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Defining and Measuring Human Well-Being
Global Environmental Change
Handbook of Global Environmental Pollution
Format: Book Chapter
Publication Date: Nov 30, 2013
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Place of Publication: Dordrecht
Pages: 833 - 855
Sources ID: 86471
Visibility: Public (group default)
Abstract: (Show)
Human well-being is a complex concept that has been contested across the social and political sciences. This chapter considers three broad approaches to the concept and measurement of human well-being along with their respective merits from a cross-disciplinary perspective. The three broad approaches in question embrace utility (happiness, desire fulfillment, and preference), material well-being (most notably, income and resources), and “list-orientated” views (needs, rights, and capabilities). The final part of the chapter explicitly links human well-being with environmental issues and various notions of sustainable development. It is suggested that the idea of “sustainable human development” can help resolve the apparent tension between poverty reduction (involving more consumption) on the one hand and environmental conservation and sustainability on the other. Above all, a more comprehensive account of human well-being is required to bridge the gap between mental and physical states and to take note of the environmental and material basis of sustainable well-being.