International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life Richard J. Estes M. Joseph Sirgy Editors The Pursuit of Human Well-Being The Untold Global History International Handbooks of Quality-of- Life Chair of the Editorial Board Graciela Tonon, Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora and Universidad de Palermo, Argentina Editorial Board Alex Michalos, University of Northern British Columbia, Canada Rhonda Phillips, Purdue University, USA Don Rahtz, College of William & Mary, USA Dave Webb, University of Western Australia, Australia Wolfgang Glatzer, Goethe University, Germany Dong Jin Lee, Yonsei University, Korea Laura Camfield, University of East Anglia, UK Aims and Scope The International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life Research offer extensive bibliographic resources. They present literature reviews of the many subdisciplines and areas of study within the growing field of quality of life research. Handbooks in the series focus on capturing and reviewing the quality of life research literature in specific life domains, on specific populations, or in relation to specific disciplines or sectors of industry. In addition, the Handbooks cover measures of quality of life and well-being, providing annotated bibliographies of well-established measures, methods, and scales. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8365 Richard J. Estes • M. Joseph Sirgy Editors The Pursuit of Human Well-Being The Untold Global History Editors Richard J. Estes M. Joseph Sirgy School of Social Policy and Practice Pamplin College of Business University of Pennsylvania Department of Marketing Philadelphia, PA, USA Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Virginia Tech) Blacksburg, VA, USA ISSN 2468-7227 ISSN 2468-7235 (eBook) International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life ISBN 978-3-319-39100-7 ISBN 978-3-319-39101-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-39101-4 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016960752 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland This book is dedicated to Harry Halloran and Joseph “Tony” Carr—two remarkable visionaries who appreciate the rich contributions made by quality-of-life and well-being scholars. Without their investment and dedication to the science of well-being, this work would never have been possible. Foreword Developing a history of human well-being has been a passion and core belief of mine for years. As a businessman, I have been fortunate to be associated with colleagues who are committed to making our world a better place. I believe strongly that people want to improve their lives for themselves, their families, and their communities. It is with these beliefs that I, along with my lifelong friend Tony Carr, began Halloran Philanthropies. Our mission was then, and continues to be, “creating the world we all want”—a world different from the one we live in today. As we began in 2007 to set in motion the vision of Halloran Philanthropies, we knew early on that we wanted to focus on and support innovation and remarkable innovators who demonstrated a wide range of visions to improve the human condition across various areas of health, education, and livelihood. As this strategy unfolded, I realized that creating a plan for the future of well- being required a deep understanding of the history of well-being. We needed to look at change with a wider, more inquisitive lens. As we investigated further the concepts of human well-being and quality of life, we found a dearth of research specifically centered on the history of human experience. By the latter, I mean an analysis that transcends the academic definition of good economies, good trade, good incomes, and good governance. How can we move forward in our thinking and doing without a comprehensive under- standing of how human happiness and well-being have evolved? How can we design our strategies and our collective global agenda for raising the bar for the greatest number, when our opinions, thoughts, and feelings are shaped largely by the media—media that fail to champion a systematic focus on research and analysis? Let me reflect for a moment on why Halloran Philanthropies decided to fund this project. I have been unimpressed and uninspired by the lack of per- spective of the popular media. By lack of perspective, I mean the failure of the media to report stories and events in the context of a well-researched, complete picture of what is really going on in the world. Unfortunately, pol- icy makers and the public depend primarily on the mass media for informa- tion and analysis of world events. Although there are certainly many exceptions, what keeps the media alive is their ability to sell negative stories, but not necessarily balanced critical thinking. The media often have neither vii viii Foreword the money nor the orientation to do the research required and to do justice to the many complex social issues that confront humanity. And we have all heard the expression, good news does not sell. I take a contrarian and a “change-maker” view about the human condition and the improvements in the world. I am challenged by the question: Are things improving in health, education, and human welfare in a few regions of the world, many regions of the world, or all regions of the world? The answer to this question has a lot to say about the ideal goals for the future: How do we get to the world that we all want? Or, as Buckminster Fuller would say, the “100 % world,” where 100 % of humanity enjoys the “good life.” The question “… are things improving in the world?” has become the driving force behind my commitment to support this research led by the extraordinary editorial team of Professors Richard J. Estes and M. Joseph Sirgy. Our editors selected well-respected specialists from every major region of the world to examine the questions from a common point of departure, agreed upon from the beginning as the basic indicators of the Human Development Index. With the HDI indicators as the starting point, each team was “challenged to explore the extensive data that underlie the rich fabric of human experience documented in this research.” Through analysis we uncov- ered a complex tapestry that integrates Western, Near Eastern, and Eastern philosophical conceptions of what it means for humans to live “well”; our editors examined in detail the socioeconomic, political, and historical experi- ences of every region, incorporating the major religions and the historically disadvantaged populations. Above all, every aspect of this project is rooted, to my delight, in data. In every corner of the world, in both objective and subjective arenas, the core questions about the scope of improvements in human development hold a vital key to our collective future. For me, this is paramount for the following reason: If life is improving in a few, many, or all of the regions of the world, particularly over the last 70 years or so, then getting to the “world we all want” in these regions or all regions will be a lot more probable than if we find that life is deteriorating in core areas of health, education, and welfare in the regions we have studied. In such a scenario, forging a path ahead will obviously be far more difficult. If we find the former scenario to be true, con- firming that well-being is improving in all regions of the world, this outcome for me is nothing short of a revelation that can create optimism that human progress and betterment are being achieved. It may be a revelation that we can enthusiastically stand behind and strongly support. Whatever one’s faith tradition, I believe that we are all connected by a common force for good with a desire for continued improvement. I will not give away the conclusions of this research journey here or the richness of what I have learned; I invite all readers of this work simply to benefit from the amazing opportunity for immersion and learning that this book represents. We plan to update this body of research every 5 years to determine whether the trends we have discovered endure, and we will do so with all the humility and good faith set in place by our editors. We will endeavor to tell this story widely, to share the outcomes of this robust body of Foreword ix research, and to translate the information into as many literal and visual forms as possible for the benefit of all who care to read it. This book provides the untold story of human well-being: the truth about our experience as human beings in our search to create the world we all want. Halloran Philanthropies Harry Halloran West Conshohocken, PA, USA Chuvisco—a man’s memory of his childhood farm and the wall he is not sure he had ever climbed over (© Brian Fernandes-Halloran. Used with permission) Preface Organized human history has been unfolding for more than 40,000 years. Indeed, evidence exists that Homo sapiens has been a major force on the planet for at least as long as 6–8 millennia, albeit many scholars suggest even longer. In either case, “modern” men and women are of comparatively recent origin and postdate the period of the great dinosaurs by millions of years. Homo sapiens appeared around the beginning of the current global ice age, the Pliocene-Quaternary glaciation, an ongoing period that is largely respon- sible for the creation of a broad range of social, political, economic, and tech- nological innovations (especially those designed to keep the people living in northern countries warm). The current ice age, with all of the challenges that it presented and continues to present to humanity, has compelled people throughout the world to live in highly interdependent communities; to share in advancing the well-being of one another, but especially that of their fami- lies and local communities; and to create forms of housing, energy sources, transportation sources and networks, and communication systems that keep people in close proximity to one another. This volume covers developments in human well-being that have taken place worldwide over the past 3000 years. We have limited our focus to this time period, given the absence of written or other interpretable records prior to 2500 before the Common Era (BCE). We do, of course, have archeological evidence of human well-being prior to 2500 BCE, but many of those records are only fragments of more complete documents that have been lost to history or, as of now, remain largely uninterpretable. Future generations of scholars are expected to gradually extend the boundaries of the history of well-being beyond what is known today, but, as of now, only the major centers of these most ancient of civilizations are known to us, e.g., the Olmec people of Central America (Fig. P.1) (1500 BCE to about 400 BCE centered on the San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán site near the coast in southeast Veracruz in Central America), as well as the Sumerians of Mesopotamia (the portion of modern Iraq situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers) (c. 5500 BCE and 4000 BCE), long considered to be one of the progenitors of human civilization (Fig. P.2) (Running Reality 2015). More specifically, we have drawn on the component measures of the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) xi