Ricerc@Sapienza

In recent years, sustainable development has become one of the main issues of scientific and institutional debate. The literature on this concept is wide and often presents conflicting positions. This leads to considering sustainable development as a contested concept. The growing interest and importance of this topic has also led to an increasing focus on the aspect of its measurement. Dealing with the measurement of complex phenomena, like sustainable development, means dealing with synthesis.

The official Italian well-being measuring system (“Equitable and Sustainable Well-being— BES”) is probably the worldwide most advanced attempt to pursue the beyond GDP perspective effectively. In it, well-being is described in terms of 12 domains and a complex multi-indicator system of around 130 indicators, drawn mainly from Istat (official Italian statistical bureau) surveys and administrative archives. In order to get a more synthetic view of well-being, in the last four BES reports Istat employed aggregative procedures providing composite indicators for each well-being domain.