Human Well-being: Concepts and Conceptualizations

Abstract

Economic measures of income have ignored large areas of human well-being and are poor measures of well-being in the areas to which they attend. Despite increased recognition of those distortions, 'GNP per capita continues to be regarded as the quintessential indicator of a country's living standard' (Partha Dasgupta). Well-being seems to have intuitive plausibility as a concept, but in practice we encounter a bewilderingly diverse family of concepts and approaches, partly reflecting different contexts, purposes, and foci of attention. Is there a unifying framework that yet respects the complexity and diversity of well-being? This paper presents an imperfect comparative and integrative framework that builds on the contributions by Sen and others. We move toward the framework gradually, since well-being concepts are in fact complex entitities which reflect pictures of personhood and of science. Insight grows through surveying a wide range of relevant experience and views, before risking blinkering one's vision in a framework. The paper then uses the framework to examine conceptualizations of human well-being, by Dasgupta, Sen, Nussbaum, Doyal and Gough, and Alkire.

Uncounted or illusory blessings? Competing responses to the Easterlin, Easterbrook and Schwartz paradoxes of well‐being

“…The concept of well-being is used to refer to any and all of many well-evaluated aspects of life (Gasper, 2007a). We should distinguish at least three levels: first, having, the holding of resources and things; second, living as being and doing, as activity (and the potentials for activities); and third, mental states, feelings, satisfactions.…”

“…On this basis, a conceptualisation of well-and ill-being should reflect at least the following elementary aspects of human living, which are undervalued or ignored in measures of income and consumption (Gasper, 2007a):…”

Felicidad y bienestar subjetivo

“…Por lo general, se considera que la integración de los conceptos de bienestar subjetivo y bienestar psicosocial son elementos del constructo de la felicidad (Escalante, 2016). Sin embargo, Gasper (2004) manifiesta que el concepto de bienestar tiene ambigüedades y se lo debe "tratar como una noción general" (p.7).…”

Indicators and Index for Rural Area: Case Study at Pekan Parit Raja, Johor, Malaysia

“…In the terms of concept and definition of well-being, it may cover wide scope of area and difficult to explain and thus measuring it will be difficult to perform. However, according to Gasper (2003), measurement for well-being without theory had existed since 1940"s by economist. Generally, wellbeing needs to be measured socially and economically.…”

“…Well-being is a wide concept comprises multiple elements and has many relations that make it harder to be described (Gasper 2003). According to Travers and Richardson (1993), well-being concept was seen, referring to many aspects of human life.…”