Difference between revisions of "Societal Wellbeing"

Revision as of 23:48, 22 April 2012

it is difficult to identify how the wellbeing of society is evolving, and how it should be measured. it is clear that societal wellbeing measures should include social, economic and environmental dimensions. On 19 July last year, 68 countries joined the Kingdom of Bhutan in co-sponsoring a resolution titled “Happiness: Towards a holistic approach to development,” which was adopted by consensus by the 193-member UN General Assembly. However, is relevant data available to provide a comprehensive depiction for the UK and crucially, to be able to see how wellbeing overall is changing overtime?

⇤# : Focus on the question: How to measure societal well-being? What Cameron has said is nice to know but not the main point here. Rather, find links to pages of projects that try and answer the question about measuring. --Jouni 05:54, 19 April 2012 (EEST)

Purpose

Government and non-government officials, politicians, leading economists, scholars, academics and religious leaders are expected to gather to discuss methods the Bhutanese government proposed towards obtaining gross national happiness ^[1]

• The draft outcome of the meeting includes a report containing a synthesis of discussions, thoughts, views and recommendations following the meeting to be submitted to the UN secretary general, who will then share it with all UN member states.

• Governments worldwide take immediate steps to adopt the new wellbeing and an economic paradigm based on sustainability.

• Recommendations for inclusion into policies the principles of the new economy government worldwide could consider for voluntary adoption, were also suggested.

• Promotion of green technologies and poverty alleviation and investments in sustainable infrastructure, like support for green businesses, renewable energy, clean technology and energy efficiency.

Suggestion

Recommendation was developed for inclusion into policies the principles of the new economy government worldwide could consider for voluntary adoption were suggested. The suggestions include:

• Promotion of green technologies and poverty alleviation and investments in sustainable infrastructure, like support for green businesses, renewable energy, clean technology and energy efficiency.

• Banning advertising to children to dismantle incentives to excessive consumption, and for governments to introduce work sharing policies that reduce overwork, increase leisure time and prevent layoffs.

• Government procurement from local, organic and fair trade sources, to encourage local economies, and fair trade systems that promote sustainable production methods and fair returns to producers.

• Need to value non-market assets and services to measure progress more accurately and comprehensively, through creation of accounts that value natural, cultural, human and social dynamics.

• Need for ecological tax reforms that tax pollution and depletion of natural capital.

Societal Well-being at Great Britain

The UK government is poised to start measuring people's psychological and environmental wellbeing, bidding to be among the first countries to officially monitor happiness.

Despite "nervousness" in Downing Street at the prospect of testing the national mood amid deep cuts and last week's riot in Westminster, the Office of National Statistics will shortly be asked to produce measures to implement David Cameron's long-stated ambition of gauging "general wellbeing".^[2]

UK aims to identify key components of wellbeing and explore existing datasets that could help building a picture of societal wellbeing, quality of life and progress in the UK. The first step to measure the progress of society, is to define wellbeing. In 2006, the Department for Environment and Rural Affair's (DEFRA’s) 'Whitehall Wellbeing Working Group' (membership includes government departments, devolved administrations, the Environment Agency, Improvement and Development Agency for Local Government and the Sustainable Development Commission to steer research, share information and consider the policy implications of the research into wellbeing) agreed a statement of common understanding of wellbeing for policy makers:

“Wellbeing is a positive, social and mental state; it is not just the absence of pain, discomfort and incapacity. It arises not only from the action of individuals, but from a host of collective goods and relationships with other people. It requires that basic needs are met, that individuals have a sense of purpose, and that they feel able to achieve important personal goals and participate in society. It is enhanced by conditions that include supportive personal relationships, involvement in empowered communities, good health, financial security, rewarding employment and a healthy and attractive environment.”

Survey Analysis

^[3] The survey of 4,200 people asked respondents to rank from nought to 10 how satisfied they were and how anxious they felt the previous day.

When asked about how satisfied they were, 76% rated themselves as seven out of 10, where 10 was completely and nought was not at all.

The ONS says they are initial findings.

The UK statistics body added four questions to the ONS household survey, which took place between April and August this year, at the request of the government.

The questions included:

• Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?
• Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?
• Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?
• Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?

When asked how happy they felt the previous day, the results showed 73% rated themselves as seven or more out of 10.

To the question about leading a worthwhile life, 78% of the respondents rated themselves seven or more out of 10.

On top of those subjective questions, the ONS is planning to measure these four major areas:

• Childhood
• Economy and inequality
• Health
• Work/life balance

Happiness spreadsheet

Last November, Prime Minister, David Cameron launched a separate "happiness index" to measure the well-being of UK citizens. He admitted that measuring happiness could be seen as "woolly" and "impractical" but said that the £2m scheme was warranted because it was a better way of measuring how the country was doing than using gross domestic product (GDP) - the standard measure of economic activity.

"You cannot capture happiness on a spreadsheet any more than you can bottle it - and if anyone was trying to reduce the whole spectrum of human happiness into one snapshot statistic I would be the first to roll my eyes," he said at the time.

Rational

Well-being can be defined as a positive mental state. Initially embraced by some psychologists as a means of focusing attention on health and satisfaction with life rather than on mental illness and its remedies. It has been adopted more widely by a range of social scientists and some policy-makers. Well-being has been defined recently as:

“A dynamic state, in which, the individual is able to develop their potential, work productively and creatively, build strong and positive relationships with others, and contribute to their community. It is enhanced when an individual is able to fulfil their personal and social goals and achieve a sense of purpose in society.” (Government Office for Science, 2008, 10)

It is associated with such qualities as confidence, optimism about the future, a sense of influence over one's own destiny and the social competence that promote satisfying and supportive relationship with other people and not simply with an absence of diagnosed illness, disability or dissatisfaction. It also critically involves the resilense that needed to deal with hard time as and when they occur. In policy terms, it can be defined as the condition which allows individuals and communities to flourish.

Lack of Positive Mental States and Happiness in Britain

It seems plausible to connect the rise of academic and policy interest in well-being and happiness with the dilemmas of life in an affluent but highly risky society. Analyses of survey data have repeatedly shown that once a society reaches a particular level of affluence, further increases in material wealth produce very limited changes in people’s self-reported happiness. And, in what may seem a remarkable paradox for an affluent society like Britain, there is widespread concern over rising levels of depression and stress, and over the resulting costs to society, organisations, and individuals. The concept of well-being has developed as a way of focusing on positive mental states, and the removal or reduction of those factors that are likely to prevent people from thriving.

A recent report for the King’s Fund estimates that there are around 828,000 people with moderate to severe depression in England (McCrone et al., 2008), resulting in huge costs through lost tax revenue and dependency on incapacity benefits. The report puts the total economic cost of mental illness at £49 billion in 2007. Yet mental health accounts for a mere 13 per cent of NHS spending. Further, it is estimated that occupational stress costs UK businesses some £5 billion a year, and an additional £3.8 billion to British society.

A report by New Economics Foundation (Nef), one of a number of projects aiming to study the concept of wellbeing, stated the British as tired, suspicious, bored and lonely. Researchers asked 42,000 people in 22 countries around 50 questions based on two concepts: personal wellbeing, and broader social wellbeing. Britain comes third from the bottom in western Europe.Young people aged 16-24 in Britain have the lowest levels of trust and belonging in Europe and a fifth of the population reports having restless sleep most or all of the time, and 28% say they almost never wake up feeling rested. Across Europe, the British have the second lowest levels of energy. Britain is also the most bored nation in western Europe, with 8% feeling bored most of the time; a fifth said they felt their everyday activities were neither valuable nor worthwhile.

Happiness and Well-being at Workplace in Britain

The happiness and well-being of Britain’s workforce is important both economically and socially. Research suggests that employees who are happy and healthy are more productive and enjoy a better quality of life. A representative sample of 1,153 working people aged 18 years and over from across the UK were questioned. 60% of working people said they were “happy” at work. 38% say they are “unhappy.” 2% are neutral, neither happy nor unhappy. People aged between 35 and 44 years appear to be the least happy at work. People aged over 65 years who continue working are most happy at work. Looking at all age groups, it appears people in Britain start off happy at work, become least happy around their mid 40s and then start getting happier again as they grow older. However, on the same survey, 83% of working people in the UK were “happy” in their lives away from work. 15% said they were “unhappy” away from work. 2% were neutral. This suggests that employers could do more to lift the mood of the UK workforce. There is a strong case for employers taking steps to improve levels of happiness at work. Happy workers tend to be more productive, confident and motivated. Another area employers could target to improve happiness in the workplace is employee health and well-being, as more than one in five working people (22%) said they were unhappy with their general health and well-being.

Measuring Happiness and Well-Being

The Office for National Statistics Measuring National Well-being (MNW) Programme was launched in November 2010 to provide a fuller understanding of ‘how society is doing’ than economic measures alone can provide. It started with a national five-month debate on ‘What matters to you?’ to improve understanding of what should be included in measures of the nation’s well-being. More than 34,000 people gave their views. They believed that their well-being should be measured in terms of health, friends and family and job satisfaction. It has been hoped that the "happiness index" will complement other measures such as GDP. The debate showed that the well-being of the individual is central to an understanding of national wellbeing. There are a number of factors that are thought to particularly influence individual well-being and so should be included in providing a picture of well-being in the UK. Individual well-being is intended to be measured by people’s overall assessment of their own well-being. This assessment includes not only people’s thoughts and feelings but also how much meaning and purpose they attribute to the activities they do in their lives.

Approaches to Measure Well-being

The Stiglitz-Sen-Fittoussi report suggests that using changes in GDP as the only measure of national well-being is insufficient and that other measures of the economy than GDP should be used together with wider measures of social progress, the state of the environment and sustainability. Although there are a number of different approaches that can be taken when trying to define wellbeing, interestingly there is a considerable degree of overlap in what these approaches suggest should be measured. These include: • People’s material living standards (income, expenditure, housing conditions) • Health • Education and skills • Work (not just employment but the quality of people’s working lives) • Leisure time and Individual relationships • Subjective well-being (emotions, life satisfaction and sense of meaning and purpose)

Domains to Measure Well-being

See also

References