The Wellbebe Project

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The Wellbebe Project

• Présentation at the séminar
• Redefining Prosperity
• IRES-UCL
• Louvain-La-Neuve
• 12/02/2008
• Paul-Marie Boulanger
• Institut
  pour un
• Développement Durable

2
Organisation The network

• 1 Institut pour un développement durable (IDD)
  (coordinator) 34 M/Months financed
• 2 Centre dEtude du Développement Durable
  (CEDD/IGEAT)- ULB 32 M/Months financed
• 3 Hoger instituut voor de Arbeid (HIVA) KUL 32
  M/Months financed
• TOTAL 98 M/Months

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The WELLBEBE project objectives

• Working out a index of well-being in Belgium
• Usable in designing and assessing sustainable
  development policies
• Theory based (no measurement without theory)
• Subject to the test of  public reasoning 

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The  WELLBEBE  project methods (1)?

• Literature analysis theoretical and empirical
• Focus groups on dimensions, constituents and
  determinants of well-being
• Q-Methodology in search for communalities (and
  weights) in conceptions of W-B
• Data collection, scoreboard and well-being index
  construction (normalisation and aggregation)?

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The  WELLBEBE  project methods (2)?

• Sample survey and multi-variate statistical
  analysis in order to obtain additional
  information on
• Relations between conception of the good life,
  objective conditions and subjective satisfaction
• Statistically significant weights for the index
• Causalmapping for simulating and analysing the
  possible impacts of likely SD policies on
  well-being

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Time schedule work packages (2007-2010)?

• 2007-2008
• WP1 Theories and measures of well-being the
  state of the art
• WP2 Social discourses on well-being report form
  focus groups and Q-Sortings
• WP3 A blueprint for the index of well-being
• WP7.1. First workshop on intermediary results
• 2009-2010
• WP4 Sample survey design, conduct and analysis
• WP5 Building and testing the index
• WP6 Implications for and simulations of
  sustainable development policies
• WP7.2 Final workshop

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Sustainable development and well-being

• The project is funded by the Belgian Science
  Policy as part of the Science for Sustainable
  Development Program
• Sustainable development as sustainable well-being
  gt
• Maximisation of well-being for all
  (intragenerational equity at the global level)
• At the least environmental cost
• (intergenerational equity requirement)?
• gt SD WB/EF
• Indicator Well-being/Environmental load

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Index construction
Concept
Conceptual analysis
Dimensions
Variables identification selection
Measurements
Indicators
Normalisation
Weighting
Aggregation
INDEX
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Example Human Development Index
Human Development
Education
Income
Health
Adults literacy rate 0.67
Life expectancy at birth
GDP/head

Children enrolment 0.33
Normalisation
Normalisation
S / 3HDI
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Well-being conceptions, determinants and
indicators
CAPABILITY
OUTCOMES
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Well-being conceptions

• Subjective (happiness)
• Affects
• Evaluations
• Objective lists ? What underpinnings
• Needs satisfaction
• Capability-Functionings (?)
• Mixed
• Capability-Functionings (?)
• QoL (Cummings)
• .

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Subjective well-being (SWB)

• Affective account
• SWB S (Positive or pleasant feelings) S
  (Negative or unpleasant feelings)
• Cognitive (evaluative) account
• SWB S (Positive or pleasant evaluations) S
  (Negative or unpleasant evaluations)
• gt Often a mix of both

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SWB affective account (1)
Example Positive and Negative Affects Schedule
(PANAS-X)
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SWB evaluative account

• Satisfaction with life scale (SWLS)
• In most way, my life is close to my ideal.
• The conditions of my life are excellent.
• I am satisfied with my life.
• So far, I have gotten the important things I
  want in life.
• If I could live my life over, I would change
  almost nothing.
• Personal Well-Being Index (PWI) How
  satisfied are you with.
• Your standard of living?
• Your health?
• What you are achieving in life?
• Your personal relationships?
• How safe you feel?
• Feeling part of your community?
• Your future security?
• How satisfied are you with your spirituality or
  religion?  a recent (November 2006) addition.

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SWB affective account (2) The Day
Reconstruction Method (Kahneman)
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Psychological Well-Being dimensions (C. Ryff)

• Autonomy being able to follow ones own
  convictions.
• Personal growth having a sense of continued
  development and self-realisation
• Self-acceptance having a positive attitude
  towards oneself and ones past life
• Purpose in life having goals and objectives that
  give life meaning
• Environmental mastery being able to manage
  complex demands of daily life
• Positive relation with others possessing caring
  and trusting ties with others

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The SWB paradox
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Problems with SWB

• Framing (social comparison, aspiration level,
  changes)
• Adaptive preferences (habituation, coping..)
• Mis-assessment
• Causes ?
• Normative implications (helping only the un-happy
  ? Not helping the happy ?)

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Objective vs subjective assessments

•  Objective quality of life assessments are only
  objective in the sense that they are made on the
  basis of inter-subjectively observable, material
  facts about a person weighted by some form of
  socially shared evaluation of how these facts
  impact upon that person quality of life 
  (Morreim, 1986)?
• Objective well-being is a normative concept it
  must be stressed that objective measures of
  well-being always reflect a set of valuesWe only
  measure what is proposed as a value The question
  is how well-argued and/or widely accepted those
  values are. (Gasper, 2004)

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OWB conceptions (1) the BNA approach

• W-B
• satisfaction of fundamental human needs on a
  secure basis
• gt security of access to the (socially defined)
  good-enough level of the (socially defined)
  appropriate satisfiers
• for every material, psychological and social
  need.

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The language of needs

• Dispositional need a need one has simply by
  virtue of being what one is (example water,
  air)?gt biological, psychological and social
  identity
• Occurrent need a need one has by being in a
  state of lack (needing water when being
  dehydrated)?
• Satisfier object of the need

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Needs in ordinary language

• Basic human needs ( Food is a basic human
  need ) dispositional need?
• A lack of basic human needs ( These people are
  starving )? occurrence need
• A satisfier( These people need food relief ).

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The BNA in practice (Braybrooke)

• Identifying needs
• Identifying satisfiers
• Measuring levels of provisions of satisfiers in
  the population
• Defining minimum thresholds of satisfaction
• Comparing actual levels of provision and
  thresholds

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Identifying needs (1) Maslow
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Identifying needs (2) ?

• Kasser ( The High Price of Materialism )
• Safety
• Security
• Sustenance
• Competence
• Efficacy
• Self-esteem
• Connectedness
• Autonomy
• Authenticity

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Identifying needs (3) ?

• Max-Neef
• Subsistence
• Protection
• Affection
• Understanding
• Participation
• Idleness
• Creation
• Identity
• Freedom

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Development in a BNA perspective

• population above the minimum level of provision
  (good enough threshold) for all and every need
• Level of the good enough threshold
• Optimal diversity in available satisfiers
  (because of diversity of talents and preferences)
  freedom as fundamental human need (Connection
  with Sens capability)

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Sources for a BNA approach

• Psychology positive psychology (Ryan Deci, C.
  Ryff, Kasser, Bandura, Csikszentmihalyi),
• Anthropology Malinowski, Colby
• Development economics Stewart, Streeten,
  Max-Neef, Gasper
• Heterodox economics humanistic (Lutz Lux),
  Post-Keynesian, evolutionary
• Moral and political philosophy Wiggins,
  Braybrooke, Reader, Hamilton
• Neo-darwinian evolutionary theory (Bio-cultural
  evolution) well-being as adaptive fitness
  (Corning)

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The Capability-functioning approach
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Sens conception of quality of life
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Functionings

•  The well-being of a person can be seen in terms
  of the quality (the well-ness, as it were) of
  the persons being. Living may be seen as
  consisting of a set of interrelated
  functionings, consisting of beings and doings.
  The relevant functionings can vary from such
  elementary things as being adequately nourished,
  being in good health, avoiding escapable
  morbidity and premature mortality, etc. to more
  complex achievements such as being happy, having
  self-respect, taking part in the life of the
  community, and son on. The claim is that
  functionings are constitutive of a persons
  being, and an evaluation of well-being has to
  take the form of an assessment of these
  constituent elements. 
• (Sen 1992, p.38).

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Well-being and agency
  A persons agency achievement refer to the
realization of goals and values she has reasons
to pursue, whether or not they are connected with
their own well-being. A person as an agent need
not be guided only by her own well-being, and
agency achievements refer to the persons success
in the pursuit of the totality of her considered
goals and objectives.  (p.56)
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Capability set
 Closely related to the notion of functionings
is that of the capability to function. It
represents the various combinations of
functionings (beings and doings) that the person
can achieve. Capability, is thus, a set of
vectors of functionings, reflecting the persons
freedom to lead one type of life or another.the
capability set in the functioning space
reflects the persons freedom to choose from
possible livings  (Sen, 1992, p.40)?
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Capabilties or functionings ? In brief.

• Emphasis on functionings individual achieved
  well-being
• Emphasis on capabilities  social quality 
  (opportunities)?
• Distinction not always clear   fasting as
  functioning is not just starving it is choosing
  to starve when one does have other options 
  (p.52).

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The CA in practice main problems

• Choice between functionings and capabilities
• What about agency ?
• Selection of relevant capabilities (or
  functionings)?
• If capabilities how to measure ?

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What capabilities or functionings ?
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BNA vs CA

• Matter of justice
• BNA outcome-oriented (satisfaction of needs)
  including agency needs (Hamilton) or autonomy
  (Ryan Deci)
• CA opportunities-oriented (capabilities to
  function) OR both (functionings capabilities)?
• Maxim of justice ?
• BNA sufficentarian prioritarian
• CA ? Equalitarian ?
• Satiation ?