and WellBeing in an Age of Austerity T he E xistential Dilemma Social Science in the City Dr Graham Taylor Associate Professor in Sociology Department of Health and Applied Social Sciences ID: 132885
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Happiness and Well-Being in an Age of Austerity: The Existential DilemmaSocial Science in the City™
Dr Graham TaylorAssociate Professor in SociologyDepartment of Health and Applied Social SciencesSlide2
Happiness and Well-Being in an Age of Austerity: The Existential DilemmaWhat is Happiness and Well-Being?Well-Being at WorkThe Limits of Well-Being: Public Service Reform and RestructuringThe Existential DilemmaSlide3
The Elusive Search for HappinessMichael Frayn – A Landing on the SunA British prime minister tasks his advisers with looking into happiness and what the government could do to promote it. The prize proved elusive, the adviser went mad and died.Slide4
Gross National Happiness?Kingdom of BhutanBalance between material and non-material and social and spiritual needsOECD: Work of Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen highlight limits of ‘Gross National Income’ and search for alternatives.Slide5
David Cameron“It's time we admitted that there's more to life than money and it's time we focused not just on GDP but on GWB – general wellbeing. Wellbeing can't be measured by money or traded in markets. It's about the beauty of our surroundings, the quality of our culture and, above all, the strength of our relationships. Improving our society's sense of wellbeing is, I believe, the central political challenge of our times."Slide6
Is Britain Happy?
2011 ONS Survey4,200 British adults carried out between April and August 2011 life-satisfaction at 7.4 out of 10financial situation, work and work-life balance situation rated at 6.2, 6.7 and 6.4 respectively
Britons still happy despite financial woes, survey findsSlide7
Can we really measure Happiness and Well-Being?Nicolas Sarkozy: the measuring of happiness a priority.Social Portrait of France (2010). Detailed chapter on methodologies for measuring well-beingStéfan Lollivier, director of social studies at Insee
“You can't measure happiness, it's impossible, people don't have the same preferences for what makes them happy. But you can measure the fraction of people who are dissatisfied, who think they are unhappy, and the proportion of people who are missing out on happiness or feel excluded from it." Slide8
Well-Being: Intellectual TraditionsHedonic PsychologyHappinessPositive EmotionsPresence of positive moodAbsence of negative moodSatisfaction with various domains of life (e.g. work, leisure)Global life satisfactionSlide9
Well-Being: Intellectual TraditionsEudaimonic well-beingAristotleHuman FlourishingContemporary PsychologyAutonomyPersonal growthSelf-acceptancePurpose in lifeEnvironmental masteryPositive relations with others.Slide10
Well-Being: Intellectual TraditionsObjective Well-BeingFunctioning of Human CapacitiesAmartya SenWell-Being as Substantive Freedomlive to old age engage in economic transactionsparticipate in political activitiesSlide11
The Benefits of Well-Being at Work?Organizations:higher productivitycustomer satisfactionorganizational citizenship Individuals:IncomeRelationshipshealth Government:Public spending on welfare and NHSSlide12
Well-Being at Work: Measurement and ImprovementCombine hedonic and eudaimonic aspects of well-beingASSETControl and AutonomyWork (over)LoadProductivityPsychological (Ill) HealthSlide13
But What is Well-Being at Work?For most people, their work is a key determinant of self-worth, family esteem, identity and standing within the community, besides of course, material progress and a means of social participation and progress (Dame Carol Black, Working for a Healthier Tomorrow 2008: 4). Slide14
But What is Well-Being at Work?A dynamic state in which the individual is able to develop their potential, work productively and creatively, build strong and positive relationships with others and contribute to their community. It is enhanced when an individual is able to fulfil their personal and social goals and achieve a sense of purpose in society” (Mental Capital and Wellbeing, Foresight, 2008).Slide15
But What is Well-Being at Work?Psychological and Sociological ComponentsSelf (determined) identity in a social contextThe absence of sociological perspectives on happiness and well-being. Neo-liberalism, Workplace Restructuring and Existential Insecurity (Zygmunt Bauman)Slide16
Case Study: Public Service ProfessionalsIdentity: Caring, duty, empathy. Ending Contradiction: Existential InsecurityRestructuring and Austerity: A Threat to Existential Well-Being?Slide17
Public Service Cuts and Restructuring1970s: Rationalization and Reorganization1980s: Privatization and Marketization1990s: New Public Manangement2000s: Austerity and CutsSlide18
Impact on Public Service IdentitiesPublic service ethos marginalized by a logic of economic rationalization that subsumes diverse practices within a process of rationalized market-based calculability (Du Gay, 1994).Decreasing Scope for critical reflexivityNew divisions based on ‘caring’ and ‘entrepreneurial’ values.Slide19
Self-Identity and Public ServicePublic service identity: Search for meaning in organizations where there were important limits on the extent to which public service labour could be rationalizedPublic Service Work: Variable, socially-responsive and reflexive and based on the conceptualization and amelioration of social problems.Welfare professionals: Self-selective into occupations on the basis of pre-existing political beliefs and values that are hostile to corporate capitalism and morally committed to a fairer society.
Restructuring: Public and Private redefined and rendered ambiguousSlide20
The Limits of Well-BeingAssumes fixed human essence.Assumes essence can be ‘satisfied’ by external conditions manipulated by government or employers.Ahistorical and Apolitical conception of subjectivity (power)Subjectivity and subjective well-being as ‘emergent’, ‘dynamic’ and (potentially) ‘transformative’.Slide21
Re-Centring the Human SubjectSociological TurnsCulturalGlobalComplexityDe-humanizationExistential Turn?Re-CentringRe-humanizationSlide22
Why Sartre?Man…. ‘first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world and defines himself afterwards… Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself’ (Existentialism is a Humanism)
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)Slide23
Why Sartre?‘Existence precedes essence’Freedom ‘We are condemned to be free’ResponsibilityAuthenticitySlide24
Being and NothingnessBeing-in-itselfBeing-for-itselfGap = ‘Nothingness’ = FreedomBeing-for-others > ‘Bad faith’Slide25
Bad FaithObjectificationIndividuals impose limits on own freedom in interaction with othersBad faith > ‘Flight from anguish’Slide26
Public Service as Bad FaithFreedom – Ability to conceptualize beyond time and space and imagine alternativesPublic Service: (Limited) Alternative to Commodification and RationalizationReflexive work based on empathy, discretion and tacit knowledge (Claus Offe).Emotional LabourBetween public/private = inbetweenness, liminality or ‘stickiness’
(Self-)Responsiblity for austerity and cuts?Slide27
Existential Well-Being?Responsibility – Well-being or Self and OthersWell-Being as FreedomResistance to Objectification (particularly objectively defined notions of happiness and well-being)