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One of the strengths of a capability account of wellbeing is that it allows us to theoretically and empirically analyze at a quite practical level why certain things matter to people - such as their housing, their jobs, and their friendships. A capability account of wellbeing is also very well suited to understand the importance of place for wellbeing. Some dimensions of wellbeing are constitutively place-related, such as "feeling at home". Other dimensions of wellbeing are affected by what the places and locations in which we live mean to us. Taken together, we call them "place-based capabilities". Using a capability account of wellbeing allows us to use social scientific research to investigate the role of social, economic, demographic, political, ecological and technological processes on wellbeing. This paper illustrates this by investigating the role of recent technologies in enabling and expanding capabilities. On the one hand, technological change has dramatically expanded those capabilities. On the other hand, the use of those technologies has unintended consequences for other capabilities. The conceptual as well as empirical relationships between (place-based) capabilities and technology is therefore a complex one.

Improving wellbeing and sustainability are central goals of government, but are they in conflict? This engaging new book reviews that question and its implications for public policy through a focus on indicators. It highlights tensions on the one hand between various constructs of wellbeing and sustainable development, and on the other between current individual and societal notions of wellbeing. It recommends a clearer conceptual framework for policy makers regarding different wellbeing constructs which would facilitate more transparent discussions. Arguing against a win-win scenario of wellbeing and sustainability, it advocates an approach based on recognising and valuing conflicting views where notions of participation and power are central to discussions. Measuring Wellbeing is divided into two parts. The first part provides a critical review of the field, drawing widely on international research but contextualised within recent UK wellbeing policy discourses. The second part embeds the theory in a case study based on the author's own experience of trying to develop quality of life indicators within a local authority, against the backdrop of increasing national policy interest in measuring 'happiness'. This accessible and informative book, covering uniquely both practice and theory, will be of great appeal to students, academics and policy makers interested in wellbeing, sustainable development, indicators, public policy, community participation, power and discourse.

Cover -- Half Title -- Series -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Preface -- 1 Introduction: defining wellbeing, psychology, and the self -- 2 Questions of trust: the truth about wellbeing -- 3 Storytelling and sense-making: 50 shades of wellbeing -- 4 Stress and coping: on being well in yourself -- 5 Self-help and wellbeing: ifs, nots, myths, and knots -- 6 Happiness, meaning, and the good life: the structure of wellbeing -- 7 Some concluding thoughts . . .: stories, questions, and reflections on being well and getting better -- Further reading -- Notes.

If children are struggling socially and emotionally they cannot take full advantage of educational opportunities, so it is vitally important for all schools to have a mental health and wellbeing strategy

Dr Matthew Agarwala is interviewed by the BBC World Service about traditional notions of productivity, and how these ignore issues of climate and wellbeing.
The post Productivity, climate and wellbeing appeared first on Bennett Institute for Public Policy.

Since 2008 the NSW Government has been investigating the concept of 'wellbeing' as it relates to Aboriginal communities. Adopting a focus on wellbeing has meant delving into questions about what makes communities strong, and what factors are unique to creating strong Aboriginal communities, as well as considering the government's role (if any) in supporting Aboriginal community wellbeing. This paper seeks to convey the essence of the journey into wellbeing to date. It details the positions and assumptions that this work started with, and analyses why this has shifted over time. It examines what worked and was feasible, and what didn't. In particular, the paper overviews the creation of the Strengthening Aboriginal Community Wellbeing Framework (the policy context), and the development of a resource in the form of a user friendly software program for communities wishing to holistically assess their wellbeing – the 'toolkit' (the practical outcome of the work to date).

Kirsten Anderson, legal research and policy manager at Coram Children's Legal Centre, examines a recent Unicef report that ranks the UK 16th out of 29 rich countries in terms of child wellbeing

Pleasure may be the key to the successful working of the reproductive systems of humans. However, for all the enjoyment sexual relationships can provide, there are countervailing forces of guilt and disappointment at work on the individual psyche. Religious and social norms enforce limits on sexual expressiveness. These controls are defended as means to protect individuals and their partners from unhappiness due to infidelity. The contrasting balance of potential pleasure on the one hand and deeply felt self-controls on the other gives rise to many problems of sexual health. Couples with discordant expectations about sexual pleasures can find their relationships crumbling. Deeply planted understandings about inappropriate behavior can cause individuals to feel shame or fear when faced with choices about their sexuality and particularly their desires. People unable to achieve desired pleasures due to physical handicaps experience a loss of wellbeing that can be extremely distressing. Simultaneously society struggles to control the individual expression of harmful sexual behavior such as child molestation while protecting the rights of individuals to enjoy personal satisfaction. The recognition and promotion of sexual pleasure as an integral part of wellbeing is one of the most challenging elements on the sexual health agenda. Progress in this area will require extraordinary efforts by professional groups and political leaders to forge a forthright understanding of the meaning of pleasure in people's lives, and the priority of promoting healthy sexuality as a part of a global health agenda.

Pleasure may be the key to the successful working of the reproductive systems of humans. However, for all the enjoyment sexual relationships can provide, there are countervailing forces of guilt and disappointment at work on the individual psyche. Religious and social norms enforce limits on sexual expressiveness. These controls are defended as means to protect individuals and their partners from unhappiness due to infidelity. The contrasting balance of potential pleasure on the one hand and deeply felt self-controls on the other gives rise to many problems of sexual health. Couples with discordant expectations about sexual pleasures can find their relationships crumbling. Deeply planted understandings about inappropriate behavior can cause individuals to feel shame or fear when faced with choices about their sexuality and particularly their desires. People unable to achieve desired pleasures due to physical handicaps experience a loss of wellbeing that can be extremely distressing. Simultaneously society struggles to control the individual expression of harmful sexual behavior such as child molestation while protecting the rights of individuals to enjoy personal satisfaction. The recognition and promotion of sexual pleasure as an integral part of wellbeing is one of the most challenging elements on the sexual health agenda. Progress in this area will require extraordinary efforts by professional groups and political leaders to forge a forthright understanding of the meaning of pleasure in people's lives, and the priority of promoting healthy sexuality as a part of a global health agenda.

In this groundbreaking interdisciplinary work, the authors focus on organizational analysis to understand workplace wellbeing, deviating from previous research that mostly looks at the individual worker or intervention. In addressing the question of why workplace health and wellbeing practices initiatives fall short of delivering sustained improvements in worker wellbeing, this book moves beyond localized explanations of the failure of specific interventions. Instead, it creates theoretical frameworks that explain how wellbeing at work can be improved and sustained. The authors use evidence from systematic and comprehensive surveys of the literature as well as new empirical research, and present an explanatory framework of the processes through which organizations change to implement and accommodate workplace health and wellbeing practices. Learning, adaptation and continuation explain successful implementation of workplace health and wellbeing practices, while Gestalting, fracturing and grafting explain how organizations resolve or negotiate conflict between health and wellbeing practices and existing organizational procedures, systems and practices. In addition, the authors reflect on the implications for research of reframing the unit of analysis as the organization and how studies on workplace wellbeing practices can provide a conceptual platform for thinking about the way organizations can create social value in a broader sense. This book, authored by experts in their field, is a great resource for academics and professionals of organizational studies and of worker wellbeing across the social sciences, behavioural sciences, business and management courses, wellbeing research, and labour studies.

This paper interrogates two different perspectives on music and wellbeing. The first positions musical practice as being beneficial for emotional wellbeing and mental health, whilst the second positions musical work – building a career as a musician - as potentially detrimental. This apparent paradox matters because the clinical findings which establish a causal link between music and wellbeing are being disembedded from the contexts in which those links are manifesting by charities, social enterprises, advocacy organisations, educational institutions, governments and international bodies, and fuelling normative sociological prescriptions which encourage participation in music making. For those who go on to develop career ambitions, wellbeing outcomes are far less clear. Therefore, a more sophisticated appreciation of the uses of music and its impact on wellbeing is required. This paper provides a more balanced view of the connections between music, wellbeing and health and reflects on how this paradox might be resolved.