Alleviating World Suffering: The Challenge of Negative Quality of Life (Social Indicators Research Series, 67)

This is the first volume on the subject of the alleviation of world suffering. At the same time it is also the first book framing the fields of global socio-economic development, world health, human rights, peace studies, sustainability, and poverty within the challenge of alleviating suffering and improving quality of life. Both international studies and global development have become specialized and fragmented, whereas this work assembles all of these development fragments together in order to determine whether common ground exists to make headway in reducing global suffering. Leading experts in these various fields of development and suffering have been recruited worldwide to give scholarly assessments of the major human problems and how they can be successfully tackled. Front Matter....Pages i-xx Front Matter....Pages 1-1 A Worldview of the Alleviation of Suffering....Pages 3-34 Systemic Humiliation as Daily Social Suffering....Pages 35-48 Suffering and the Ethics of Solidarity....Pages 49-60 Social Suffering and the Enigma of Humanitarianism....Pages 61-71 Synergy, Dysergy and the Alleviation of Preventable Suffering....Pages 73-83 Front Matter....Pages 85-85 Distinguishing Indicators of Well-Being from Indicators of Ill-Being....Pages 87-107 Alleviating Mental Suffering in Rural Bangladesh: Evidence from a Survey of Three Villages....Pages 109-129 Emotions, the Inner Lives of Those Who Work Toward Suffering Relief....Pages 131-145 Altruistic Values of Self and In-Groups and Implications for Suffering Alleviation....Pages 147-164 Grief Therapy as Intervening in Meaning: Principles and Practices....Pages 165-179 Why People Might Be Reluctant to Alleviate the Suffering of Others....Pages 181-195 Front Matter....Pages 197-197 Addressing the Structural Causes of World Suffering....Pages 199-215 Refugees and Citizens on the Margins: Sufferings Recognized, Sufferings Denied....Pages 217-232 Dignity and Rule of Law: Governance and the Alleviation of Social Suffering....Pages 233-248 Dysfunctional Population Growth: The Links to Human Suffering....Pages 249-265 Reproductive Health and Justice in Alleviating World Suffering....Pages 267-287 Front Matter....Pages 289-289 Suffering During the Holocaust and Heroic Rescuers....Pages 291-301 Digitized Suffering, Actual Healing: Empathy, Reconciliation, and Redress Through a Virtual Indian Residential School....Pages 303-317 Women and Genocide: Ending Impunity for Sexual Violence....Pages 319-334 Support Programs for Male Survivors of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence....Pages 335-347 Front Matter....Pages 289-289 Success in Reducing Female Genital Cutting: A Multilevel Framework of Social Change....Pages 349-360 International Criminal Law as One Response to World Suffering: General Observations and the Case of Darfur....Pages 361-373 The Commercial and Non-commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in North America: Canada, Mexico and the United States....Pages 375-394 Front Matter....Pages 395-395 Socializing Students in Higher Education to Alleviate Human Suffering Among the Homeless....Pages 397-410 Existential Suffering in the Social Context of Cancer Risk....Pages 411-422 Exploring Caring Economies and Alleviating Suffering....Pages 423-430 Well-Being, Future Generations, and Prevention of Suffering from Climate Change....Pages 431-448