Measuring Social Progress on Urban Aboriginal People: Construction and Application of a Composite Index of Quality of Life

As Aboriginal people increasingly migrate to urban areas, it has become imperative to promote their socioeconomic engagement in the destinations. While there has been increasing research focuses on Aboriginal peoples’ quality of life (QoL) few studies explicitly measure Aboriginal people’s QoL based on a shared understanding of what QoL really means to Indigenous peoples and the government. Consequently, a meaningful conversation between the parties has not occurred to make a substantial improvement to the current status quo. Therefore, there is a need for measures of QoL that are robust, inclusive, and comparable over time and space to bridge the knowledge gap. This research project proposes to examine urban Aboriginal population’s QoL in Saskatoon by developing a composite QoL index, which is primarily based on their traditional values and beliefs, to identify common trends across individual indicators while benchmarking the overall performance of Aboriginal people. The application of the QoL index helps municipal governments develop strategies to address Aboriginal peoples’ needs but also brings new market opportunities for the industrial partner to expand its business while contributing to the improvement of the lives of urban Aboriginal peoples.

Faculty Supervisor:

Ken Coates

Student:

Yuzhu Liu

Partner:

Happy Life Wealth Management Inc.

Discipline:

Public administration

Sector:

Aboriginal affairs

University:

Program:

Elevate

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