Being Well Together

Individual Subjective and Community Wellbeing

Dados Bibliográficos

ID23317280
AutoresStephen Atkinson (0000-0002-7186-0644, Durham University, autor correspondente), Anne-Marie Bagnall (0000-0003-1512-0833, Leeds Beckett University), Rhiannon Corcoran (0000-0001-8900-9199, University of Liverpool), Jane South (0000-0003-1462-7632, Leeds Beckett University), Steven Curti (0000-0003-4982-373X, Durham University)
Ano2020
Volume21
Fascículo5
Páginas1903-1921
Data de publicação2020-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Happiness Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1389-4978 • E-ISSN: 1573-7780
EditoraSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s10902-019-00146-2
PMID39049872
OpenAlexW2954730831
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas89
Referências citadas68

This paper explores the ways in which community wellbeing is, and could be, related to individual subjective wellbeing by mapping current practice, teasing out the assumptions underlying a dominant approach and flagging neglected issues. The notion of community is widely understood as about something more than the sum of the parts. Capturing subjective aspects of local life that are not simply individual but reflect the ways in which people feel and are well together is a challenging undertaking. Most existing frameworks for assessing community wellbeing are premised on a theory of the self as an autonomous, rational and independently acting or feeling individual, and the primary interest is on how community aspects of life impact on individual subjective wellbeing. This dominant approach consistently neglects spatial and social inequalities, multiple settings and scales and temporal choices and legacies, all of which constitute important political dimensions to community wellbeing. Social theories of the self as relational put relations as prior to subjectivity and as such afford ways to conceptualise community wellbeing in terms of being well together. A relational approach can also offer routes to tackling the complex interactions of inequality, scale and time. Such an approach is not, however, easily translated into quantitative measures or simple policy interventions. The approach taken to community wellbeing is not a technological issue but a political choice.

Epistemology · Feeling · Inequality · Political science · Politics · Positive psychology · Scale (ratio) · Sociology · Subjectivity · Well-being · Community Health and Development · Health disparities and outcomes · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction · Psychology · Social Psychology