Subjective Social Indicators and Urban Social Policy

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Abstract
Social indicators are now an important component of policy making at all scales. Conventional, ‘objective’ indicators are persistently hampered, however, by problems connected with weighting and synthesizing data. Subjective indicators, based on measures of people’s hopes, frustrations, satisfactions and sense of well-being, offer a potentially more sensitive yardstick of personal and community well-being. This note seeks to clarify the issues, problems and potential associated with the use of such indicators in the context of urban and regional planning, with particular emphasis on the extent to which the information conveyed by subjective indicators may either complement or duplicate information derived from conventional indicators. The nature of subjective indicators is outlined, and the case for using subjective indicators in formulating urban social policy is presented. Their use in studies of urban welfare is reviewed, and an evaluation is given of the practical problems involved in using subjective indicators.

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