Introduction
Marianne Heiberg
Parts of this chapter rely heavily on the work of FAFO colleagues Knud Knudsen
and Ole Fredrik Ugland.
Level of living conditions study, the organising concept
This report consists of the base line results of the first level of living
conditions study ever conducted among Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the
West Bank and Arab Jerusalem. It offers a panoramic view of the general
life situation of Palestinian men and women living in Israel's occupied
territories. Data was collected during a two month period in the summer
of 1992. A carefully selected representative sample of 2500 Palestinian
households were interviewed by some 100 specially trained Palestinian data
collectors.
In order to place the results presented in this report into perspective
it is critical to understand what is meant by a person's or group's "level
of living" or "living conditions". Previously the most commonly
accepted indicators of individual and social welfare have been economic
ones. Indicators such as personal income and gross national product per
capita, to mention a few, have been widely used partly due to the belief
by ordinary people and policy-makers alike that human welfare could in essence
be deduced from the relative economic prosperity of the society as a whole1.
The general policy implication of such an approach was, in consequence,
fairly straightforward. If increases in GNP per capita translated directly
or indirectly into the betterment of the human condition, then the emphasis
in development planning should focus almost exclusively on fostering national
economic growth, since growth would ultimately benefit everyone.
Over the last generation or so the primacy of economic indicators in the
measurement of individual welfare has diminished somewhat. While economic
growth is still viewed as essential to human welfare, it is by no means
seen as sufficient. Not only was the goal of sustained economic growth more
elusive than initially assumed, but the negative effects of economic growth,
such as pollution, intolerable urban congestion, social disintegration and
so forth, have become abundantly apparent. Very importantly, it also became
painfully evident that the benefits of growth could be very unevenly distributed,
with some sectors within a society profiting greatly while others experienced
a rapid deterioration of their life situation. Consequently, there emerged
a growing awareness of the need not only for corrective measures to compensate
for the negative side effects of the economy, but also of the need for statistically
valid instruments that could measure human welfare directly as well as a
given society's performance over time in providing such welfare.
In particular indicators were required in two critical areas, areas which
lie at the core of the level of living conditions survey. First, indicators
were needed to measure the degree of equality in important aspects of life
between individuals and groups in a society, indicators that revealed the
distribution of the benefits of economic growth within a society at a specific
period of time. The major concern was to evaluate whether differences between,
for instance, the rich and poor, between men and women, between urban and
rural residents with regard to health, education and access to economic
resources were increasing or decreasing. The consequent policy goal was
that development should be aimed at making substantial improvements in the
lives of the maximum numbers of individuals possible within a society.
The implication for a level of living conditions study was that such a study
should measure, describe and hopefully explain the variations and inequalities
within a society in a policy relevant manner.
The second area dealt with the concept of social mobility. The normative
and policy goal was that the social positions which individuals could attain
during the course of life should be largely independent of the social position
they inherit at birth. The core concern was equality of opportunity, the
possibility for individuals and groups to change their relative social position
over time.
Needless to say, the policy goal of equality, i.e. a relatively even distribution
of resources - and the goal of equality of opportunity, i.e. a relatively
equal access to those resources, such as education, a prerequisite for social
mobility - do not necessarily pull in the same direction2. A stress on the
latter to the exclusion of the former could imply, for instance, that disproportionate
amounts of resources are locked in the permanent control of the educated
and healthy to the extreme detriment of the uneducated and ill. Today social
planning requires an acute understanding of the delicate balance between
these two goals, a balance upon which there is little expert consensus.
However, the key conceptual question concerns what is meant by "welfare"
or "level of living". The British sociologist, Richard Titmus,
has defined "level of living" as:
".. the individual's command over resources in money, possessions,
knowledge, psychic and physical energy, social relations, security, etc.
by the help of which the individual can control and consciously direct his
conditions of life." 3
In short, an individual's level of living is defined not so much by the
economic goods he or she possesses, but by the ability of the individual
to exercise choice and to affect the course of his or her own life. Material
goods are important only to the extent they provide freedom for the individual
to determine his own actions. Even though the analysis of living conditions
is preoccupied with the possession of goods, the critical point is to explore
people's abilities to choose, to delineate the options that are not available
and the limits that restrain individual choice.4 As now internationally
understood, level of living studies are concerned with human capabilities
and how such capabilities are used. They try to examine the degree to which
people can participate in social, political and economic decision-making
and can work creatively and productively to shape their own futures.5
Human development and the ability to exercise control over one's own life
is a two-sided matter. The first is objective. The fundamental dimension
involves access to the resources required for 1) decent material living
standards, 2) protection of health and personal security and 3) acquisition
of knowledge.
The second is subjective. It relates to an individual's conviction that
he or she can participate as a full human being in a meaningful social life.
Thus, a full measurement of living conditions has to combine both the dimensions
necessary for human physical and psychological welfare and those required
for a sense of human empowerment, productivity and self-respect.
Since the level of welfare of a human being is determined by the total life
situation, a level of living conditions study aspires to provide a holistic,
comprehensive description. Such descriptions, of course, pose daunting theoretical
and technical problems. Thus, at best, any one survey can only yield an
approximate picture. However, the following items are viewed as vital to
any level of living study.
Demographics: The size and composition of a population is regarded as crucial
background information for a study of living conditions in a country. Population
growth as well as gender, age, religious, ethnic and family composition
constitute important dimensions in this respect.
Health: Often regarded as one of the most fundamental aspects of living
conditions, good health is a prerequisite for well-being, happiness and
general daily satisfaction.
Education: Education is seen as a critical resource enabling an individual
to become a full citizen in a modern, literate society. Crucial to personal
development and self-esteem, education is also viewed as personal resource
with the greatest potential impact on social mobility within a society.
Work, income and consumption: Participation in the work force, and the income
secured through it, is often decisive for self-esteem, social contact, a
sense of belonging as well as the individual's or household's economic well-being.
Housing: There are no standard norms as to what constitutes good housing,
but a dwelling is expected to provide for the reasonable comfort, privacy
and protection of the household which resides within it. The dwelling is
often an object of considerable emotional attachments since it can act as
a physical symbol of the family and its linkage to the wider community.6
In addition to these core social indicators, level of living studies might
also explore use of leisure time, social contact and sense of influence,
perceptions of social conflict, access to political resources as well as
religious attitudes. The exact combination of indicators will, of course,
vary according to the specific requirements of the study.
The Gaza, West Bank and Arab Jerusalem survey
This level of living conditions study of Palestinians is unique not only
in the comprehensive nature of the statistical findings it presents. Additionally,
it is the only level of living conditions study ever conducted among a people
living under occupation. The implications of this have a fundamental impact
on the major conceptual premise underlying such a study. The capacity of
an individual to execute control and to exercise meaningful choice over
his daily life is in many respects simply incompatible with the fact of
occupation. However, this is not a study of the occupation, nor indeed are
the effects of occupation on the lives of Palestinians explored in any systematic
way.
Nonetheless, for Palestinians the occupation forms a rigid frame within
which daily life is conducted and a critical perspective shaping all the
issues this report examines.
Although the literature on the occupied territories is large indeed, most
of it tends to deal with only one, albeit critical, aspect of the Palestinian
situation, the Palestinian-Israeli interface. In the post World War II period,
no other single conflict has commanded the same level of political, diplomatic
and intellectual attention. The amount of documentation, published and unpublished,
this attention has generated is truly staggering. Yet despite this, reliable
statistics on Palestinian society are relatively scarce. Reasonable statistics
relating to, for example, health, housing conditions, labour force participation,
the status of women or educational attainment, are limited. Statistics which
attempt to relate across these dimensions, say, for instance housing density
and psychological welfare, are almost non-existent.
This insufficiency of quantitatively reliable and representative information
on Palestinian society has a range of consequences. Two such consequences
are particularly significant for this study. First, each year international
organizations, like the Norwegian government which funded this survey, provide
millions of dollars in humanitarian and development assistance. Yet these
organizations operate under a critical disadvantage. To an important extent
they are forced to work arbitrarily on a hit or miss basis. Lacking comprehensive
information, they are unable to make priorities between development requirements
or to identify the groups in Palestinian society who are most deprived.
Where are the needs greatest? Should health care or educational services
be given preference? Should improvements in housing standards be given priority
over improvements in infrastructure? Who are in greatest need? Should refugees
living in camps or those refugees who live outside them be especially targeted
for assistance - and for what type of assistance? Are levels of deprivation
more marked in the north of the West Bank or the south? Is poverty more
pronounced in Gaza City or in the villages of the West Bank? In terms of
education or health, are refugee women in Gaza worse off than village women
in the West Bank? Without adequate information, these types of questions,
essential to development planning, cannot be answered. Consequently, resources
cannot be distributed and utilized in a rational, efficient manner.
Second, both Palestinians and Israelis hold firm views concerning the nature
of Palestinian realities, and these views are often diametrically different.
For example, Israeli official statistics state that unemployment in Gaza
is around 5 to 6%. UNRWA has suggested that the real figure is somewhere
around 60%. Some Palestinian figures for infant mortality are almost three
times higher than Israeli figures. The same disparity exists in almost all
other spheres, from Palestinian housing standards to political attitudes.
In fact, there is no agreement on how many Palestinians actually live in
the occupied territories. This gap in perceptions of reality stimulates
a war of images, a form of discourse whereby Israelis and Palestinians,
while trying to talk to each other, end up talking past each other, partly
because they have no shared view of the facts. The search for common ground
becomes almost intractably difficult when there is no agreement even on
what the ground looks like.
This survey has been undertaken to address both these dimensions. The specific
objectives of the survey are:
- To contribute needed, comprehensive, reliable statistical information
on the occupied territories. It should be noted that no official census
has been conducted since 1967 and surveys conducted subsequently have been
partial and generally viewed as inadequate.
- To be of assistance to governments and international organizations
in designing appropriate development and humanitarian aid programmes for
the region.
- To assist Palestinians in planning and measuring the course of their
own social and economic development.
The dimensions of living conditions surveyed are:
- Household composition & demographics
- Housing conditions & amenities
- Education
- Employment, work force & work histories
- Sources of income
- Capital goods, consumer durables & expenditures
- Savings & indebtedness
- Culture & leisure activities
- Health & psychological welfare
- Children & injury
- Political, religious & social attitudes
- Travel & mobility
- Gender relations
- Women's work load & types of work
- Women's control over resources & decision-making
- Women's attitudes to constraints & conventions
- Family planning
- Birth histories
The project was built up in three stages. Each stage was initiated only
after the successful completion of the preceding phase.
Stage I consisted of a preliminary investigation to establish whether or
not the political and professional parameters for successful project implementation
were present in an area which is both volatile and complex. This stage was
completed in July 1990.
Stage II consisted of a pilot survey of 300 households in Gaza. Preparation
for the pilot consisted of building a local research organization, developing
the questionnaire, designing procedures by which to draw a representative
sample of the Gaza population and, finally, recruiting, training and organizing
a Palestinian supervisor and data collector corps. The aim of the pilot
study was to provide a thorough trial run of the main instruments of research
as well as to test the competence of the data collectors and the adequacy
of the project's logistical capacities. The pilot study was completed successfully
in August 1991 and showed the need to make significant changes in many aspects
of the project design. Based on the results of the Gaza pilot most of the
questionnaire was modified, the sampling design was refined, improved training
programmes were instituted, SPSS data entry and logical rules and consistency
checks were revised, and FAFO's field organization was considerably reinforced.
Some eight months were required for the preparation of the main survey.
Stage III was the main survey of 1000 households in Gaza, 1000 in the West
Bank and 500 in Arab Jerusalem. Field work took approximately two months.
The final data base was available in November 1992. By that time all questionnaires
had been processed through an initial SPSS entry program which contained
some 500 logical rules and consistency checks and, subsequently, double-
punched to uncover errors that might have escaped the first data entry processing.
The final stage involved the analysis of the data base and the interpretation
of the statistical findings. It should be emphasized at the outset that,
since we here deal with sample data, some fluctuations due to sampling errors
will normally occur in all of the following analyses. Interested readers
should consult this book's appendix A, on sampling strategy, in addition
to appendices B and C.
Living conditions studies have for the most part been conducted in modern
Western societies although their use in developing countries is accelerating.
In the West, the analysis of results can usually be based on comprehensive
social models which contain the essential relationships and dynamics of
the societies involved. Thus survey results can be used to confirm, modify
or challenge pre-existing policies and/or models. To some extent such surveys
tread ground that already has been ploughed.
However, in this sense Palestinian society presents an exceptional analytical
challenge. The holistic models required for analysis have not so far been
developed and appropriate comparative data is difficult to obtain. Broadly
speaking, from a sociological view, a combination of four specific factors
are critical to an understanding of Palestinian living conditions in the
occupied territories and the forces of change and tension which affect and
are transforming them.
-
It is a society under prolonged occupation.
- A significant portion of Palestinians resident in the area are displaced
or refugees with the consequent disruption of traditional social structures.
- For over four years this society has experienced low intensity warfare,
the intifada.
- Culturally, Palestinian society is a integral part of Middle Eastern society.
Whereas parallels for any one of these factors could, perhaps, be easily
found elsewhere, it is the convergence of these central parameters that
bestows a distinctive quality upon Palestinian society.
The limitations of the present survey are similar to the limitations of
all surveys of this nature. On the practical side respondents were occasionally
unwilling to answer questions openly. On some of the economic variables,
some respondents under-reported their assets. On some of the attitudinal
questions, respondents at times concealed their true opinions and at times
failed to understand the question. Despite the two years used on its development,
the questionnaire still contained weaknesses which have hampered analysis
of some of the results.
On the more theoretical side comprehensive, statistical surveys can provide
a representative and comprehensive overview of a society, but the price
is often lack of analytical depth. Explanatory power and causal understandings
of certain social phenomena can often be better gained through prolonged
qualitative study rather than through quantitative methods, however sweeping
in scope.
This survey was also subject to another, more specific limitation. During
the three years the project lasted, the Middle East witnessed a major war,
as well as, in the wake of that war, the most promising attempt hitherto
to fashion peace in the region. In the occupied territories violence was
frequent and the population was subjected to a range of restrictions and
punitive measures including prolonged periods of curfew. Although its initial
fury had dimmed, the resistance, sacrifice and discipline of the intifada
had become institutionalized in daily life. The problems of conducting a
large scale project in such a highly strained and unpredictable environment
are obvious. Moreover, the fears, anger and suspicions that are inherent
in these circumstances could well have coloured the way the survey was perceived
as well as how the more sensitive parts of the survey questionnaire were
answered.
Despite these limitations, however, it is hoped that the analysis this report
contains will contribute new and useful insights into Palestinian society,
into its vulnerabilities and strengths, its constraints and opportunities
and into the concerns and aspirations of its people.
The various analyses in this report underline important and critical aspects
of the situation of Palestinians in the occupied territories.
Typically, the chapter on Population (Chapter 2) shows that although child
mortality still is relatively high, a general improvement has occurred during
the last decades. The proportion of very young Palestinians is presently
large indeed. This fact, together with expected future fertility levels,
give rise to dramatic projections for the population size in the next twenty
years.
There are great variations between the main regions in daily living conditions,
indoors and outdoors, as demonstrated in Chapter 3 on Housing. Gazans, particularly
in camps, score on average low on indicators for, e.g., housing and infrastructure.
People on the West Bank, and especially in Arab Jerusalem, are often better
off, a pattern illustrated also in Chapters 6, 7 and 10 on Economy, Employment
and Women respectively. However, results of services by UNWRA and similar
organizations are demonstrated by findings in Chapter 4 (on Health) and
Chapter 5 (on Education). Efforts on a broad scale over time seem to have
reduced otherwise substantial inequalities.
It is an interesting finding that Gazans, especially in camps, despite their
low score on several objective living condition components, still often
look at their situation in more positive terms than people in the other
regions ( see chapter 4 on Health, Chapter 8 on Social Stratification and
Chapter 9 on Attitudes). A possible interpretation of this pattern could
be that the more direct and intense experience of external conflict prevalent
there may strengthen feelings of shared values and common purpose.
Findings and interpretations in this report like those just summarized,
are manifold and sometimes, by necessity, complex. They should therefore
be read in the proper context, i.e. in the very chapters they are presented.
As an introductory background for an understanding of the following survey
results, a general description of Palestinian Society is given in the first
chapter (Chapter 1). Each subsequent chapter concentrates on specific level
of living components.
Notes
1 Gudmund Hernes and Knud Knudsen, Lithuania: Living Conditions Oslo: FAFO
Report, 1991 p.156.
2 Hernes and Knudsen, op cit, p.157-8.
3 Richard A. Titmus, Essays on the Welfare State, London: Allen and Unwin,
1958.
4 Ole Fredrik Ugland, unpublished FAFO memo, August 1992.
5 UNDP, Human Development Report 1992, New York and Oxford: Oxford University
Press p.12.
6 Ole Fredrik Ugland, op.cit.
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