Notes

Outline

Wellbeing in Developing Countries ESRC Research Group

Aims of WeD Research Group Formal Objective for the ESRC: To develop a conceptual and methodological approach for understanding the social and cultural construction of wellbeing in developing countries.

In all of this an overriding imperative for the study of development To explain the persistence of poverty. and thus to provide input into debates over how it can be reduced.

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Challenges for a Concept of Wellbeing First, to demonstrate that the label of ‘wellbeing’ can be conceptually useful to both academia and policy. Second, to indicate how, and under what conditions, it can promote priority to the needs of the poorest?” (from Gasper 2005)

The analytical poverty-trap That poor people are not defined by their poverty That poor people can only be understood in relation to non-poor people

Wellbeing and the Poor poverty does not preclude wellbeing poor men, women and children pursue wellbeing the non-poor in all societies can often experience considerable wellbeing, alongside others who are chronically unable to achieve wellbeing

A Proposition That the objective of international development (social) policy could, at its most utopian, be described as:   “the creation of conditions in societies all around the world where people are able to experience wellbeing.”

Wellbeing and Policy Thus the purpose of policies and the raison d’etre of agencies that generate and implement them is: “ to establish the conditions in different societies within which wellbeing can be pursued and achieved by all people globally.”

"Although a grand and naive..." Although a grand and naive statement, it underpins the Millennium Goals Declaration. It may have the virtue of allowing us momentarily to escape entrenched and increasingly  sterile ideological debates over the roles of the state, market, community and individual in the creation of these conditions for wellbeing It leaves open the very large question of ‘what do we mean by wellbeing?’

Wellbeing - an Overarching Concept A concept that can span to comprehend notions of illbeing, and within which the many different notions of poverty can be accommodated.

Wellbeing – towards a working definition combining a view of the objective circumstances of a person and their subjective perception of their condition. Wellbeing as not only an outcome, but as a ‘condition of being’ that arises from the dynamic interplay of outcomes and processes. This interplay is firmly located in society and shaped by social, economic, political, cultural and psychological processes.

Resources, Needs and Quality of Life Having – what different resources are people able to command in order to be pursue their goals. Doing – what people are able to do with these resources in order to meet needs and goals. Thinking – the meaning that they give to the outcomes they achieve and the processes in which they engage and particularly their evaluation of their quality of life in relation to their having and doing.

Wellbeing  - The Inadequacy of a a Simple Objective and Subjective Opposition By locating the wellbeing of the person firmly in society we emphasise the social construction of meaning. The wellbeing of any social person depends crucially on the meanings (norms, values, given facts) through which we interact with others – it highlights the Inter-subjective.

Points of Convergence between Literatures on Wellbeing

I. Placing the Human Being at the Centre of the Analytical Framework Wellbeing requires the ‘human being’ to be placed at the centre point of our analysis. Although the human is present in all social science investigations she does not always appear at centre-stage (Douglas and Ney).

II. The Social Being The ‘social being’ as a ‘whole person’. The social being constituted through relationships with other persons. A fundamental and underpinning condition for the ‘social being’ is communication and the transmission of meaning.

III. Needs Needs can be seen as spanning psychological needs, which are essential to mental good health, through to social needs, which are essential for effective and  meaningful participation in social life. These are not separable and their interplay is socially constructed in particular societal contexts.

IV. Harm -  the notion of human wellbeing requires a concept of harm Passive – where the failure to be able to meet needs results in harm. Active – where there is active infliction of harm by another person(s). Structural – where as a consequence of structures, although harm is not intended by a persons’ actions it nevertheless indirectly results.

V. Time - Outcomes And Processes inappropriate to separate our thinking of wellbeing outcomes from wellbeing processes. wellbeing processes are mediated by relationships over time. policy intervention is inevitably and unavoidably about changing processes in particular societies.

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WeD Methodology The WeD research methodology has six distinct but interconnected research components. Each intended to generate data on key elements of the WeD conceptual framework or the connections between the elements. A range of different research methods and often these have been adapted to what is appropriate for the particular research context.. Involves the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data. Methods sequenced to ensure the accumulation or deepening of understanding of the social and cultural construction of well-being in the particular communities and societies being studied.

WeD Methodology 1. Community Profiles 2. RANQ: The Resources and Needs Questionnaire 3. IES: Income and Expenditure survey 4. QoL: Quality of Life 5. Process research Around 1,000 rural and 500 urban households constitute the core population for each country.

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Challenges - I Development policy is built on competing visions of what the good life is. The inclusion of the subjective dimension in our definition of wellbeing highlights a challenge as to how all views can be taken into account or accommodated.

Challenges -I If we are to accept that men, women and children have some kind of right to have their views of what goals they are trying to achieve and how they are trying to achieve them taken into account in our understanding of development and social change, then the social and political dimensions of the global development project are laid more open.

Challenges - II The social dimension is that each vision of well-being is founded in sets of values and those values are generated and maintained within particular societal and cultural contexts. The political dimension is revealed in the working of processes within social units (from household to, community, to nation, and to the global order), that seek to assert which sets of values are desirable and superior.

Challenges - III Can studies of wellbeing which build upon the framework and methodology explained above provide some discipline in debates over competing views of wellbeing?