Social Reporting in the 1970s and in the 1990s

In this paper I give an account of the major welfare conceptsand social reporting concepts of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Inconclusion I discuss possibilities and limits of social reporting today.Quality of life and qualitative growth were the welfare programs of the1970s. The next decade saw a trend to individualization, subjectivewell-being and plurality of life styles. In the last decade the qualityof society once more came into the forefront in concepts likesustainable development, human development and social capital. From thefar-reaching program of the “social indicators movement” socialreports are the most visible results in many countries whereas ambitiousplans like national goals accounting failed. In the 1980s we watched akind of “dissolution by diffusion” and in the 1990s a revival inseveral fields. Overall, the monitoring and enlightenment function stillis the most important contribution of social reporting but today on ahigher level of data, methods and international comparisons.