sustainability Article Sustainable Quality of Life: A Conceptualization That Integrates the Views of Inhabitants of Swiss Rural Regions Thea Xenia Wiesli 1,2, * , Ulf Liebe 3 , Thomas Hammer 1 and Roger Bär 1   Citation: Wiesli, T.X.; Liebe, U.; Hammer, T.; Bär, R. Sustainable Quality of Life: A Conceptualization That Integrates the Views of Inhabitants of Swiss Rural Regions. Sustainability 2021, 13, 9187. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su13169187 Academic Editor: Stephen Morse Received: 30 July 2021 Accepted: 4 August 2021 Published: 16 August 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Centre for Development and Environment CDE, University of Bern, Mittelstrasse 43, 3012 Bern, Switzerland; thomas.hammer@unibe.ch (T.H.); roger.baer@unibe.ch (R.B.) 2 Institute of Sociology, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, 3012 Bern, Switzerland 3 Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, Social Sciences Building, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK; ulf.liebe@warwick.ac.uk * Correspondence: thea.wiesli@unibe.ch Abstract: In most socioeconomically wealthy countries, a high quality of life is associated with a high consumption of natural resources. It is, therefore, essential to define what constitutes sustainable quality of life—that is, quality of life that is simultaneously high as well as ecologically and socially sustainable. This issue was addressed in a study on the promotion of sustainable quality of life in rural regions of Switzerland. We interviewed 90 people with the intention of developing a concept of sustainable quality of life. The concept that emerged from our research consists of nine components: social relations and equality; nature and landscape; education and knowledge; participation, identification, and collective emotions; living; mobility; health and safety; leisure and recreation; and income and employment. Each component is formulated in an integrated way, combining social, environmental, and personal aspects. The concept provides a basis for managing regional development and promoting sustainable quality of life in rural areas. In this regard, we propose starting points in the areas of social relations and equality, nature and landscape, and education and knowledge. Keywords: quality of life; well-being; sustainability; rural regions; regional development; Switzerland; Europe 1. Introduction Among the countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Switzerland offers above-average quality of life (QoL) [1]. However, Switzerland’s high QoL comes with a high level of resource usage that contributes to global environmental problems. According to the Global Footprint Network, Switzerland’s ecological footprint is more than four-and-a-half times as high as its biocapacity [2]. Many other wealthy countries exceed the planetary boundaries (downscaled to country level) by two to six times [3]. Recent studies have found that lower resource usage does not automatically reduce QoL [3–5]. In fact, Ambrey and Daniels found that a higher carbon footprint can even be associated with lower levels of well-being [6]. For example, a high carbon footprint can lead to negative emotions such as guilt, whereas a sustainable lifestyle can offset such feelings [6]. Furthermore, Verhofstadt et al. [5] found that a sustainable lifestyle can create win-win situations: for example, purchasing local food has positive effects on both health and environmental protection. These results suggest that reconciling high QoL with sustainability is not impossible. The debate on how to reconcile high QoL with sustainable development began some time ago (e.g., with Boersema [7], Collados and Duane [8], or Levett [9]). Meanwhile, related concepts, such as well-being, have become important in inter- and transdisciplinary discussions on sustainable development [10,11]. The Sustainable Development Solutions Network and the OECD intensified the discussion on alternative measures of prosperity under the heading of well-being; they have annually published World Happiness Reports Sustainability 2021, 13, 9187. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13169187 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability