Studying Well-being and its Environmental Impacts: A Case Study of Minimum Income Receivers in Finland

Abstract

Current well-being research often overlooks human dependency on natural resources and undervalues the way environmental impacts affect human activities. This article argues that the capability approach provides an applicable framework for inquiring into ecologically sustainable well-being. Therefore, this pilot study aims to develop a research method for integrating the measurement of natural resource use with capability-based well-being research. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 18 Finnish minimum income receivers and their natural resource use (material footprints) was measured in five central functionings by using the Material Input Per Unit of Service (MIPS) method. The connections between capabilities, functionings and material footprints are interpreted from a person-centered perspective in order to explain the individual variety in material footprints. The results show that the material footprints of minimum income receivers are smaller than with an average Finn but they still exceed what is estimated to be an ecologically sustainable level of natural resource use.

Keywords:

• Well-being
• Capability approach
• Material footprint
• Material Input Per Unit of Service (MIPS)
• Minimum income

Acknowledgment

We are grateful for the helpful comments to two anonymous reviewers and to the editors of this special issue.

Notes

The study is a part of the research project aiming to study the adequacy of minimum income in Finland. The research project ‘Back to Basics: Basic income and Consumption’ is funded by the Finnish Academy for the years 2009–2012.

Measured by the relative approach defining poverty as ‘household income below 60 per cent of the median disposable equivalent income in the total population’ (Kuivalainen and Nelson, 2012, pp. 74–75).

On a macro level, the indicators Total Material Consumption (TMC) and Total Material Requirement (TMR) correspond to the MIPS indicator on the micro level. TMC comprises the domestic consumption and its global implications in terms of material flows but excludes export-related material flows, as these are part of the TMC of the countries consuming the exported products. TMR includes any material flows related to an economy, including export-related flows. Both TMC and TMR are based on the same concept of natural resources as the material footprint used here.

See www.mips-online.info.

Therefore, the research design of this study has been approved by the Research Ethics Committee at Kela—Social Insurance Institution of Finland.

All participants have been given pseudonyms in order to preserve their anonymity.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tuuli Hirvilammi

Tuuli Hirvilammi is a researcher at Kela—Social Insurance Institute of Finland, Helsinki, Finland

Senja Laakso

Senja Laakso is a student in the Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland

Michael Lettenmeier

Michael Lettenmeier is director of D-mat Ltd., Lahti, Finland and a consultant at the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, Wuppertal, Germany

Satu Lähteenoja

Satu Lähteenoja is a consultant at D-mat Ltd., Lahti, Finland