Happiness in Communities: How Neighborhoods, Cities and States Use Subjective Well-Being Metrics
Abstract
This essay, the fourth and last of a series published by the Journal of Social Change, is intended as a tool for community organizers, local policy makers, researchers, students and others to incorporate subjective well-being indicators into their measurements and management of happiness and well-being in their communities, for policy purposes, for research and for other purposes. It provides case studies of community-based efforts in five different regions (São Paulo, Brazil; Bristol, United Kingdom; Melbourne, Australia; Creston, British Columbia, Canada; and Vermont, United States) that either developed their own subjective well-being index or used the Happiness Alliance’s survey instrument to measure happiness and well-being. The essay offers lessons to consider when using subjective well-being indicator survey instruments. Finally, the essay provides a process for measuring happiness using the Happiness Alliance’s survey instrument- text
- happiness
- wellbeing
- subjective wellbeing indicators
- beyond GDP
- subjective wellbeing
- Civic and Community Engagement
- Community-Based Learning
- Community-Based Research
- Community Psychology
- Demography, Population, and Ecology
- Economic Policy
- Growth and Development
- Health Policy
- Models and Methods
- Other Economics
- Other International and Area Studies
- Other Political Science
- Other Psychology
- Other Sociology
- Personality and Social Contexts
- Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation
- Politics and Social Change
- Public Economics
- Public Policy
- Quantitative Psychology
- Regional Sociology
- Social Policy
- Social Statistics
- Social Welfare
- Theory, Knowledge and Science
- Urban Studies
- Work, Economy and Organizations