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- Convenors:
-
Sarah White
(University of Bath)
Allister McGregor (University of Bath)
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- Format:
- Paper panel
- Stream:
- Resilience and wellbeing
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.
Description:
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.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
Wellbeing policies typically focus on individual behaviour change. But human behaviour depends critically on context. Embedding wellbeing-informed practice within institutions’ structures, processes and actions transforms a key context that shapes behaviour, enabling systemic and individual change.
Paper long abstract:
The importance to wellbeing of relationships and of context were two of the key insights of the Wellbeing in Developing Countries (WeD) research programme, 2002-7. This paper shows what can be achieved by placing these two insights at the core of a policy or programme to advance wellbeing. Conceptually, it sets out the key concept of relational wellbeing, an approach that recognises connection as at the heart of wellbeing and centres relationships in strategies to promote it. This again builds on WeD foundations, understanding wellbeing as composed of three interlinked dimensions: what people can be and do, what they think and feel, and how they relate and connect to others.
Programmatically, the paper describes the approach of wellbeing-informed practice, which aims to engender relational wellbeing at an institutional level. Wellbeing-informed practice combines relational structures and processes with specific initiatives to promote wellbeing and person-centred practice which enables individuals to thrive. Empirically, the paper draws in particular on the case of an international school in Hong Kong, which applies wellbeing-informed practice to an impressive degree. With respect to policy, the paper questions the overwhelming emphasis on behaviour change, which locates the main responsibility for action with individuals. Instead, it argues that systemic change will be achieved by changing institutional structures, processes and actions, since these form a significant part of the context which shapes group and individual behaviour, and so enable and constrain their capacities for change.
Paper short abstract:
This paper investigates how development plans in LMICs address the effects of climate change on well-being amidst a pervasive climate crisis and the uncertainty it engenders. This will clarify research gaps to guide future research and practice supporting socially vulnerable populations.
Paper long abstract:
This study investigates the multifaceted and intersecting social dimensions of climate change on human well-being (Mearns and Norton, 2010) through an Evidence and Gap Map (EGM) developed in accordance with Campbell Collaboration guidelines (White et al., 2020). While substantial research has illuminated how climate change impacts on physical and mental health in higher-income countries (WHO, 2023; Lawrance et al., 2022), knowledge remains fragmented and elusive regarding existing interventions designed to prevent or mitigate its effects on broader well-being outcomes of socially vulnerable populations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
The study is grounded in the premise that well-being, and by extension, social development, is influenced by climate change across multiple dimensions, including health, employment, education, housing and social cohesion (Dorji et al., 2023). Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) socio-ecological model (SEM) and the OECD’s How’s Life? framework (OECD, 2024), this research also builds upon Gough and McGregor’s (2007) seminal work on well-being in developing countries. While Bronfenbrenner’s model provides a structured framework for categorising interventions, the OECD framework offers a nuanced lens to explore the well-being outcomes these interventions seek to address.
The findings aim to inform future research and policymaking by identifying critical gaps and opportunities in designing development interventions that place human well-being at their core, within planetary boundaries (Rockström et al., 2009). This enquiry highlights the importance of formulating public policies that address human needs while promoting environmental sustainability and social equity, fostering resilience and enhancing the quality of life for vulnerable populations in a broader ecosystemic context.
Paper short abstract:
To tell a story around the sorts of methodological innovation WeD enabled, particularly in relation to measurement and the environment, but also relationality and the limits to growth. What was radical, and what now feels like common sense? What might we have seen from a different vantage point?
Paper long abstract:
Understandings of what constitutes good research methodology have changed radically in the past 25 years, even if practice has been slower to follow. This paper takes the notion of a revisit, where an anthropologist returns to a well-known field site, to explore how we would have approached WeD methodologically if we had known then, what we know now. A recent keynote by Bagele Chilisa talked about the development of African principles for evaluation, influenced by ubuntu (humanity to others), which included relationality and spirituality. The former was a key insight from the WeD approach but would we have got to it sooner with a different research approach, for example, one that involved co-research, was more contextual, open to other paradigms, etc. What were the effects of our ontological, epistemological and methodological choices? The paper addresses this via a brief summary of what we did within the WeD project, and how this has been extended methodologically by subsequent work. It then poses a thought experiment around how we might have approached the research using what’s currently thought to be methodological best practice, including decolonial research, and whether these approaches represent something substantially new that would have changed what we found.
Paper short abstract:
This study explores relational wellbeing in flood-prone slum areas using a mixed-method approach. The findings highlight the multidimensional nature of wellbeing, emphasizing socio-cultural and relational aspects.
Paper long abstract:
This study investigates the complex and multidimensional nature of wellbeing in flood-prone slum areas, emphasizing the critical intersection of objective socioeconomic data with subjective assessments. While traditional socioeconomic indicators provide valuable insights, they often fail to capture the nuanced lived experiences of individuals navigating chronic environmental and social challenges. To address this gap, the research explores relational wellbeing, encompassing personal, material, and social dimensions, offering a more comprehensive understanding of live in marginalized communities. Employing a mixed-method approach, we collected quantitative data from 700 respondents across three flood-affected Indonesian cities: Bima (200), Pontianak (300), and Manado (200) – and complemented it with 37 in-depth qualitative interviews conducted in the same locations. The qualitative data contextualizes the survey results, providing deeper insights into the dynamics of relational wellbeing. The findings aligned with White’s (2008) multidimensional wellbeing framework, reveal the und influence of socio-cultural and relational factors in shaping wellbeing amidst crises. Dimensions such as conviviality, economic resilience, and religiosity emerged as the most significant contributors to wellbeing, highlighting the importance of social relationships, environmental contexts, and cultural values. This study underscores the necessity of incorporating both objective and subjective measures to inform policymaking. By addressing wellbeing holistically – considering both material and relational aspects – policy makers and practioners design more effective, inclusive, and sustainable interventions to enhance quality of life in vulnerable communities. In the context of escalating environmental and socio-economic crises, this approach offers a pathway to resilience and long-term recovery.
Paper short abstract:
This paper will explore how Tearfund developed its wellbeing framework, the Light Wheel, and how it is being used to inspire churches to be agents of holistic change in their local communities.
Paper long abstract:
Tearfund’s church and community transformation (CCT) approach involves equipping local churches globally to be agents of change in their communities. Their position within the fabric of society means they are often well placed to be part of crisis response and development initiatives. Over the last ten years, Tearfund has developed and rolled out a holistic wellbeing framework, the Light Wheel, which has proven to be an effective tool for inspiring churches to take a multifaceted view of their local community’s needs. When the Light Wheel is used, we see churches not only responding to people’s spiritual and physical needs, but also including less tangible aspects of wellbeing such as social, emotional and environmental factors. The Light Wheel toolkit also includes holistic, participatory data collection tools which enable CCT groups to themselves measure how change is taking place over time.
This paper will discuss the development of the Light Wheel and how it was first informed by the Wellbeing in Developing Countries research (WeD), as well as the lived experiences of communities globally. Case studies will be used to demonstrate the process and benefits of using the Light Wheel, including how it leads to more holistic outcomes and empowers communities to collect and own their data. We will explore how the Light Wheel methodology is now embedded at all levels of Tearfund’s work, from church and community initiatives to rigorous impact studies and strategies, in order to live out a fully holistic understanding of wellbeing across the organisation.
Paper short abstract:
This paper reaffirms the importance of focussing on human wellbeing in the social sciences. Using examples, it demonstrates how wellbeing has been an integrating concept for social inquiry; how it has necessitated methodological innovation; and that how it is always a political concept.
Paper long abstract:
This paper reaffirms the importance of focussing on human wellbeing in the social sciences.It begins by questioning the idea of crisis. Then, using illustrative examples from applications of the WeD formulation of human wellbeing in research on various manifestations of crisis (in social care, natural resource management and inclusive development), it demonstrates how wellbeing has been an integrating concept for social inquiry, how it has necessitated methodological innovation, and how it is always a political concept. The politics of human wellbeing operate at multiple levels; from the interpersonal, to the intersubjective, to the institutional and to ideational levels. The exploration of the politics of wellbeing provides important, contemporary political insights and challenges.
Paper short abstract:
In Surguja, India, women extend their agency in the family through the moral navigation of wellbeing, while also being constrained by moral assessment. Such insights depend on in-depth qualitative methods and show their value in complementing quantitative-derived perspectives in wellbeing research.
Paper long abstract:
The Wellbeing in Developing Countries (WeD) research programme, 2002-7, showed relationships at the centre of wellbeing. This raises two questions: what form do these relationships take, and how do we best research them?
An earlier study in Zambia suggests ‘moral navigation’ shapes the conduct of inter-household kin-based relationships (White and Jha, 2021). This paper explores moral navigation in India within the household, an arena particularly subject to moral scrutiny. Initial conversations and quantitative surveys presented an idealised version of family relationships, reflecting the strong cultural script of how families ought to be.
Deeper qualitative exploration showed how this script is made and re-made through everyday practice, revealing far more diverse interpretations of what constitutes the moral, and myriad ways in which women express agency. These are often couched in the conventional terms of being ideal wives and mothers, even as they extend the definitions of these ideals. The elasticity of women’s room for manoeuvre is both limited and enabled by others’ evaluation of their moral claims.
Studies such as this provide an important counter-balance to the predominance of quantitative methods in contemporary studies of wellbeing, which construct a technical subject which can be produced through the assembly of appropriate components, and be assessed against universal criteria. In-depth qualitative methods instead reveal contextually grounded, relational subjects, whose wellbeing is governed by moral rather than technical concerns. Limitations are also indicated in using numerical scores to assess areas of life that are subject to particularly strong cultural and moral freight.
Paper short abstract:
Neoliberal Chile is often seen as fragmented and individualistic, yet its community-based resistance offers a different narrative. Using Relational Wellbeing framework and focusing on bodies, this ethnographic study explores two communities compromised with building dignified, collective futures.
Paper long abstract:
Chile is a country marked by deep historical wounds—from colonial and postcolonial processes to the violence of authoritarian regimes and neoliberal frameworks that foster individualization, competition, fragmentation, and distrust. Yet, amid this landscape of "malestar" (discontent), networks of care, resistance, and community forces persist, offering subversive practices that sustain life.
In this context of historical trauma, certain communities have emerged as vital spheres addressing emotional, material, and social needs. The Relational Wellbeing framework, which challenges conventional paradigms of wellbeing, offers interesting lens to analyze these dynamics. This perspective moves beyond individualistic theories, incorporating dimensions rooted in Latin American knowledges. My research examines how these elements play in Chilean community resistance and wellbeing.
Drawing on ethnographic work with two community settings, I investigate how corporeal and relational practices sustain life under shared communitarian visions. Adding to the theory a focus on bodies as material-affective nodes, I explore how collective practices co-construct social fabrics and cultivate dignified futures.
Ultimately, my research aims to reflect on the relational fabric of Chilean communities as a scenario of resistance, care and collective wellbeing, although full of contradictions and challenges. With the results I want to reflect on how life is sustained and reinvented in the face of systemic challenges, underscoring the transformative potential of solidarity when envisioning alternative futures in harsh and unequal contexts.