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ABSTRACT
This article explores how well-being and happiness (WBH) is conceptualised in different geographical contexts, and how this understanding is able to affect policymaking and engender socio-economic and legal change. Whilst WBH initiatives seemingly stem from a critique of gross domestic product as a measure of societal “progress,” we show how, in itself, such critique cannot be the basis for understanding WBH as a unitary transnational phenomenon that offers a radical re-thinking of the relationship between economy and society. By focusing on two concrete instances and specific sites, that of the Social Impact Bond in the United Kingdom and the “Gross National Happiness in Business” project in Bhutan, we argue that individual contexts and initiatives must be closely studied, and suggest that conflations between different well-being agendas need to be avoided to pay closer attention to the ways in which well-being can be co-opted or fashioned through policymaking and government initiatives.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Asta Zokaityte who provided insight and expertise that assisted the research on SIBs; Anisa De Jong for her help with the draft; the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments, and our interviewees and other staff at Zhiwa Ling hotel in Bhutan for their generosity.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on Contributors
Donatella Alessandrini is reader in law at Kent Law School, University of Kent, UK. Her research lies at the intersection of law and political economy, with a particular interest in development studies, critical trade and development literature, and feminist political economy. Her publications include Developing Countries and the Multilateral Trade Regime: The Failure and Promise of the WTO’s Development Mission (Hart, 2010) and Value Making in International Economic Law and Regulation: Alternative Possibilities (Routledge, 2016).
Suhraiya Jivraj is senior lecturer in law at Kent Law School, University of Kent, UK. She specialises in the field of law and religion, using interdisciplinary approaches to interrogate religion and its intersections with other social relations. Her publications include Interrogating Law’s Religion (Social and Legal Studies Series, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) and a co-edited collection Decolonising Sexualities: Transnational Perspectives, Critical Interventions (Counter Press, 2016). She was also principal investigator of a British Academy and Leverhulme–funded project exploring gross national happiness and sustainable development in Bhutan and well-being policymaking in the United Kingdom.
Notes
1 There is a visual depiction of this on p. 13 NDP Steering Committee and Secretariat (Citation2013).
2 The CBS is the primary body that began the initial research for developing the GNH philosophy. It also constructs the GNH index, carries out the GNH surveys and analyses them before the results are actioned by the GNH Commission which is the government planning body.
3 We rely on the definition by Rai, Hoskyns, and Thomas (Citation2010) for whom social reproduction encompasses biological reproduction, including sexual, affective and emotional services; unpaid production of goods and services in the home and within the community; and the reproduction of culture and ideology which can both stabilise and challenge dominant social relations.
4 The nine domains are: living standard, good governance, education, health, ecology, community vitality, time use and balance, cultural diversity, psychological well-being.
5 The number of sub-indicators and variables are under constant review. Figures given here relate to the 2010 GNH index. The next survey was due to be conducted in 2015—the results are not yet available. The index has also been used as the basis to develop GNH policy screening tools (PST). Prospective public policies are screened by the GNH Commission for their perceived impacts on 22 variables linked to the nine domains (given by Sangay Dorji in 2014 in a speech entitled “Experience GNH in Bhutan—From Contemplation to Action” in the GNH Centre Workshop in Bhutan).
6 Other policies approved by the GNH Commission include: National Forest Policy of Bhutan 2009; Economic Development Policy of the Kingdom of Bhutan 2010; Foreign Direct Investment Policy 2010; Research in the Renewable Natural Resources Policy 2012; National Employment Policy 2013; Food and Nutrition Security Policy of the Kingdom of Bhutan 2014; Bhutan Telecommunications and Broadband Policy 2014 (see GNH Commission Citation2015). For example, the Foreign Direct Investment Policy adopted in 2010 is intended to prohibit the import of chemical products, weapons, fast food and pornography in to the Kingdom of Bhutan. More than 100 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects tested for alignment with GNH during 2010 and 2013 failed the GNH screening test (see Omlin et al. Citation2013; Musikanski Citation2014).
7 Examples given by the GNH Centre of Bhutan include Greener Way which is Bhutan’s first waste management and recycling company aiming to manage waste in an efficient and environmentally friendly way. Besides investing in innovative waste management practices, Greener Way also supports various educational initiatives on waste management in Bhutan. The Happy Green Co-operative was formed in 2009 by youth farmers in Bhutan to promote high quality sustainable employment and organic agriculture. The Happy Green Co-operative pursues these goals primarily through projects Happy Snacks, Happy Farms and Happy Green Infotainment, but it also plans to set up a co-operative bank that would offer financial services to young farmers in Bhutan (see GNH Centre of Bhutan Citation2016).
8 Karma Tshiteem, Secretary of the GNH Commission at the time, spoke at “The Happiness & Economic Development” conference held in August 2011 in Thimphu, Bhutan. See also speech of Prime Minister Lyonchoen Tshering Tobgay (Citation2015).
9 After hydropower sold to India, then agriculture and construction (Sebastian Citation2012, 9).
10 The policy requires all international tourists to pay a minimum daily rate of US$200 of which just under half goes directly to the government as a royalty fee (see Tourism Council of Bhutan Citation2015).
11 The hotel was built in 2006 in the tradition of a Bhutanese Dzong—or fortress—in the town of Paro (see Zhiwa Ling Web Citation2012).
12 As part of this initial programme, 130 hours of training were delivered to 471 participants on GNH philosophy; 110 staff completed the GNH National Survey; and an environmental monitoring system was implemented and led by a task force of staff. See Part 4 Appendices in Sebastian (Citation2012) for full list of training and areas covered in the workshops and Sebastian (Citation2012, 7–8) for the positive results of the implementation of the environmental taskforce measures. See also Sebastian (Citation2015).
13 Interviews were part of field-work conducted in Bhutan (Paro and Thimphu) in January 2014 and funded by BA/Leverhulme (grant no. SG121570). Face-to-face interviews were carried out on January 24 and 25 in Hotel Zhiwa Ling, Paro; and involved the authors (Alessandrini and Jivraj), and two members of staff: Rinzin Lhamo (Front Office Manager) and Sonam Peldon (Executive Manager and GNH Taskforce Leader). As these were expert interviews, no ethical approval was required. Open-ended unstructured questions were asked of both members of staff with regard to their understanding and experience of GHN in Business in the daily running of the hotel, focusing on the meaning and determination of “sufficiency” with regard to profit-making. We have used the interviewees’ description of their GHN in Business experiment to illustrate the possibility of articulating differently the inter-relationship between economy and society in this particular context. An audiotape was used to record the interviews, and their transcriptions are held with the authors. We would also like to acknowledge the support of Brent Hyde (General Manager) and Isabel Sebastian (Sustainability Adviser) who facilitated our visit and were generous with information about the project.
14 Interview with Tashi Zangmo, Executive Director of BNF, in 2013 (see also BNF Citation2016).
15 Authors’ interview conducted in 2014.
16 See also Bhutan’s New Development Paradigm which emphasises the need for “inner transformation” alongside transforming material conditions to provide for example, secure and healthy living conditions, stating that: “The inner transformation of our own mind-sets and behaviours is as important for happiness as the transformation of [these] outer conditions of wellbeing” (NDP Steering Committee and Secretariat Citation2013, 33–34). It goes on to list the personal tools for achieving this transformation (34–36) which echoed the priorities of the interviewees in relation to the protection and practising of Bhutanese cultural/religious values and rituals albeit in a modern era.
17 Authors’ interview conducted in 2014.
18 The Measuring National Well-being (MNW) programme started in 2010. The ONS describes well-being
as “how we are doing” as individuals, as communities and as a nation, and how sustainable this is for the future. Life in the UK presents the full set of 41 headline measures of national well-being, organised by the 10 domains, or areas, such as Health, Where we live, What we do and Our relationships. The measures include both objective data (for example, number of crimes against the person per 1000 adults) and subjective data (for example, percentage who felt safe walking alone after dark). (Evans, Macrory, and Randall Citation2015, 1)
19 The survey investigates “how satisfied [people] are with their life overall, asking whether they feel they have meaning and purpose in their life, and asking about their emotions during a particular period” (ONS Citation2015a).
20 Boffo, Brown, and Spencer (Citation2015) for instance have argued that responses people give to personal well-being surveys are heavily influenced by norms and expectations so that increases in reported happiness at particular hard times, such as after the financial crisis of 2007 and the implementation of the austerity programmes, are hardly reliable as they may have to do with lower norms and expectations rather than improvement in well-being.
21 See also Cabinet Office (Citation2014).
22 “Measuring What Matters” was the title of the ONS consultation conducted between 2010 and 2011 whose aim was to construct the domains within which well-being would be measured. The consultation generated 34,000 responses. The most common answers were from a pre-defined list (health; good connections with friends and family; job satisfaction and economic security; present and future conditions of the environment; education and training). The ONS also scrutinised free text responses which emphasised “the importance of our health to our well-being; the importance of having adequate income or wealth to cover basic needs; the environment around us, and the need to connect with other people” (Matheson Citation2011, 5–6).
23 As Lethbridge has highlighted:
Individuals can deduct 30% or up to £1 million from their income tax liability for the cost of a social investment. They can also defer capital gains tax in certain conditions … In the 2014 Autumn Budget statement, the UK government announced that it was seeking EU approval to increase the investment limit to £5 million per annum per organisation with up to a maximum of £15 million per organisation, to take effect after 6 April 2015. (Lethbridge Citation2015, 10)