Community Quality-of-Life Indicators: Best Cases III

Community quality-of-life (QOL) indicators continue to gain attention and interest in their use as many communities and regions design and apply them. Evolving from early use as data systems, indicators are increasingly being integrated into overall planning and other public policy activities. Their use is found not only in monitoring and evaluation applications, but also in the context of increasing citizen partici- tion in guiding communities towards achieving desired goals. Indeed, the emphasis in many indicator applications now includes linking actions to outcomes – making sure that the indicators are integrated, useful and effective in helping communities address QOL issues. The use of QOL indicators to consider a full spectrum of c- munity and regional well-being is exciting and the focus on integration is certain to bring new and innovative applications to the forefront. This is the third book in a series covering best practices in community QOL indicators. Each volume presents individual cases (chapters) of communities at the local or regional levels that have designed and implemented community indicators programs. In Volume I, we present eight chapters from a variety of contexts – from the county level in the U. S. , to the large megalopolis of Sao Paulo, to looking at a cross section of communities throughout Europe. Also included are three chapters from Canada, a leader in applying community indicator systems.

M. JOSEPH (JOE) SIRGY is a social/consumer/organizational psychologist (Ph.D., U/Massachusetts, 1979), Professor of Marketing, and Virginia Real Estate Research Fellow at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). He has published extensively in the areas of consumer behavior, marketing communications, business ethics, and quality of life.

He has published extensively in social/behavioral science, managerial, and systems related journals. Examples include Social Indicators Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, Behavioral Science, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Systems Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Advertising, Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Psychology and Marketing, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, Journal of Travel Research, Journal of Tourism and Travel Marketing, Research in Marketing, Journal of Business and Psychology, Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, International Journal of Management, Journal of Housing and Built-in Environment, Applied Research in Quality of Life, and Journal of Happiness Studies.

He is the author/editor of numerous books including: SOCIAL COGNITION AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOR (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1983); MARKETING AS SOCIAL BEHAVIOR (New York: Prager Publshers, 1984); SELF-CONGRUITY (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1986); NEW DIMENSIONS OF QUALITY-OF-LIFE/MARKETING RESEARCH (Bridgeport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995); CONSUMER BEHAVIOR (Lincolnwood, IL: NTC Books, 1997); INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS: A SYSTEMS APPROACH (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Publishers); HANDBOOK OF QUALITY-OF-LIFE RESEARCH: AN ETHICAL MARKETING PERSPECTIVE (Dordecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001); THE PSYCHOLOGY OF QUALITY OF LIFE (Dordecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002); SHOPPER, BUYER, AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOR (Cincinatti, OH: Atomicdog Publishing, 2002); ADVANCES IN QUALITY-OF-LIFE THEORY AND RESEARCH (Dordecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003); COMMUNITY QUALITY-OF-LIFE INDICATORS: BEST CASES (Dordecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004); WELL-BEING MARKETING: THEORY, RESEARCH, AND APPLICATIONS )Soeul, Korea: Pakyoungsa Publishing, 2005); SHOPPER, BUYER, AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOR, 3RD EDITION (Cincinatti, OH: Atomicdog Publishing, 2006); STRATEGIC MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS: A SYSTEMS APPROACH TO IMC (Cincinnati, OH: Atomicdog Publishing/Thomson, 2006); COMMUNITY QUALITY-OF-LIFE INDICATORS: BEST CASES II (Dordecht, The Netherlands: Springer Publishers, 2006), and COMMUNITY QUALITY-OF-LIFE INDICATORS: BEST PRACTICES III (Blacksburg, VA: ISQOLS, 2007).

He presently serves as an editor of the Quality-of-Life/Marketing section of the Journal of Macromarketing and co-editor-in-chief of Applied Research in Quality of Life. He co-founded the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies in 1995 and is currently serving as its Executive Director. He was also the president of the Academy of Marketing Science (2002-03).

In 1992, he received the Distinguished Fellow recognition from the Academy. In 1997, he received the Distinguished Fellow recognition from the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies. In a recent survey of scholarly productivity in business ethics, he was ranked as 82nd among 2,371 business ethics scholars world-wide. In 2003, the board of directors of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies elected him to receive the highest distinction of the society, namely the Distinguished Quality-of-Life Researcher Award. This is a lifetime award given every 1 and a half years to quality-of-life researchers who achieved excellence and scholarly distinction in quality-of-life research. In 2007, the Academy of Marketing Science has given him the Harold Berkman Service Award for life-time achievement in service of the Academy and the marketing professoriate worldwide.

 

Rhonda Phillips, Ph.D, AICP, CEcD

 

Community investment and well-being comprise the focus of Rhonda’s research and outreach activities. With public, private and non-profit experience, she offers both practice and academic perspectives. As a professor in the School of Community Resources & Development (http://scrd.asu.edu) at Arizona State University, Rhonda works with faculty, staff, students and organizations to expand the reach of community-based education and research initiatives for enhancing quality of life. Her focus is community planning, development, and tourism planning as well as community indicator and evaluation systems for monitoring progress towards community development and economic development revitalization goals.

Prior to joining ASU, she served nine years on the faculty at the University of Florida’s Urban and Regional Planning Department where she was founding director of the Center for Building Better Communities. This outreach center provided community and economic development revitalization services throughout Florida. Her work before joining academe was in community and economic development at the state, local and regional levels; she holds dual professional certifications in urban and regional planning (American Institute of Certified Planners) and economic and community development (Certified Economic and Community Developer with the International Economic Development Council).

Rhonda’s honors include serving as the 2006 Fulbright Scholar in Northern Ireland at the University of Ulster, focusing on heritage andcultural based tourism as community and economic development strategies via The Heritage Initiative. Her work in tourism has included arts-based development as well as developing community indicator systems for tourist-based economies. She has authored or edited seven books, including Introduction to Community Development (Routledge, http://www.routledge.com/books/An-Introduction-to-Community-Development-isbn978041577385; Concept Marketing for Communities (Greenwood Press, http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/C6798.aspx); and Community Development Indicators Measuring

Systems (Ashgate, www.ashgate.com/shopping/title.asp?key1=&key2=&orig=results&isbn=0%207546%204005%201). Along with Joe Sirgy and Don Rathz, she is the co-editor of the Community Quality-of-Life Indicators: Best Cases series published through ISQOLS and Springer (www.springer.com). She is editor of Community Development: Journal of the Community Development Society, published by Routledge/Taylor & Francis, http://tandf.co.uk/journals/rcod.