Towards a wellbeing economy
- Submission status
- Open
- Submission deadline
Economic inequality harms societies, leading to increased anxiety, heath disparities and social unrest. Economists and policymakers have become increasingly concerned with re-evaluating how we think about the connection between the global economic system, and public health and wellbeing. The recent Covid-19 pandemic further threw this connection into sharper relief.
Against this backdrop, there is a growing consensus that the narrow metrics of prosperity traditionally used in economic discussion—such as per capita GDP—are not fit for purpose since they too often disregard socio-economic and health inequalities. Instead, governments and other bodies are increasingly making use of alternative indicators to assess a country’s and its citizens’ wellbeing and to inform policymaking and economic planning.
It is in this context that the concept of the ‘Wellbeing economy’ has gained prominence. This involves defining success and progress in society as the meeting of every human’s needs—that is, conceptualising ‘growth’ in terms of human wellbeing, quality of life, and environmental sustainability. In considering how a ‘wellbeing economy’ can be built, the guiding question thus becomes: how can the economy best serve people and planet?
This collection welcomes research that considers how different actors (businesses, development agencies, individuals and governments) are contributing to the transformation of global and regional economies into one that prioritises human and environmental wellbeing.
Research is welcomed on a range of themes including, but not limited to:
• Evaluation of wellbeing using metrics that go beyond GDP;
• Analysis and discussion concerning the transformation of the global economic system into one that aims to meet the objectives of the ‘wellbeing economy’;
• Economic interventions and efforts to increase upward social mobility, improve people’s quality of living, and to support healthy and resilient individuals and communities
• Initiatives to reduce socio-economic inequalities through fairer distribution of resources;
• Preventative actions to mitigate societal problems (e.g., regional development plans, investment in new technologies, etc.);
• Economic and development interventions to ensure environmental and social sustainability, and to create a harmonious relationship between society and nature;
• Blockers to the realisation of a wellbeing economy.
Contributions are encouraged from a range of disciplinary vantage points including: economics, finance, business studies, development studies, political science, international relations, public health, and public policy.
Papers should have an explicit connection to the concept of the ‘wellbeing economy’ and its broader goals. Papers that do not meet this criterion can be considered for the journal’s general section.
