Short Abstract:

What does the WeD approach to wellbeing show us of the nature of crises and the response of different kinds of people in different places? This panel shows diverse ways that WeD’s approach has been applied and developed and explores some possible futures.

Long Abstract:

Drawing together different traditions in the social sciences, the Wellbeing in Developing Countries ESRC research group (WeD) stressed the interconnection of three critical dimensions of wellbeing: the material, relational and subjective (Gough and McGregor, 2007). This approach to human wellbeing challenged both the predominant focus on the subjective in psychology and over-reliance on objective indicators in economics and social indicators research. A growing preoccupation with wellbeing – marking something that is lacking – may itself be a response to a sense of crisis (White, 2017) and the WeD approach has been applied in analysing how crises of different kinds impact on people around the world (McGregor, 2011). The conceptual and methodological innovation of WeD has been adopted and extended in different academic disciplines, country contexts and policy and practice. This panel aims to reflect on this legacy, evaluate its achievements, and explore possible future directions.

WeD (2002-2007) was the largest grant ever held by the Centre for Development Studies, Bath, involving all members of CDS at that time, others across the University, and teams in the four study countries: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Peru and Thailand. This panel brings together some of the original WeD participants with those who have come to the framework more recently and developed it further in different academic disciplines and applied contexts. The panel will include short presentations of papers and space for facilitated discussions about what has been learned about advancing human wellbeing, the scope of conceptual, methodological and practical innovations, and the challenges that remain.

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