Professor Claire Wallace Freedom and Necessity: class differences and coping strategies in times of economic crisis. Split, Croatia, October 2015

Easterlin paradox: GDP rose but happiness did not (in USA)

Measuring wellbeing Beyond GDP arguments taken up by international bodies and national governments (OECD, European Commission, British, Italian, French, German Governments) Way of looking at measuring wellbeing rather than wealth, of happiness rather than misery Way of taking into account subjective preferences Co-operation of economists and psychologists – what about sociologists? Measurements of success: outputs or inputs? Measurements of success: index or dashboard? Qualitative or quantitative?

Problems Individualistic approach to wellbeing – fits with neo-liberal agenda and therapeutic culture Improve yourself or take a tablet – happiness industry (Davies 2015) Social context hinted at but ignored – not theorised. Experiences of wellbeing and conditions of wellbeing different. Agenda set by affluent societies Fits with idea of consumerist modernity (Bauman) Focus on individual means no longer look at social problems Normative yardstick for measuring success (Ahmed and Ehrenreich)

Individual approaches vs social approaches Individual Wellbeing (e.g. Mindfulness, Positive psychology etc.) OR Quality of Life - Conditions that make a good life possible.

Three approaches to measuring happiness in surveys Hedonic: are you happy? OR: life satisfaction Eudaimonic: leading a flourishing life (virtuous) Mental health (not being miserable)

From happiness to quality of life Quality of life approaches try to go beyond individual happiness to measure a variety of domains Subjective and objective measures used Way of informing policies Domains can be drilled down to indicators BUT Problem with this approach is that it results in a list of indicators with no criteria for choosing one or the other Generally a-theoretical or theory has been submerged Can it include non-European and poorer countries?

Indicators Quality of Life approach (GESIS) European Foundation OECD Better Life EUROSTAT Oxfam Humankind Index ONS (UK) BES (Italy) Income/economic wellbeing Employment/productive activity/working conditions Housing/local environment Household and family relations/population Health Work-Life balance Education and vocational training Social connections/participatoin Civic engagement Public services/governance Environment Personal security/crime and public security Subjective wellbeing/evaluation of life situation Transport and mobility Leisure and culture Tolerance of equalities/tension between groups Landscape and cultural heritage Research and innovation Dashboard Index

Sociological approaches Group of scholars developed around “happiness studies” (Cieslik, Bartram, Hyman, Thin) Should see happiness as biographical project How people reflect on their lives Socially constructed Qualitative rather than quantitative BUT Sociological alternatives based on individual interviews – social constructionist Need for an approach that looks at the quality of society

The Decent Society – an approach to societal quality

Socio-Economic Security Protection from poverty Economic security across the life course Having enough to live on appropriate to the society you live in Enabling people to support themselves and lead a decent life

Social Cohesion Glue that holds society together making it more than just a collection of individuals Shared set of expectations – understanding the “rules of the game” Managing diversity and tensions Trust in others and in government Shared identity and purpose Working for the common good

Social inclusion Membership of society Access to resources and day to day activities Involvement in civil society and decision making Recognition and responsibility (rights) for all people Able to have voices heard Inclusion in neighbourhood, social networks, families

Social Empowerment Having agency – people able to control own lives and participate in cultural, economic and social opportunities Building capacities for empowering individuals and communities Good health and education Enjoying dignity and respect Increasing range of opportunities for groups and people – making voices heard

Social quality more than quality of lie Understanding of collective as well individual dimensions Understanding of agency and structure Understanding of social integration and system integration Understanding of changing social world – mobility, digital communications etc. Understanding of levels of society – family, community, network, national society, Europe, the world Understanding of different positions of structural groups Understanding of social in relation to economic/psychological Cultural dimensions? Might we find that e.g. Family is more important in some cultures than others and different meaning what family is? How to compare quality of society over time and across nation? Point to issues that are relevant for public policy

Ways of applying Societal Quality - post communism (1) We started by looking at the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in 1990s and early 2000s (Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan) Retreat of state, removal of economic security, existential uncertainty, collapse or retreat of state institutions Mass emigration (in Moldova and Georgia) resulted in changed family relationships (parents-children, men-women) Proved a good model of society from which to understand what was going wrong People no longer understood the rules of the game. Health consequences also a result of social and system collapse Not due so much to life style factors (smoking, drinking and diet) but to sense of disorientation and dislocation (anomie). No longer understanding the rules of the game Survival strategies on a micro level

Ways of understanding Societal Quality (2) Improving societies Compare improvement in Accession States between 2003 and 2007 Economic factors less important in 2007 than 2003 Empowerment more important – feeling able to control life and not feeling left out Social cohesion more important and inclusion still important

Effects of Recession? Life satisfaction in Europe rose on average from 7.0 to 7.1 Plunging life satisfaction in Greece, Slovenia and Slovakia In other parts of ECE it rose. Fell in the Nordic countries (apart from DK) Rose in the UK and Ireland

Ways of understanding Societal Quality (3) European Social Survey 2012 Offered a far wider range of variables Module on wellbeing 2012 Did not measure against life satisfaction but rather tried to construct quadrants from range of relevant domains Social quality index Predictable results (Norway on the top and Ukraine on the bottom) but composition of SQ differed – countries scored higher or lower on different quadrants

CroatiaMacedonia Constant Age-young (ref=middle age) * Age-old (ref=middle age) Rural (re=urban) Female (ref=male) Socio-Economic Security Deprived (re=not deprived)-0.948**-1.197** Inadequate income (ref=adequate income)-0.781**-0.422* Accommodation problems (ref= less than 2 accommodation problems **-.704** Social Cohesion Trust in institutions high (ref=medium) Trust in institutions low-0.498**-0.666** Quality of health services high (ref=medium)0.763**0.451* Quality of health services low-0.327* Social Inclusion Unemployed (ref= -employed)-0.582*-0.960** Retired (ref=employed) Other inactive (ref=employed) Living with others (ref=living alone) Extensive social contacts (ref=not extensive)0.313* Expected financial help from family (ref=others or nobody) ** Give help: money/food (ref=no help given) ** Religious (ref=attended religious service less than 2x per week) Social Empowerment Post secondary and tertiary education Fair bad or very bad health (ref=good health)-0.485**-0.574** R-squared N909863

Life satisfaction and quality of life in Croatia and Macedonia(2007) Variance explained is high in both countries (34% and 31%) Economic security is most important. Not having sufficient resources lowers life satisfaction dramatically Social cohesion: trust in institutions and the quality of institutions raises life satisfaction Social inclusion: unemployment by far the most negative factor. Otherwise having extensive social contacts in Croatia and informal social support are important in Macedonia Social Empowerment: good health is important but a high level of education is not (no subjective empowerment variables were considered in this analysis)

Ways of understanding Societal Quality (4) Community wellbeing Community wellbeing analysed through fieldwork and research online looking at how community projected itself on websites and social media Community well being: social networks and associations, sense of belonging and working for the common good of the community Four rural communities were studied Communities can be a place where people build up meaningful identities Community wellbeing about bridging divisions within the community between outsiders and locals, social classes, young and old. Community depends upon local social enterprise, online and offline places to meet and communicate, events and festivals bringing people together, presence of creative middle class, good communications

Conclusions Great fashion to use happiness as approach but many critiques Need to understand social dimension, social context Quality of life approaches an improvement on single indicators of happiness and satisfaction Societal quality approach a development of this Need to apply this across the world to non-affluent as well as affluent societies Need to apply it to community as well as national level. Qualitative as well as quantitative approaches