Sustainable Well-Being Indicators and Public Policy: A Cluster Analysis

Abstract

This paper contributes to the alternative indicators movement. It focuses on how data on sustainable well-being can be synthesized to steer public action. While data on well-being or sustainability are usually summarized in dashboards, composite indexes or territorial typological analysis, this article aims to highlight the interest of the cluster method in an approach of public policy to identify profiles of people who are ‘well-off’ or ‘poor’ in terms of well-being. This approach places people rather than territories at the centre of the analysis. We describe how the cluster method has been used in a project focussing on indicators of sustainable well-being conducted in Grenoble in France, and the advantages it offers. In particular, it facilitates: (1) divestment from pre-existing categorizations used in public action; (2) identification of the heterogeneity of the difficulties encountered by different groups and the vicious or virtuous circles in which these persons find themselves; (3) the development of new courses of public action; and (4) the appropriation and use of the data by local actors. In the case of Grenoble, the data reveal that people who are women, in poor health, and with few people around them whom they can trust are more likely to encounter problems achieving well-being.