Happiness, Flourishing and the Good Life: A Transformative Vision for Human Well-Being

The well-being studies field is flawed due to its reliance on neoclassical economic assumptions. This book offers a new perspective on what counts normatively as being well, reconceptualizing well-being holistically and presenting a fresh vista on how we can consider the meanings of human life in a manner that serves as a source of constructive social critique. It seeks to move away from economic considerations domination of all social spaces to understand the possibilities of well-being beyond instrumentalization or commodification.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 29 April 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Well-being studies is a dynamic and relatively recent multidisciplinary field that aims to enhance social policies by gathering data from various domains. However, its reliance on a truncated account of well-being based on neoclassical economic assumptions is deeply flawed. This book offers a fresh perspective on what counts normatively as being well, departing from reductive accounts that exclude the normative or evaluative aspect of the concept and impoverish the attendant conception of human life. By reconceptualizing well-being holistically, it presents a new vista on how we can consider the meanings of human life in a manner that also serves as a source of constructive social critique.

The book aims to invert the usual approach to the social sciences, in which research is required to be objective in terms of methodology and subjective with regard to evaluative claims. Instead, the authors are deliberately objective about values in order to be more open to the subjectivities of human life.

Happiness, Flourishing and the Good Life thus seeks to move away from the economic considerations' domination of all social spaces in order to understand the possibilities of well-being beyond instrumentalization or commodification. This book is a radical new approach to human well-being that will appeal to philosophers, social theorists, political scientists, and all who are interested in human happiness.

Weight: 380g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367552893