2. Job Advertisement: Happiness Director
• A new movement will be launched in September in
which individuals will commit to work for more happiness
in the world and less misery
• Wanted: a director to bring happiness to the world. Must
have a vision of society in which people are motivated by
more than just money.
• Salary: circa £80,000 (The Times, 29/03/10)
2
4. 1. THEORETICAL APPROACHES
• Aristotle: ‘virtuous conduct’ and
‘philosophical reflection’
• Jeremy Bentham:
The Greatest Happiness Principle
• Kant: Happiness as ‘imagined’
4
5. Happiness as a ‘New Science’
• An ‘objective measure’
• Influenced by genes and levels
of brain activity
• Affected by:
1. Family relationships
2. Financial situation
3. Work
4. Community and friends
5. Health
5
6. The Economics of Happiness
GDP versus life satisfaction in the UK, 1973-2002 (Source: after NEF 2004)
6
7. Findings of the Sarkozy Commission (2009)
Five Problems with GDP as a measure of development:
1. Difficult to measure locally
2. Statistical inaccuracies (e.g. informal economy)
3. Misleading outcomes (includes prison spending)
4. Negates inequality
5. Conceptually inappropriate
7
8. 2. HAPPINESS AND POLICY
“If happiness isn’t a political issue, what’s the point of politics?”
Andrew Marr
• 81% of the general public agreed with the statement that the
ultimate aim of government should be for the greatest
happiness, rather than the greatest wealth
BBC Poll 2006
• However, many Neoliberal commentators argue that
‘Governments cannot make us happy’
Wolf 2007
• The small issue of the Recession
8
9. “Quality of growth matters; not just quantity.”
Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister
“Improving our society’s sense of wellbeing is,
I believe, the central political challenge of our
times.”
David Cameron, Prime Minister
“Forever buying more and more things does not
improve our wellbeing and cannot be sustained
with the Earth’s finite resources.”
Jo Swinson, Liberal Democrat MP
Source: Young Foundation
(2010)
9
10. So…
• Can we make happiness the ultimate goal of UK politics?
This makes politicians nervous:
- Whose happiness? (Working class? Elderly? City dwellers?)
- Problems of progressive taxation
- Result: the ultimate ‘Nanny State’?
• More sensible (and realistic) perhaps to use research on
happiness to guide politics.
Aim: the happy (‘unselfish’) variety of Capitalism
Deutsche Bank 2006, James 2007
10
11. 3. MEASURING HAPPINESS
How do we measure happiness?
• Is it possible to just ask?
• Happy people or happy places? (Ballas & Dorling 2007)
• How are we doing in the North East?
11
12. 1 Groningen (NL) 26 Strasbourg (FR) 51 Manchester (UK)
2 Kraków (PL) 27 Dortmund (DE) 52 Riga (LV)
3 Leipzig (DE) 28 Helsinki (FI) 53 Liège (BE)
4 Aalborg (DK) 29 Bordeaux (FR) 54 Rotterdam (NL)
5 København (DK) 30 Amsterdam (NL) 55 Torino (IT)
6 Newcastle upon Tyne 31 Lille (FR) 56 Berlin (DE)
7 Cluj-Napoca (RO) 32 Wien (AT) 57 Bruxelles / Brussel (BE)
8 Luxembourg (LU) 33 Ljubljana (SL) 58 Warszawa (PL) EU
9 Gda sk (PL)
ń 34 Cardiff (UK) 59 Ankara (TR) Perception
10 Oulu (FI) 35 Dublin (IE) 60 Antalya (TR) Survey
11 Hamburg (DE) 36 Stockholm (SE) 61 Madrid (ES)
12 Piatra Neam (RO)
ţ 37 Bologna (IT) 62 Marseille (FR)
13 Málaga (ES) 38 Barcelona (ES) 63 Sofia (BG)
14 Graz (AT) 39 Praha (CZ) 64 Lefkosia (CY)
15 Tallinn (EE) 40 Bia ystok (PL)
ł
ł
ł
ł 65 Budapest (HU) 2006
16 Košice (SK) 41 Ostrava (CZ) 66 Valletta (MT)
17 München (DE) 42 Roma (IT) 67 Miskolc (HU)
18 Oviedo (ES) 43 Malmö (SE) 68 Palermo (IT)
19 Rennes (FR) 44 Antwerpen (BE) 69 London (UK)
20 Burgas (BG) 45 Glasgow (UK) 70 Frankfurt an der Oder (DE)
21 Verona (IT) 46 Irakleio (EL) 71 Diyarbak r (TR)
ı
22 Braga (PT) 47 Lisboa (PT) 72 Bucure ti (RO)
ş
23 Vilnius (LT) 48 Paris (FR) 73 Istanbul (TR)
24 Belfast (UK) 49 Essen (DE) 74 Napoli (IT)
25 Zagreb (HR) 50 Bratislava (SK) 75 Athina (EL) 12
13. British Household Panel Survey
Percentage of individuals (by social class)
who answered that they were ‘less
happy’ or ‘much less happy’ to the BHPS
question: ‘Have you recently been
feeling reasonably happy, all things
considered?’
Source: after Ballas (2009)
13
14. 4. HAPPY NEWCASTLE?
Residents’ Survey 2009
Q31. All things considered, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you
with your life as a whole nowadays?
Very Satisfied Fairly Satisfied Neither Satisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied Don’t know
nor dissatisfied
• What are the different geographies of happiness within
Newcastle?
14
20. Implications for the Local Development Framework
Currently agreed ‘happiness’ targets:
NI 004: % of people who feel they can influence decisions in
their locality
NI 021: Dealing with local concerns about anti-social behaviour
and crime by the local council and police
NI 116: Proportion of children in poverty
NI 119: Self-reported measure of people's overall health and
wellbeing
NI 140: Fair treatment by local services
NI 155: Number of affordable homes delivered (gross)
NI 158: % non-decent council homes
20
21. Implications for the Local Development Framework
Additional ‘happiness’ targets:
NI 002: % of people who feel they belong to their neighbourhood
NI 017: Perceptions of anti-social behaviour
NI 023: Perceptions that people in the area treat one another with
respect and dignity
NI 050: Emotional health of children
NI 110: Young people’s participation in positive activities
NI 118: Take up of formal childcare by low-income working
families
NI 160: Local Authority tenants’ satisfaction with landlord services
NI 176: Working age people with access to employment by public
21
transport (and other specified modes)
22. Implications for the Sustainable Community Strategy
• A targeting of ‘unhappier’ wards for policy
interventions
• A focus on meeting the needs of parents and
children
• A re-emphasis on efforts to develop the relationship
between the council and the residents of Newcastle
• An investigation into the quality of housing available
to residents
• An extension of the concept of ‘wellbeing’ beyond
the parameters of ‘health’ and ‘welfare’
22
23. How do we measure happiness?
• Is it possible to just ask?
• Happy people or happy places? (Ballas & Dorling 2007)
• Ask friends and family (Layard 2007)
• Explore the impact of Major Life Events
• Capture it at three scales (Young Foundation 2010)
23
24. Methodological Implications
Q31. All things considered, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you
with your life as a whole nowadays?
Very Satisfied Fairly Satisfied Neither Satisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied Don’t know
nor dissatisfied
• Phrasing of question
• Placement of the question within the Residents’ Survey
• Addition of ‘Major Life Events’
24
25. Alternative Residents’ Survey
Q.1 Have you been recently feeling reasonably happy, all things considered?
Much more so More so Much the same Less so Much less so Don’t Know
Q.2 Over the last year, what single factor has had the biggest influence on
your happiness?
Health related event(s) Education Employment Leisure
Births and Deaths Relationships Finance Other
Q.42 If you could improve one aspect of your life, what would it be?
Health Education Work fulfilment Leisure time
Family Community and friends Financial situation Housing Other
25
26. 5. WAYS FORWARD
(a) Building up the evidence base
• Collect more data:
-- re-design elements of the Residents’ Survey
-- explore the relationship between perception and
objective measure
-- investigate the geographies of these patterns
-- conduct more qualitative work
• Use this data through more extensive data analysis
• Be more critical of the methods used to collect happiness
data
26
27. (b) Using the evidence
• Look to get the methodological balance right before
weighing up policy decisions based on happiness research
• Investigate the ways in which quality of housing, community
safety and trust in the council influence happiness in Ncl
• Relate the happiness agenda in Newcastle to a wider set of
life circumstances
Use this research (when complete) to guide decision
making at the Council
27
30. The Kingdom of Bhutan
• ‘Happiness’ as the national indicator
• Total ban on advertising
• Shopkeepers forbidden from displaying Coca Cola
signs
• Plastic bags banned
• Voluntarily low GDP/capita
(BBC 2006, Bok 2010, Layard 2007)
30
31. Wellbeing Measures
(Defra’s Sustainable Development Agenda)
_
Those measures that are numbered are existing sustainable development
indicators, along with any related supplementary wellbeing measures:
-
39. Fear of crime - Perceptions of anti-social behaviour 41. Workless
households 43. Childhood poverty 45. Pensioner poverty 47. Education
50. Healthy life expectancy - Self-reported general health
- Self-reported long-standing illness
51. Mortality rates (suicide) - Mortality rates for those with severe
mental illness
31
32. 57. Accessibility 59. Social justice 60. Environmental equality 62.
Housing conditions 66. Satisfaction with local area - Trust in people in
neighbourhood - Influencing local and national decisions 68.
Wellbeing - Overall life satisfaction - Positive and negative feelings
- Engagement in positive activities
- Local environment - Positive and negative feelings - Feelings of
safety - Health and physical activity
- Bullying - Green space - Cultural participation - Positive
mental health
32
33. Recommendations of the Young Foundation (2010)
1. School lessons to build up children’s resilience
2. Health provision that gives more weight to patient experience and
wellbeing
3. Community projects that encourage neighbour interaction
4. Parenting programmes that support parents’ wellbeing (as well as
children’s)
5. Support to isolated older people to maintain social networks
6. Apprenticeships and programmes for teenagers that strengthen
psychological fitness
7. Planning, transport and school policies that encourage more
exercise
8. Transport and economic policies that encourage lower commuting
33
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