Well-being and consumer culture: a different kind of public health problem?
The concept of well-being is now of interest to many disciplines; as a consequence, it presents an increasingly complex and contested territory. We suggest that much current thinking about well-being can be summarized in terms of four main discourses: scientific, popular, critical and environmental. Exponents of the scientific discourse argue that subjective well-being is now static or declining in developed countries: a paradox for economists, as incomes have grown considerably. Psychological observations on the loss of subjective well-being have also entered popular awareness, in simplified form, and conceptions of well-being as happiness are now influencing contemporary political debate and policy-making. These views have not escaped criticism. Philosophers understand well-being as part of a flourishing human life, not just happiness. Some social theorists critique the export of specific cultural concepts of well-being as human universals. Others view well-being as a potentially divisive construct that may contribute to maintaining social inequalities. Environmentalists argue that socio-cultural patterns of over-consumption, within the neo-liberal economies of developed societies, present an impending ecological threat to individual, social and global well-being. As the four discourses carry different implications for action, we conclude by considering their varied utility and applicability for health promotion.
Carlisle
Sandra
S
Public Health and Health Policy, Glasgow University, Glasgow, UK. s.carlisle@clinmed.gla.ac.uk
Hanlon
Phil
P
D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003469:Culture; D006240:Happiness; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011593:Psychology, Social; D011634:Public Health; D012933:Social Identification