Abstract
Narratives about Quality of Life have to depict the comprehensivity of Quality of Life indicators. By definition, Quality of Life studies need to indicate the large-scale descriptions of what constitutes our Quality of Life as human beings and as nations. It describes the life satisfaction, happiness and perceptions of life and the trends that this present over time. Yet, within these descriptions, the details of what Quality of Life means at the very personal level can easily be neglected. This chapter seeks to present mini-narratives from across the continent of Africa that can complement the existing discourses about Quality of Life in Africa. It acknowledges the vast challenges within the realm of the search for Quality of Life, but it focuses on personal narratives where Quality of Life has been supported, or is in the process of being supported, by means of agency, collective partnerships and collaboration. The chapter argues that these kaleidoscopes of hope, present important vehicles to understand the complexities of Quality of Life in African communities.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bruner, J. (2002). Making stories – Law, literature, life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Møller, V. (2013). South African quality of life trends over three decades, 1980–2010. Social Indicators Research, 113, 915–940.
Mpofu, E. (2016). The evolution of quality of life perspectives in the developing world. In R. L. Schalock & K. D. Keith (Eds.), Cross-cultural quality of life: Enhancing the lives of persons with intellectual disability (2nd ed., pp. 175–180). Washington, DC: American Association on Mental Retardation.
The Education Workforce Initiative. (2018). Accessed on: 29 Nov 2018. http://educationcommission.org/education-workforce-initiative/
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Eloff, I. (2019). Narratives of Quality of Life in Africa: A Kaleidoscope of Hope. In: Eloff, I. (eds) Handbook of Quality of Life in African Societies. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15367-0_24
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15367-0_24
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-15366-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-15367-0
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)