing is one of the primary elements of the massive urban growth and transformation that took place, and is still, taking place in Amman. It is among the most vital sectors that shape life in Amman in different ways related to different scales. Despite the efforts that have been taken to cope with the significant growth of housing needs, housing still forms a big challenge, not only in terms of meeting housing needs, but also in terms of handling with its tremendous implications on other aspects of life. So far, such efforts have been relatively successful in responding to the growing demand for housing by providing housing for a broad sector of the city population. But on the other hand these efforts were marred by numerous failures in relation to the quality of the housing product and the equitable distribution of housing opportunities among the different groups of population. The negative impact of such failures extended from the scope of the single housing unit to the broader scale of the neighbourhood and the city as a whole, reflected in the deterioration of considerable parts and elements of the city’s urban setting (Ababsa 2011; Al-Asad 2005c; Meaton & Alnsour 2006). Part of the transformation that took place in Amman was the emergence of apartment building as the prominent residential building type. The impact of the spread of this type of dwellings has been tremendous on Amman, resulting in various changes and challenges that started taking place within socio-cultural, economic, urban and even ethical dimensions affecting in a way the overall shape and quality of life in the city.

Research on QOL is still uncommon in Jordan. In spite of being a subject of substantial concern and a core topic in the daily discussions among individuals and authorities, studies about QOL in Jordan fall short in sufficiently covering the holistic dimensions of the concept as a definite field of research. Instead, broad studies can be identified, covering particular aspects of life quality including living conditions, health, education, equity and social integration, poverty, transportation, natural environment and others.

The notion of life quality and the term “quality of life” itself are frequently referred to in public media and the press and even in some fields of academic research, but as a general phrase that indicates a desirable aim that people seek to achieve without specifically addressing the definition, attributes and assessment of the idiom. Moreover, numerous official and unofficial statistical surveys as well as life satisfaction studies have been undertaken as part of development programmes by different governmental

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and non-governmental institutions. Arguably, however, these have all missed the comprehensive side of the concept and thus failed in many cases to achieve the intended goals of the programmes. What is in fact missing is scientific research built on a rational process that addresses the issue of QOL in its comprehensive extent and along different scales to provide valuable evidence which people can rely on when formulating future development programmes.

A few academic and professional attempts have been made, however, to analyse and assess QOL in Jordan comprehensively or to address particular scales or aspects of life under the umbrella and through the vision of QOL. Among these is the work done by Al-Azah (2010) in which he studied aspects of development in Jordan settlements analysing the relationship between reasons and causes and how it relates to the development and life of people. The work comprehensively examined the drivers, pressures, states and impacts of urban development within different parts of Jordan, trying to establish a better understanding about the interactions of different aspects of development and the implications they have for achieving sustainable development and life. Another attempt made by Al-Betawi (2004), tried to develop measuring criteria for QOL in Amman using a “closed shop” professional approach; here, selected experts were interviewed to formulate a local set of domains and indicators to be used for measuring QOL.

Al-Khalaileh (2004) made another attempt on his work about understanding the effects of physical environments on children’s QOL within a specific location – namely Al-Wihdat Refugee Camp. Although the work does not present a holistic dimension of QOL in the sense that it addresses a specific dimension, it does portray a fine effort that adopts in a way the vision of QOL research. The Department of Statistics (DOS) in Jordan also carried out a number of surveys relating to people’s well-being and life quality including a living conditions survey in 2007 and multi-purpose household survey in 2003. Additionally, there was an attempt to conduct a joint venture project - where measures were developed abroad - to assess QOL among citizens. Unfortunately the project was not completed because of its incompatibility with the lifestyle and norms in Jordan.

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Research on housing, on the other hand, seems to be of more concern. Plenty of studies from different disciplines have been undertaken on both academic and technical bases.

However, they still do not cover all necessary aspects in housing research. Design, space layout and environmental behaviour are among those aspects that have attracted interest, particularly from the academic side. Several studies have been carried out to assess a number of housing schemes and analyse the sort of social interaction, psychological comfort and spatial behaviour of residents. These include the works of Abu-Ghazzeh (1996, 1999), Al-Homoud (2003), Abu-Ghazalah (2008) and others.

Housing policies and governmental practices are other aspects that have been extensively addressed by both academics and professionals in, for instance, the works of El-Ghul (1997), Nusair (2004), Meaton and Alnsour (2006) and Juwaynat (2008).

However, many of the studies are not publicly accessible and some of them suffer from repetition and in some instances from contradictions with some of the facts and figures.

Housing for low income groups, unauthorised housing, squatters and upgrading are also aspects that have been addressed. Studies on low income housing include the works of Petro (1994), Al-Homoud et al (2009) and others. The literature on unauthorised housing can be divided into two main areas; academic studies and technical studies, each with different emphases and influences as well as varying terms including uncontrolled, unplanned, informal or illegal referring to the non-compliance with regulations. Academic studies have emphasised two dimensions - the social and environmental costs resulting from housing without compliance with planning standards and the use of alternative technology to reduce the cost of building materials with respect to unauthorised housing. The technical studies are related to structural issues and the technical manuals produced by building components procedures (AlNsour &

Measton 2009). Urban upgrading is perhaps one of the issues that has attracted most interest in the field due to its political background. Many of the studies undertaken on this aspect relate in a way to the United Nations development programmes or other international and national courses.

Notwithstanding this, literature on housing suffers from a shortage of studies about housing quality and construction where there is a real dearth of data relating to this

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field. A further lack can be seen in the studies of housing market behaviour. The housing market in Jordan suffers from a lack of real assessment and understanding of the actual need for housing in different locations and social groups. It is believed that the need for housing market behaviour studies is greater in developing countries than in developed countries since the housing problem in the former is more severe, and resources are scarce. A better understanding of housing demand parameters is crucial for successful urban policies, especially in small countries such as Jordan, where land and capital are scarce while the population is increasing at extraordinary rates (Hunaiti 1995). However, it is only recently that studies about the housing market have been undertaken. Examples include the works of Al-Homoud et al (2009) and Al-Oun (2010).