Happiness: Notes on History, Culture and Governance

Abstract

In this paper, I explore the emergence of happiness and well-being as keystones of contemporary EuroAmerican culture. Drawing on the relationship between disciplinary enterprises and forms of governance, as well as on cross-cultural comparison with fa’asamoa (the Samoan Way), I work to situate the current EuroAmerican obsession with happiness and well-being as a cultural formation – that is, as an artifact of a historically and culturally unique set of patterns and forces – thus problematizing its taken-for-granted status, in academic and policy-making circles, as a self-evident and universal goal with universal characteristics. I pay particular attention to the forms of governance that the contemporary orientation to happiness inaugurates and instantiates.

The positive relationship between Indigenous language use and community-based well-being in four Nahua ethnic groups in Mexico.

“…Whereas it is possible to distinguish the physical, social, emotional, economic, cultural, spiritual, and subjective dimensions of Indigenous well-being (Fleming & Manning, 2019), it is necessary to emphasize that Indigenous people tend to have a more holistic, relational, and collective view of health, happiness, and a “good life” (cf. Durie, 2006; Gonzalez et al, 2020; Kading et al, 2015; Kingfisher, 2013; McCubbin et al, 2013; McGregor et al, 2003; Nguyen & Cairney, 2013; Ruttenberg, 2013; Tiessen et al, 2009; Yap & Yu, 2016). Depending on the Indigenous group, culture-oriented indicators of well-being may relate to language retention, cultural continuity, and autonomy, the sense of belonging to a land and a culture (Biddle & Swee, 2012; Chandler & Lalonde, 1998; Dockery, 2010; Echo-Hawk et al, 2011; Kading et al, 2019; Le Grande et al, 2017; Manuela & Sibley, 2015; Marmion et al, 2014) or to enculturation as a protective factor, including traditional ways of life (Stumblingbear-Riddle & Romans, 2012; Wolsko et al, 2007).…”

Negative Reflections About Positive Psychology: On Constraining the Field to a Focus on Happiness and Personal Achievement

“…Other scholars, writing from non-Western perspectives, have highlighted that the assumptions of positive psychology are often presented as not only universal but also applicable to individuals of “all times, all spaces,” although they are not reflective of cultural values and beliefs of many cultural groups. Specifically, positive psychology continues Western emphasis on mind-body-spirit split, which is inconsistent with many indigenous perspectives: In many cultures, mental states and attitudes are not viewed as separate from physical or spiritual well-being (Ahmed, 2010; Christopher & Hickinbottom, 2008; Kingfisher, 2013). Personal challenges and tribulations are viewed as ancestral forms of communication, spiritual lessons, important initiations into particular social standing, or indications of imbalance (Duran & Duran, 1995; Kim, Yang, & Hwang, 2006; McCubbin & Marsella, 2009; Wendt & Gone, 2012).…”

‘The unbearable surplus of being human’: Happiness, virtues and the delegitimisation of the negative

“…This particular conceptualisation of happiness emerges from the field of positive psychology in particular, and critics have drawn attention to its close affinity to the needs of late neoliberal capitalism. Kingfisher (2013) notes, wryly: ‘it just so happens that the type of person most valorized by neoliberalism is the type of person most valorized by positive psychology. Positive psychology and neoliberalism both emphasize—and attempt to render normative—a particular personality type: the self‐examining, self‐governing, autonomous, positive, entrepreneurial self’ (p. 77).…”