Inquiry Question
- What makes human wellbeing a geographical issue?
- How can the spatial variations in human wellbeing and development be measured and explained?
- What are the economic, social and environmental impacts of variations in development and human wellbeing?
- How do governments, groups and individuals respond to inequalities in development and human wellbeing for a sustainable future?
Most human rights violations occur to women, children, indigenous peoples and refugees. There are numerous stories of children who have become slaves through no choice of their own. These repeated violations have led to the United Nations establishing the 'Convention on the rights of the child' act in 1989. This document states that children have the right to:
One organisation working to improve the lives of children includes Amnesty International, a worldwide organisation operating in 151 countries and serving 2.2 million people. One of their aims is to reduce human rights abuses by placing pressure on governments and companies via public campaigning, raising awareness and email petitions.
- Freely develop their spirituality
- Important access to good food, housing and medical services
- Love and understanding from family members but from the government where this is not possible
- Attend school for free
- Be protected against exploitation and cruel acts
One organisation working to improve the lives of children includes Amnesty International, a worldwide organisation operating in 151 countries and serving 2.2 million people. One of their aims is to reduce human rights abuses by placing pressure on governments and companies via public campaigning, raising awareness and email petitions.
Key terms from the Syllabus
Use this link to define key terms relevant to this topic. The underlined words are a link. Click it to see the definitions. Write them down in your book.
Key terms:
Human Wellbeing, Development, Spatial Variations, Cultural Groups,
Key terms:
Human Wellbeing, Development, Spatial Variations, Cultural Groups,
'Geographies of human wellbeing’ focuses on investigating global, national and local differences in human wellbeing between places. This unit examines the different concepts and measures of human wellbeing, and the causes of global differences in these measures between countries. Students explore spatial differences in wellbeing within and between countries, and evaluate the differences from a variety of perspectives. They explore programs designed to reduce the gap between differences in wellbeing. These distinctive aspects of human wellbeing are investigated using studies drawn from Australia, India and across the world as appropriate.'
Source: Australian Curriculum
Human Wellbeing and Development
What do you believe is going to make you happy?
Make a list of them.
Make a list of them.
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Figure 1: What makes a person happy?
Watch Figure 1, above. Which indicators of wellbeing can you relate to? Which can you not?
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Figure 2: The cost of materialism
Write down 3 things that you think about the video below on the High Price of Materialism.
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Minimalism
Mapping Wellbeing
Complete the Country Cards Task. In this task we will construct our own version of the human development index (HDI). We will rank three indicators for a select number of countries around the world. Using the laminated cards, stick them to the board in the appropriate category where they rank from 1 to 5. Then write down the number on your recording table next to each country. Repeat this process for another two development indicators. Then simply tally your three numbers and put them in the total column. Then work out an average to each country. Record this down as well. Once this is complete, construct a Choropleth map to show the results in your average column. Then compare map to this one.
Spatial Variations in Wellbeing
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Human Wellbeing can be measured in other ways
In the past, human development indicators have been relied upon to measure the development of countries. They have been used to establish how well countries are going. However, they do not always indicate the wellbeing of people. As a result, individuals and organisations have sought to use other methods to measure the wellbeing of people. Here is one example:
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The Better Life Index
The better life index was developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It attempts to measure and compare the well-being of 35 OECD member countries. The index applies rankings to 11 social factors such as education, housing, environment and others. Visit the Better Life Index website. The 11 social factors can be found on the right hand side of the page. Write these down in your book in the order in which you believe they rank from most importance to least important.
The better life index was developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It attempts to measure and compare the well-being of 35 OECD member countries. The index applies rankings to 11 social factors such as education, housing, environment and others. Visit the Better Life Index website. The 11 social factors can be found on the right hand side of the page. Write these down in your book in the order in which you believe they rank from most importance to least important.
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Now look at the flowers. Each flower represents one of the 35 countries listed in this index. Each flower has 11 petals. Each petal represents one of the 11 social factors and the length of the petal indicates the score that countries received for each social factor. We can manipulate the shape of the petal by moving the slider for each of the 11 social factors found on the right hand side of the page. If you are confused, check this out.
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Now… using the better life index, we are going to manipulate the social factors to evaluate the well-being of people in selected countries.
Income
Safety
Health
Education
Work life balance
On the better life index website, use the countries and topics tabs at the top to gather information on Australia and one other country. You may also like to use data from the Gapminder website to help compare Australia to your chosen OECD country. As you gather your information, keep in mind that you will respond to the following question.
Compare and contrast human well-being between Australia and one other country.
You’ll need to focus on 3 to 4 social factors listed on the better life index website and just compare those. Also consider other factors in your response such as geographic location, access to resources, previous turmoil in the country’s history, geopolitical ties and global alliances to help account for the differences and similarities between your two chosen countries.
- Record the name of the country with the highest ranking in the following areas.
Income
Safety
Health
- Recall the name of the country with a lowest ranking for the following areas.
- Housing
Education
Work life balance
On the better life index website, use the countries and topics tabs at the top to gather information on Australia and one other country. You may also like to use data from the Gapminder website to help compare Australia to your chosen OECD country. As you gather your information, keep in mind that you will respond to the following question.
Compare and contrast human well-being between Australia and one other country.
You’ll need to focus on 3 to 4 social factors listed on the better life index website and just compare those. Also consider other factors in your response such as geographic location, access to resources, previous turmoil in the country’s history, geopolitical ties and global alliances to help account for the differences and similarities between your two chosen countries.
The Happiness Index
What makes a person happy? Is it engaging in enjoyable activities? Gaining pleasure from our activities, like attending a party? Many argue that these feelings are more important than a large bank account.
The 21st century individual has developed characteristics of selfishness, entitlement and consumption with the purchasing of useless goods to compete with friends and neighbours. Those who lose the competition develop emotional stresses such as anxiety and unhappiness. Happiness is difficult to measure as each person's interpretation of what makes them happy varies across the world. The common saying that 'money does not buy happiness' is an interesting debate, but there is no doubt that money improves the quality of life for many individuals. Wealth improves quality of life but it only applies up to a point. The degree to which wealth leads to happiness diminishes once a certain threshold is reached. Ultra happiness appears to have little relationship with wealth. For example, a number of countries including the United Kingdom recorded happier levels in 1950s, despite their income and wealth increasing three times over since then. The satisfaction life index surveys individuals on their own sense of happiness and satisfaction with life. The survey takes into account social and economic factors and has shown that life satisfaction has a very strong relationship with health, wealth and access to basic education. The happy planet index is an index aimed at measuring how happy and long people‘s lives are. It incorporates an ecological footprint, life satisfaction and life expectancy to identify individuals happiness levels. According to the happy planet index, nine of the 10 top scoring countries were developing countries in Latin America, with Costa Rica often topping index. One must remember though, that ecological sustainability is an important inclusion in the happiness index which likely accounts for so many developing countries ranking well due to their low carbon output. |
The Happiness Index (mapped). Picture is a link FYI. The highest-ranked countries are bright green; the lowest is brown.
The Satifaction with Life Index (Mapped). Picture is a link FYI.
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Slavery and Child Soldiers: The struggle for Wellbeing
It’s easy to assume we all have access to food, drinking cleanwater, and having the ability to read and write what you think. But this is not the case equally around the world. The world press freedom index attempts (to the right) 👉 to measure freedom of speech and information. Finland, Norway and the Netherlands were at the top of the list on this index. Eritrea and North Korea found themselves at the bottom of the list. Also near the bottom was China who closely censors it’s journalists and those who threaten their cyber security.
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Freedom of the Press Index, 2021. Picture is a link, click it.
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Although everyone, everywhere has rights, these headlines indicate, that even in
the modern world, human rights are not accessable to everyone. |
The universal declaration of human rights, written in 1948, states that all people no matter what age, sex, colour or religion, or where they live have the same basic rights. This includes access to food, water, shelter, education and health care amongst other rights. Despite these human rights, violations occur more frequently than you think as people regularly disappear due to torture and starvation. Even today, as the image below shows, millions of people are forced to work as slaves in parts of West Africa and Asia for their survival. The result of this impacts on individuals human well-being. For example:
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- Why might freedom of speech be an indicator of human wellbeing?
- Go to the Freedom of Press Index by clicking the picture.
Human Wellbeing in Australia
Focus Questions:
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Australia's Population Clock. Click the Image! |
Read the article and respond to the questions below.
Questions
- Use google maps to identify the location of places listed in the top 10 advantaged locations in Australia. Are areas of advantage located in more rural or urban areas?
- Use google maps to identify the location of places listed in the top 10 disadvantaged locations in Australia. Are areas of disadvantage located in more rural or urban areas?
- Create a graph to show the states where the most advantaged and disadvantaged locations are. Use two different colours for advantaged and disadvantaged.
- What can governments do to reduce the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged locations?
Homelessness in Australia
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Homelessness is a growing phenomenan in Australia. Although women experience homelessness for reasons such as domestic violence, there are more men experiencing homelessness in Australia. Another pattern that can be noted is that most homeless people are under the age of 25. Many struggle to find employment and shelter, and have poor social support networks to receive help.
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Our understandings of what homelessness is can be misunderstood. Being homeless comes in many forms. Most common homelessness involves staying in overcrowded dwellings where space is limited often to a bed in a shared dormitory room, or moving between insecure dwellings constantly. This lifestyle is unsafe and lacks longer term security.
Homelessness is caused by a complex set of factors. Most common, are domestic violence and unaffordable housing. Other factors can include mental health issues, family breakdown, debt, leaving state prison and poverty.
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