GCRO researcher attends ISQOLS Summer School

The International Society for Quality of Life Studies (ISQOLS) held its inaugural Summer School from 5 to 9 September 2026 at the University of Siena, Italy.

The Summer School was organized by ISQOLS and WISER (Wellbeing In Sustainable Economies Revised), a major EU Horizon-funded project involving nearly 30 international partners working on sustainable well-being and societal progress. The Summer School offered a unique opportunity to learn from leading scholars, receive personalized feedback on research, and strengthen an international network of researchers who do research in quality of life and aspects related to economics.

The Summer School brought together students and lecturers from all over the world for an incredibly valuable time together. GCRO researcher Christian Hamann was one of 15 students from 14 countries who participated in the Summer School. Students and lecturers came from Italy, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, Thailand, Mexico, Albania, Benin, Türkiye, Algeria, Sweden, Poland, Ghana, and Ireland.

During the Summer School, students learned about qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse quality of life and subjective well-being. Students also gained insight into the results from leading scholars. Lectures covered topics such as defensive growth; how economic growth impacts well-being; the measurement challenges in subjective well-being research; micro-macro simulation fundamentals for sustainable well-being; qualitative & place-based approaches in urban quality of life research; ways to measure societal progress; the relationship between productivity and well-being; the relationship between social capital and well-being; and how to measure well-being efficiency and productivity.

Overall, the opportunity to participate in the Summer School was encouraging and enlightening. It laid the foundation for new analysis of GCRO's own data, for networks to grow and for research partnerships to be established.