Wellbeing research and policy in the U.K.: questionable science likely to entrench inequality. Issue 5 (20th October 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Price, Leigh
• Is Part Of: Journal of critical realism. Volume 16:Issue 5(2017)
• Page Start: 451
• Page End: 467
• Publication Date: 2017-10-20
• Subjects: Wellbeing -- happiness -- inequality -- Easterlin Paradox -- What Works Centre for Wellbeing; Critical realism -- Periodicals; Réalisme critique; 149.205
• DOI: 10.1080/14767430.2017.1371985
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1476-7430

Abstract

ABSTRACT: There are grave issues with how the U.K. government approaches the issue of wellbeing. Specifically, policy interventions that might improve the material conditions of citizens are being down-played, and at times out-rightly dismissed. Instead, an individualist, instrumental message is being promoted, namely, that the best way to improve wellbeing is by improving individual happiness and mental health. I argue that this instrumental message – which in practice blames the victims for their lack of happiness and removes state responsibility – can be made to sound feasible because of a reliance on positivist-based research, whether obtained objectively (by measuring material conditions) or subjectively (by measuring stated levels of happiness). In this paper, I therefore detail the failings of mainstream wellbeing research and its policy conclusions, and argue that critical realism offers solutions.