Quality of Life and human isolation : the case of Rural area of Puglia

The present research explores the socio-economic problems arising in a typical peripheral rural area - the Wide Area of Daunian Mountains (WADM)- in Southern Italy in order to analyse the concept of ‘well being’ through the analysis of the ‘quality of life’. For these purposes, we will develop an ‘Index of Human Isolation’ (UNDP, 1997), in order to take into account the multiple dimensions of isolation, that is a constant characteristic of rural areas, particularly the inter-generational, socio-structural, and geographical ones. This index will be employed to analyse the relationship between a set of variables representing the main economic, structural and social aspects of the area and the dynamics of the Value Added. The expected results are twofold; (a) the creation of VA should be decreasing at high levels of IHI; (b) the implementation of social-assistance network may actively contribute to the reduction of isolation. JEL Classification: D63, D64, D60, Q10