Well-Being and Beyond: Broadening the Public and Policy Discourse (New Horizons in Management series)

' Seldom is a work of non-fiction so essential to such a wide audience. The concept of well-being has been an elusive dream of humanity for centuries. It is spoken of in national vision statements and the dreams of poets. This book is the most concrete exploration to date of not only what well-being can mean to the individual but also what policy cast in a context of well-being can mean for the private sector as well as the state. As this compilation of the wisdom of global experts in the field details how well-being can be attained in a host of settings, it is compulsory reading for not only corporate and political leaders but also for the individual who seeks well-being as a personal quest. ' - Professor Charles Hopkins, UNESCO Chair in Reorienting Teacher Education, York University, Canada ' I strongly advise you to read this book. In 1934, Professor Simon Kuznets said of the modern world, 'the welfare of a nation [can] scarcely be inferred from a measure of national income' and yet since that time the governments of the industrialized world have paid no attention to such good sense. They have instead become obsessed by the totems of economic growth and GDP. Kuznets would have greatly approved of this volume and I can think of no higher praise. It has taken us exactly 80 years, but we have finally got there. Human well-being is what matters. ' - Professor Andrew J Oswald, University of Warwick, UK This book will broaden the public and policy discourse on the importance of well-being by examining psychological, social, environmental, economic, organizational, institutional and political determinants of individual well-being. The public policy discourse on well-being and its indicators has become more active in recent years. However, the vast majority of mainstream policy-making remains unchanged; still couched in the post-war material deprivation framework. The scope needs to be widened beyond an overarching focus on economic success. Turning the discussion to well-being opens the door to the understanding gained by a much broader tranche of those researching human lives across the social and health sciences. This book will be of interest to individuals following the current public and policy debates about well-being, as well as to policy-makers in fields of social and health care, environmental planning, urban development, and innovation, industrial and economic policy. Contributors : S. Bartolini, A. Basu, C.L. Cooper, M. Csikszentmihalyi, M. Eriksson, J. Flint-Taylor, T.J. Hämäläinen, J.F. Helliwell, A. Hubert, R. Kaplan, S. Kaplan, B. Lindström, A. Lyon, J. Michaelson, G. Mulgan, M. O'Hara, P. Puska, C. Seaford 'Seldom is a work of non-fiction so essential to such a wide audience. The concept of well-being has been an elusive dream of humanity for centuries. It is spoken of in national vision statements and the dreams of poets. This book is the most concrete exploration to date of not only what well-being can mean to the individual but also what policy cast in a context of well-being can mean for the private sector as well as the state. As this compilation of the wisdom of global experts in the field details how well-being can be attained in a host of settings, it is compulsory reading for not only corporate and political leaders but also for the individual who seeks well-being as a personal quest.' --Professor Charles Hopkins, UNESCO Chair in Reorienting Teacher Education, York University, Toronto, Canada. 'I strongly advise you to read this book. In 1934, Professor Simon Kuznets said of the modern world, "the welfare of a nation [can] scarcely be inferred from a measure of national income" and yet since that time the governments of the industrialized world have paid no attention to such good sense. They have instead become obsessed by the totems of economic growth and GDP. Kuznets would have greatly approved of this volume and I can think of no higher praise. It has taken us exactly 80 years, but we have finally got there. Human well-being is what matters.' --Professor Andrew J Oswald, University of Warwick, UK. This book will broaden the public and policy discourse on the importance of well-being by examining psychological, social, environmental, economic, organizational, institutional and political determinants of individual well-being. The public policy discourse on well-being and its indicators has become more active in recent years. However, the vast majority of mainstream policy-making remains unchanged; still couched in the post-war material deprivation framework. The scope needs to be widened beyond an overarching focus on economic success. Turning the discussion to well-being opens the door to the understanding gained by a much broader tranche of those researching human lives across the social and health sciences. This book will be of interest to individuals following the current public and policy debates about well-being, as well as to policy makers in fields of social and health care, environmental planning, urban development, and innovation, industrial and economic policy Cover 1 Copyright 4 Contents 5 Figures 7 Tables 9 Contributors 10 1. New theories and policies for well-being: introduction 13 PART I The need for coherence 27 2. In search of coherence: sketching a theory of sustainable well-being 29 3. The salutogenic framework for well-being: implications for public policy 80 4. Well-being and well-becoming: reauthorizing the subject in incoherent times 110 PART II Restoring the centrality of the social 135 5. Understanding and improving the social context of well-being 137 6. Buying alone: how the decreasing American happiness turned into the current economic crisis 156 7. Creating supportive environments to foster reasonableness and achieve sustainable well-being 194 PART III Revising economic principles 231 8. What implications does well-being science have for economic policy? 233 9. Well-being in organizations 256 PART IV Policy responses 281 10. The politics of consciousness 283 11. Well-being, capitalism and public policy: from generalization to granularity 295 12. Well-being for growth and democracy in the EU 308 13. Policies for well-being and health 323 14. Practical models for well-being-oriented policy 333 Index 357 --Professor Andrew J Oswald, University of Warwick, UK. This book will broaden the public and policy discourse on the importance of well-being by examining psychological, social, environmental, economic, organizational, institutional and political determinants of individual well-being. The public policy discourse on well-being and its indicators has become more active in recent years. However, the vast majority of mainstream policy-making remains unchanged; still couched in the post-war material deprivation framework. The scope needs to be widened beyond an overarching focus on economic success. The turn in the discussion to well-being opens the door to the understanding gained by a much broader tranche of those researching human lives across the social and health sciences. This book will be of interest to individuals following the current public and policy debates about well-being, as well as to policy makers in fields of social and health care, environmental planning, urban development, and innovation, industrial and economic policy