Abstract
This chapter looks at the idea of wellbeing. It outlines some long-standing philosophical debates that inform contemporary developments. The chapter discusses the controversial notion of subjective wellbeing (SWB), which is seen to have a prominent place in UK policy thinking on wellbeing. It provides an overview of key developments in the rise of wellbeing in politics and policy both internationally and within the UK, leading up to the creation of the What Works Centre for Wellbeing in 2015. It then turns to the role of wellbeing in policy, providing examples of evidence on different drivers of wellbeing and on life satisfaction (a key indicator of SWB). The chapter concludes by drawing together some of the key themes and issues that inform subsequent chapters.
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Notes
- 1.
Gross Domestic Product refers to the market value of goods produced within a country’s borders. It succeeded GNP as the benchmark for economic growth in the early 1990s. GNP refers to the total market value of goods and services produced by the residents of a country, even if they are living abroad. GDP and GNP are alternative ways of measuring the same phenomenon and have subjected to same criticisms relating to the dominant focus on economic growth.
- 2.
Richard Layard is not only a prominent scholar but also a key advocate of wellbeing in policy circles: a ‘policy entrepreneur’ (see Chapter 5). He is a member of the House of Lords, co-founder of the campaigning group Action for Happiness, a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Wellbeing Economics, and a central figure in the What Works Centre for Wellbeing.
- 3.
The person most closely associated with the development and institutionalisation of GDP, Simon Kuznets (1934) stated that ‘The welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from a measurement of national income’. Among its perceived shortcomings, GDP fails to record the distribution of economic benefits (inequality) and does not take into account the depletion of resources (sustainability).
- 4.
The Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress was led by Nobel Prize winning economists Professor Joseph Stiglitz and Professor Amartya Sen as Chair and Chair Adviser, respectively, and Professor Jean-Paul Fitoussi as the Commission’s coordinator.
- 5.
- 6.
The ONS later added a ‘population mental well-being’ measure to its personal wellbeing domain. This measure uses the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) to assess mental wellbeing out of a total possible score of 35 (ONS 2018a), https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/methodologies/personalwellbeingfrequentlyaskedquestions#what-measures-are-included-in-the-personal-well-being-domain-on-the-measuring-national-well-being-wheel.
- 7.
The ONS later added a fourth use: allowing individuals to make informed decisions about their lives (ONS 2018b).
- 8.
In 2018, there was a fuller revision of the Green Book, which had implications for the role of wellbeing in policy appraisal and evaluation (see Chapter 6).
- 9.
The Behavioural Insights Team is a social purpose company jointly owned by the UK government. It seeks to shape public policy through drawing on the ideas from the behavioural science literature. It is often colloquially known as the ‘nudge unit’.
- 10.
The election resulted in a majority Conservative government.
- 11.
The Local Government Act 2000 gave local authorities the power to promote wellbeing in a ‘broader and more innovative’ way than had been implied by previous legislation (Communities and Local Government 2008, 1). However, the power tended to be used symbolically or as reassurance in the use of other powers and therefore did not lead to significant policy changes (Communities and Local Government 2008, 4–5).
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Bache, I. (2020). Wellbeing. In: Evidence, Policy and Wellbeing. Wellbeing in Politics and Policy. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21376-3_3
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