**5. New criteria for the study of quality of life: social baseline—a tool for the defense of the common**

As we have seen, today there are various aspects of quality of life; it appears necessary to us to create an instrument with which these aspects can be analyzed and the quality of life of individuals protected amid interventions such as the development of projects. Taking international experiences into account, the social baseline can be understood as a tool that allows a deep assessment of the community affected by an intervention and encompasses the set of factors and dimensions that make up and shape quality of life [1]. A project should not worsen current qualityof-life conditions, as it tends to occur. Rather, it should improve the living conditions of the community, which rarely happens. It is known that in general every project or intervention alters social life. It can do so positively or negatively, and the alterations can be of very diverse sorts. They depend on personal perceptions, which must be considered and respected. Perceptions can be studied and measured with scientific precision.

Social baseline means being aware of and understanding the system that makes up individual quality of life, spanning the productive, social, cultural, and interpersonal aspects of the community ([1], p. 25). It does not mean, as it often occurs in Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), that only some general socioeconomic characteristics are described in order to subsequently deduce possible social impacts, which the consultants responsible for the sociocultural studies tend to minimize ([1], p. 25). Only deep knowledge of the human habitat in all its systemic complexity and interdependence with the nature that surrounds it allows the projected social impacts of an energy megaproject or other such development on the human community to be analyzed.

In an investigation that we carried out in Patagonia related to the possible impact of the HidroAysen megaproject on community values, we were able to establish that in the Cochrane community, for example, one of the main fears regarding the project was that the arrival of outside workers, without families, would disrupt the good customs, values, and traditions of the community ([1], p. 25). The construction of dams, according to the people of Cochrane, would bring money, prostitution, corruption, and crime, which would affect their community life based on trust, respect, and neighborliness. Trust is a fundamental value that has been present throughout the difficult history of the settlement and (isolated) subsistence of the Aysén Region. It has allowed the formation of social networks and friendships and the organization of communities based on solidarity and mutual support, indispensable values in geographic regions isolated from the rest of the country and, in a sense, abandoned by the government, as has been the case with the Chilean Patagonia, as various investigations have shown [1].

As EIAs discuss the baseline of the natural system, a *social baseline* that describes the impacts that implementation of a project would have on the basic makeup of neighboring communities, taking into account the various aspects of quality of life, should also be considered. Indeed, a community has history, organization, culture, traditions, social practices, modes of action and interaction, norms and values that regulate it, and desires and aspirations to improve individual and collective living conditions. Society, furthermore, is not a mere statistical data point, but rather a dynamic, changing reality

*Quality of Life - Biopsychosocial Perspectives*

edly improve quality of life.

quality of life.

levels of unemployment and loss of centeredness and work meaning. Workdays have lengthened, and prevailing poverty means that more than one job is required. Most of the population cannot sustain itself on flexible and precarious work. As André Gorz expresses it well, "We are leaving work-based society behind without replacing it by any other form. Each of us is aware, emotionally and intellectually, that we are potentially unemployed, potentially under-employed, potentially insecure or temporary workers, potential 'part-timers" [13]. Work has become a "scarce" good, necessitating a rethinking of it. A new concept of work is required, redefining it as, for example, community and environmental activities of social value and meaning that undoubt-

Another important aspect related to quality of life, which has not been taken into consideration in traditional theory, is the human need for landscapes and green areas. Studies carried out by Jorge Rojas [14] between 2001 and 2003 demonstrate the importance of the landscape—a fundamental element in the organization and sustenance of the daily lives of citizens—in quality of life. Our sense of belongingness to the nature manifests itself in our desire to return to it, in some manner of attraction to the natural landscape. This is also influenced by the worldviews of indigenous peoples of Latin America. The close relationships between indigenous communities and their territories and landscapes have influenced the rest of the Latin American society. Thus, we deem the need for landscapes and their relationships with individuals important to mention as a central aspect of

Nonetheless, poor people generally lack quality landscapes and green areas. They live not only in crowded conditions but also amid rough, degraded, polluted, barren, and dirty landscapes. Poor landscapes make people sick, depress them, and infect them with their vulnerability. Therefore, every human needs a territory in which to settle, put down roots, create a story, reproduce, and build hopes. Where the social groups that inhabit it, through social practices and the set of social relationships in the territory, take ownership of the space, making it part of their identity and uniqueness [15], in this space, there is a confluence of the basic elements of the social identity of the community and the historical elements of the common past and the community's worldview. However, in Latin America there have been severe externalities, negatively affecting natural systems, territories, landscapes, and quality of life. Even so, in most Latin American countries, there is enough space to allow each person, family, and community access to adequate

*Citizen participation* is another substantial factor in individual quality of life and modern society, as in the current modern society those who do not participate remain on the margins of life and events and ultimately the margins of society. From a quality-of-life perspective, participation cannot be limited—as it is often understood in our countries—to the mere act of keeping informed of the decisions that will change some important aspect of our daily existence (whether a megaproject, a constitutional change, an educational reform, the installation of a dump near a residential area, etc.). Participation in a modern sense entails citizen involvement, the ability of people (individually and collectively) to decide and influence the social, political, and cultural matters that will affect and shape life in the society. This means broadening and deepening democracy, respecting the people and cultural diversity, and strengthening regions and social organizations. We are still far from establishing a fully democratic system that allows and ensures citizen participation. Elections are a minimum modality of democracy. In developed countries, there has recently been discussion on the "democratization of democracy" [16], a concept that indicates structural and paradigm changes regarding the components

territorial sustenance, thereby improving quality of life.

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in a continuous process of transformation that must be taken into account if a foreign body is to be added to its history, landscape, and daily life [1].

A social baseline in a study should include the following aspects or indicators ([1], p. 26):


These criteria are relatively broad and not intended to be the only criteria or exclude others that could eventually be added or integrated, but they are basic and necessary to consider in a social baseline ([1], p. 26). However, they can be hierarchized, establishing which of them could be more important in a given study. As a structuring perspective, the hierarchization must consider the commons, all that which from an ontological perspective makes up the socionatural and cultural foundation that sustains human life. There are already data on some aspects and indicators in the public system such as the Human Development Index or Gini index, as well as data on infrastructure, access to basic services, employment and unemployment, and age structure of the population ([1], p. 27). But quantitative and qualitative studies must be done in order to obtain other information, for example, to measure quality of life, spatial segregation, and levels of territorial inequity regarding interregional human load, identity, and sense of belongingness.

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*Quality of Life from the South, Local Knowledge, Socio-Ecological Relationships, and Citizen…*

**6. Distributive territorial transregional justice and improvement of** 

Territories are made up of ecosystems of various natures and levels of vulnerability, with given productive potentials, ecosystem capacities, and abilities to assimilate human activities. Therefore, it is unfair for some regions to be repeatedly loaded by environmental and social externalities to the point of saturation or existential collapse, worsening the quality of life of their inhabitants [1]. Regions or towns are frequently overloaded due to their comparative advantages in terms of natural resources (rivers, for instance) and levels of poverty and social exploitation, with little capacity for action or negotiation with businesses or public institutions. There are many examples: the *HidroAysen* project in Chile, hydroelectric projects and deforestation in the Amazon, and mining projects in Mexico and Peru, among others. In general, the local community becomes "enchanted" by job creation and promises to install a cutting-edge technology. But the promises tend to fade over time, with the local community left bearing new externalities added to its already

Transregional justice means weighing the cost-benefit perception of the entire region, with specific focus on quality of life ([1], p. 14). Often there is a perception that "only other regions or the producer or distributor will benefit" or that a region will be harmed by a polluting project that was not accepted by another region. For example, the groups that criticized *HidroAysen* rightly argued that the ecosystems of the Patagonia would be affected and that the electricity would be produced especially to meet the energy demands of mining operations in the North of the country [1]. Therefore, transregional justice should be a fundamental criterion for assessing an investment project with territorial and social impacts. In other words, a balance among regions must be fostered, avoiding overloading one region or town with environmental or social liabilities, in order to maintain quality of life levels in all regions. It means seeing to an equitable distribution of benefits and liabilities and supporting

the most economically and socially depressed communities with benefits.

For Sergio Boisier, a territorial planning expert, development requires the deployment of the endogenic planning capacities of a territory: "First, endogeny means a growing capacity for autonomy for the territory to make its own development choices, choosing, for example, a style consistent with its traditions or culture, or simply a collectively 'invented' mode of development. This growing autonomy is completely inseparable from a similarly growing decentralization process, which leads to the conclusion that well-understood development is necessarily decentralized." ([18], p. 102). Boisier defines four planes that must be articulated and strengthened as a condition of endogenous development. The second plane refers to the "growing capacity of the territory to appropriate a portion of the economic surplus generated there for local reinvestment" in order to ensure sustainable development and diversify the material base of the territory, making it less vulnerable to economic fluctuations [18]. The third plane "means that the territory must have a capacity for generating innovations that cause structural changes therein, not only an increase in scale. This assumes the existence of a local science and technology system…" The fourth plane "means the existence of a territorial culture that generates an identity that connects

So-called procedural justice must be incorporated into transnational justice. There are often inconsistencies between different levels of regulations. In Latin America, in Chile, for example, it may—and does—happen that a project is rejected by a regional agency and approved by a national one [1]. This occurs due to the prevailing centralism. Centralism in decision-making impedes more independent and

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88953*

**quality of life: human love and understanding**

diminished quality of life and deteriorated environment.

the collective being to the territory" ([18], pp. 102, 103).
