The Social Progress of Nations Revisited, 1970–2020 50 Years of Development Challenges and Accomplishments

This book presents a comprehensive view of the state of social progress worldwide over an entire 50-year period beginning 1970. It discusses original time-series research for the period 1970-2018 as well as contemporary trends in quality of life and well-being research for the period since 2018, and provides innovative research findings into the nature, history, and status of 160 of the world’s economically advanced and developing nations. Among the topics included are discussion of the worldwide development trends occurring with especially vulnerable population groups, such as children and youth, the elderly, women, persons with disabilities, sexual minorities, and economic migrants. Further, this book reports social indicator trends at four unit of analysis: individuals, nations, world regions, and for the world-as-a-whole.

Dr. Estes’ international activities have been extensive and have involved considerable field research in countries of special intererest to the investigator. Among other assignments, he has held visiting Professorships in Iran, Norway, and the People’s Republic of China, Morocco, South Korea, Hawaii, Japan, Mongolia, the Russian Federation, Belgium, Sweden, Mexico, Hong Kong and elsewhere. In the United States, Dr. Estes is founding President of the Philadelphia Area Chapter of the Society for Inter-national Development (SID). He is a former president of the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education (GADE), and is a former Chair of the Council on External Relations of the Global Commission of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). In 2004 he was elected President of the International Society For Quality of Life Studies (ISQOLS). Until 2010, Dr. Estes served as Chair of the graduate concentration in Social and Economic Development (SED) where he also directed the School’s international programs. 

Dr. Estes has been the recipient of many awards and grants for his research on international social work and comparative social development including two Fulbright-Hays Senior Research Awards (Iran, 1978 and Norway, 1979) and a Fulbright Scholar Award to Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea (1994). In 1992, he was elected “Social Worker of the Year” by the Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers for his international activities. In 1996 he received the Alumni Recognition Award from the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Social Work. In 1997 he was awarded the Distinguished Recent Contribution to Social Work Education Award by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), the International Rhoda G. Sarnat Award of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the “Best Article in Social Indicators Research Award" of the International Society of Quality of Life Studies (ISQOLS). In 2002 he was appointed Distinguished Visiting Scholar of United College of the Chinese University of Hong Kong where he served as an External Examiner for the University’s Department of Social Work until 2008. In 2005, the Global Commission of the Council on Social Work Education awarded Dr. Estes its Partner in International Education Award. In 2007, Dr. Estes received the Distinguished Quality of Life Research Award of the International Society for Quality of Life Studies (ISQOLS) and, during winter, 2012, he spent three months as University Distinguished Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and two weeks at Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.