The Practical Significance of Social Information

Abstract

The need for social information is generally recognized, but actual information available is scarce and a great effort and a long time are required to make it complete. Two practical questions therefore arise: What kind of information on social matters is most urgently required, and why? This article tries to give answers to those questions. There are also two important problems in development which cannot be tackled in a satisfactory way without adequate social information: (1) meaningful assessment of development results, and (2) giving social content to development planning. The common practice of using economic variables for these purposes only confuses the issues. There is an urgent need to elaborate social indicators to be used instead. They fall into four classes: (1) indicators for the flow of welfare (level of living) ; (2) indicators for the state of welfare; (3) indicators for the welfare effect; and (4) indicators for the productivity effects of social factors. Out of these four classes it is the level-of-living indicators which are the crucial ones and, therefore, the methodology of their instruction is discussed in some detail—problems of quantification, scaling, allowing for distribution, and making them a part of a coherent system. A tentative list of level-of-living indicators is presented in conclusion.