Dimensions Of Human Well-being Research Articles

In Search of Eudaimonia Towards Circular Economy in Buildings—From Large Overarching Theories to Detailed Engineering Calculations

The current study seeks to explore the underexamined or potentially under-researched social dimensions of circular economy (CE) in the context of buildings. Utilising a meta-synthesis approach, this paper builds on the two primary theoretical frameworks in the well-being literature: the eudaimonic and hedonic perspectives. The analysis of the selected articles reveals that these frameworks foster distinct modes of interaction and perception concerning one’s environment. A consensus is evident among the studies reviewed, advocating for integrating both eudaimonic and hedonic elements to achieve optimal well-being and happiness. Moreover, some scholars argue that for the attainment of sustainability goals and, by extension, CE objectives, the eudaimonic approach to well-being should be emphasised over the currently predominant hedonic inclinations. The research also attempts to open a discourse between the sometimes rather comprehensive, holistic, and hard-to-quantify dimensions of human well-being and the more logical, measurable, and tangible results-oriented approach towards the built environment. This investigation illustrates how well-designed building elements, aligned with CE principles, can play a pivotal role in fostering both environmental sustainability and human flourishing in the built environment.

Designing bio-based value chains for social justice: The potential of Capability Sensitive Design

Bio-based value chains (BBVCs) have often been criticized for their detrimental social and environmental effects. Existing methods such as social impact assessment do not sufficiently address these negative effects because of their limited focus and lack of attention to social justice. This paper explores the contribution of Capability Sensitive Design (CSD) to designing BBVCs for social justice. CSD is a combination of Value Sensitive Design (VSD), an approach to account for human values in a design process, and the Capability Approach (CA), a normative framework that incorporates multiple dimensions of human well-being.Three case studies demonstrate how CSD can be used to make design choices in the early stages of developing new BBVCs from waste biomass. The cases explore olive oil residues in Spain, coffee and cocoa residues in Colombia, and encroacher bush in Namibia. CSD is a relatively new approach and its contribution to social justice in BBVCs remained unexplored. We show that CSD can contribute to distributive, recognition, and procedural justice by allowing the identification of local vulnerable stakeholders and providing tools to connect their needs, knowledge, and capabilities to concrete design choices.

Spiritual Needs and Life Satisfaction of Lithuanian Palliative Care Patients.

Life satisfaction remains a value-based orientation and an important positive dimension of human well-being. Little is known about the relationship of this construct with palliative care patients' spiritual needs. This study assesses spiritual needs of palliative care patients and their association with life satisfaction. An exploratory cross-sectional study design was employed. During structured face-to-face interviews, 110 hospitalized palliative care patients responded to the Spiritual Needs Questionnaire (SpNQ) regarding their spiritual needs and the Brief Multidimensional Life Satisfaction Scale (BMLSS) regarding life satisfaction. The patients, generally satisfied with their health and future prospects, showed variations in life satisfaction based on education and family status. Stronger Existential and Inner Peace needs were expressed. Factors such as age, gender, education, family status, and religiosity make a difference in the expression of spiritual needs. Religiosity emerged as the key predictor for Religious, Inner Peace, and Existential needs. Life satisfaction had a very weak negative correlation (-0.207, p < 0.05) with Inner Peace needs. Recommendations include understanding and addressing the spiritual needs of palliative patients and preparing healthcare professionals to address them.

QUALITY OF LIFE AT THE MICRO- SCALE: A GEOGRAPHICAL STUDY IN MORADABAD DISTRICT OF UTTAR PRADESH

The study "Quality of Life at the Micro-Scale: A Geographical Study in Moradabad District of Uttar Pradesh" explores the intricate dimensions of human well-being at the localized level. It delves into the interplay of physical, social, and economic factors influencing the quality of life in Moradabad, a district marked by its unique socio-economic fabric and cultural heritage. The research employs a geographical approach, combining primary surveys, statistical analyses, and spatial mapping to assess variations in quality of life across different settlements. Key indicators such as housing, education, health, income, and access to basic amenities are evaluated to reveal spatial disparities. The findings underline the need for policy interventions tailored to address localized challenges, ensuring equitable development and improved living standards. This micro-scale analysis not only highlights the region's strengths but also identifies critical areas for strategic planning and sustainable growth.

Study On Impact of Sound Frequency on Human Well Being Using Randomized Block Design

This study summarizes the exploration of the impact of sound frequencies on various dimensions of human well-being. The study investigates the psychological and physiological responses to different sound frequencies, considering factors such as emotional states, focus, stress relief, and pain perception. The experiment draws on established psychoacoustic principles and incorporates data from controlled experiments, including a Randomized Block Design (RBD). The study employs statistical analyses, such as ANOVA, to discern the significance of Intercept, Block Number, and Sound Frequency in predicting variations in well-being outcomes.the study revealed valuable insights into the factors influencing different dimensions of human well-being. The consistent significance of Intercept, Block Number, and Sound Frequency across various aspects suggests the importance of considering both individual and external factors, as well as the specific frequencies of sounds, in understanding and promoting well-being. These findings can have implications for designing interventions or environments that aim to enhance different aspects of human well-being through targeted sound exposure.

Measuring housing well-being of disaster affected persons in Chennai (India)

The impact of disasters on human well-being extends beyond loss of assets. Asset based compensation approach, usually in monetary form, that the governments adopt for reconstruction of losses of affected persons is marred by challenges in identification of compensable disasters; identification of eligible claimants; identification of compensable losses; and valuation of losses. The largest asset that a household possesses is their house, which suffers major damage. Loss to a house goes beyond the asset itself and affects many dimensions of human well-being. The question this paper examines is, what are the dimensions of well-being, that housing and its location, as resource, have been able to reconstruct for households who were resettled in resettlement colonies of Chennai (India)? Using the framework proposed by Martin Binder, this paper identifies the dimensions of housing well-being and the extent to which these are reconstructed through post-disaster relocation, using the case of households relocated in resettlement colonies in Chennai (India) after disasters since 2004. This paper reveals that housing, and its location contributes to well-being, which is much more than its asset characteristics. Post-disaster resonstruction through relocation and provision of housing must create those opportunities that contribute to well-being. Opportunities for higher income, neighbourhood security, social capital, safety level in the neighbourhood, access to informal/social system for childcare, social and economic associations are significant contributors to housing well-being.

Climate change affects multiple dimensions of well-being through impacts, information and policy responses.

The consequences of climate change and responses to climate change interact with multiple dimensions of human well-being in ways that are emerging or invisible to decision makers. We examine how elements of well-being-health, safety, place, self and belonging-are at risk from climate change. We propose that the material impacts of a changing climate, discourses and information on future and present climate risks, and policy responses to climate change affect all these elements of well-being. We review evidence on the scale and scope of these climate change consequences for well-being and propose policy and research priorities that are oriented towards supporting well-being though a changing climate.

A framework for agent-based models of human needs and ecological limits

The social and ecological challenges of our time require a better understanding of the complex interactions between the multiple dimensions of human well-being and environmental impacts. This article introduces the Needs and Limits (N&L) framework, a theoretical and computational foundation for agent-based simulations of heterogeneous individuals who try to increase their quality of life through the satisfaction of human needs. Based on psychological research, human needs are described as satiable, adaptive, and interdependent with the social and bio-physical environment. The N&L framework represents a generic foundation that can be applied to a broad range of socio-economic and ecological scenarios. A comparison is provided with classical utility approaches. The framework is illustrated for the topics of income inequality and climate policy.

Relationships between Livelihoods, Well-Being, and Marine Protected Areas: Evidence from a Community Survey, Watamu Marine National Park and Reserve, Kenya

At a time of massive expansion of Marine Protected Areas, there is a need to learn more about their sustainability and success. This study draws on a framework which operationalizes three-dimensions of well-being: material, relational, and subjective, in order to measure the range of benefits and disbenefits experienced by local communities from protected areas. 308 respondents from two coastal Kenyan villages adjacent to the Watamu Marine National Reserve participated in a telephone survey in June and July 2020. The study recorded varying levels of dependency on the marine environment for the livelihoods of residents. A key finding of this study was that benefits reported by participants consistently exceeded disbenefits. A principal components analysis identified that the number of benefits and disbenefits experienced explained the most variance within the dataset. The benefits and disbenefits reported contributed to each dimension of human well-being. The highest ranked benefits reported contributed to subjective well-being (‘better health’, and ‘ability to enjoy a clean and healthy creek and ocean’), and the most frequently reported disbenefits related to relational and material well-being (for instance ‘increased conflict and social tension’ ‘increased poverty’, ‘fewer supplies of food’). Practical local conservation efforts can address relational disbenefits through better partnership working, and material disbenefits by supporting pro-conservation, alternative livelihoods. The findings demonstrate the relevance of understanding social trends for marine protected area governance and management. The paper offers insights into how fundamental relations between protected marine environments, livelihoods, and well-being may affect the perceptions and success of conservation initiatives amongst local communities.

Growing taller unequally? Adult height and socioeconomic status in Spain (Cohorts 1940–1994)

Socioeconomic inequalities and their evolution in different historical contexts have been widely studied. However, some of their dimensions remain relatively unexplored, such as the role played by socioeconomic status in the trajectory of biological living standards, especially net nutritional status. The main objective of this article is to analyze whether the power of socioeconomic status (SES) to explain differences in the biological dimensions of human well-being (in this case, adult height, a reliable metric for health and nutritional status) has increased or diminished over time. Educational attainment and occupational category have been used as two different proxies for the SES of Spanish men and women born between 1940 and 1994, thus covering a historical period in Spain characterized by remarkable socioeconomic development and a marked increase in mean adult height. Our data is drawn from nine waves of the Spanish National Health Survey and the Spanish sample of two waves of the European Health Interview Survey (ENSE) for the period 1987 to 2017 (N = 73,699 citizens aged 23–47). A multivariate regression analysis has been conducted, showing that, as a whole, height differentials by educational attainment have diminished over time, whereas differences by occupational category of household heads have largely persisted. These results indicate the need for further qualification when describing the process of convergence in biological well-being indicators across social groups. For instance, the progressive enrollment of a greater proportion of the population into higher educational levels may lead us to underestimate the real differences between socioeconomic groups, while other proxies of SES still point to the persistence of such differences.

Fad, Food, or Feed: Alternative Seafood and Its Contribution to Food Systems

Aquatic foods, or “seafood”, are an integral part of the global food system that contribute significantly to many dimensions of human wellbeing, including livelihoods and food and nutrition security. Fish, molluscs, crustaceans, algae and other aquatic foods are of particular importance in low- and middle-income countries as a source of employment, income, and nutrition for many poor and vulnerable people, including women. Global concern over the ability of fisheries and aquaculture to sustainably meet future seafood demand is driving improvements in technology and management. It has also inspired the emergence of plant-based and cell-based seafood, collectively termed “alternative seafood”. Growing investment, consumer demand, and participation by major food companies in the alternative seafood sector necessitate an evaluation of potential opportunities and challenges alternative seafood poses to food systems. This paper explores key economic, social, and environmental implications associated with production, distribution, and consumption of alternative seafood and its interactions with fisheries and aquaculture over the next decade, with specific emphasis on low- and middle-income countries. Available data on current supply and projected growth suggest that alternative seafood may account for almost eight percent of global seafood supplies destined for human consumption in 2030. Assuming current production techniques and expected technological development, the sector has potential for reduced environmental impacts relative to the existing fisheries and aquaculture sectors. However, its potential to impact livelihoods, food and nutrition security, and the environment remains largely a matter of conjecture due to the lack of robust data. Mechanistically, it is believed that growth of alternative seafood supplies will lessen demand for “conventional” seafood and/or meat, a scenario with implications for livelihoods, food and nutrition security, and the environment. Such changes are contingent on technological development, human and institutional behavior, market forces, and ecological linkages and as such, remain speculative. Nevertheless, as a novel sector, new food, and potential alternative to conventional seafood and/or meat, society has an opportunity to shape the growth of alternative seafood and its contribution to national and global development goals. This paper identifies knowledge gaps that require further research to inform inclusive, equitable, and sustainable development and governance of the emerging alternative seafood sector.

Respect, freedom, citizenship: Muslim women’s secularities and perspectives on wellbeing

ABSTRACT The religiosity of people migrating into secular European countries has posed many questions for policymakers and scholars alike, particularly where it concerns Islam. Rather than opposing migrants’ religious identities with secular values, this article examines shifts and tensions between the ‘multiple secularities’ of Muslim women and integration policy alike, through an ethnography of wellbeing. Set in the Netherlands, it demonstrates that Muslim women of Pakistani background embrace a secularity characterised by respect and religious liberty but that despite a ‘modernisation’ of values, their religion remains the source of their secularity. Dutch integration policy, however, has shifted from a secularity accommodating religious diversity to one characterised by individual liberty (placed in opposition to religion), and, increasingly, towards the progress of a culturally homogeneous nation. By thus failing to recognise religious sources and alternative social dimensions of human wellbeing, Dutch policy risks undermining secular values generally and alienating Dutch Muslims specifically.

Commercial Mhealth Apps and Exploitative Value Trade-Offs

"Mobile health (mHealth) apps are becoming progressively important for primary care, disease prevention, and public health interventions. They promise to empower its users by offering them more independence, better access to health services, and more insight into their health status resulting in better informed medical decision-making and lifestyle changes. Disadvantages of mHealth apps often include a lack of privacy protection, a decrease in personal attachment, and the acceptance of a normative conception of health challenging the user’s self-determination. Privacy, attachment, and self-determination are, alongside health, linked to fundamental dimensions of human well-being. Users of mHealth apps can either accept those disadvantages or abstain from using this technology entirely. Users, therefore, have to trade-off fundamental dimensions of well-being to gain a certain health benefit if they want to use commercial mHealth apps. This presentation will clarify the values most relevant in this context, focusing on privacy, self-determination, and attachment. I claim that these values imply fundamental conditions of well-being that should not be undermined, especially in the context of health care. I will argue that the value trade-offs users must engage in are an instance of mutually advantageous agreements by which the provider of the app takes unfair advantage of the user. This renders such agreements exploitative. I will discuss the notion of exploitation that I think applies in this case and explain under what circumstances exploitative agreements that come with the use of commercial mHealth apps oppose the empowerment narrative. "

Non-material nature\u2019s contributions to people from a marine protected area support multiple dimensions of human well-being

The non-material aspects of nature are frequently the most socially valued and demanded nature’s contributions to people (NCP). This is because non-material NCP often lay the foundations of key human well-being dimensions such as identities, experiences, and capabilities. Yet, while research on material NCP such as food and water abound, studies of non-material NCP are relatively scarce. This research gap results in a limited understanding of the relationships between non-material NCP and human well-being, especially in the marine and coastal environment. To understand the relationships between non-material NCP and subjective human well-being, we surveyed 453 users of Litoral Norte—a multiple-use marine protected area in Portugal. Our survey included 16 statement indicators reflecting theoretical constructs of subjective well-being. Using factor analysis, we found that subjective well-being derived from relating to, interacting with, and experiencing marine and coastal sites can be grouped into four interpretable cultural dimensions of well-being. These dimensions are ‘engagement with nature & health’, ‘sense of place’, ‘solitude in nature’, and ‘spirituality’. We also found statistically significant differences in reported levels of the four dimensions of well-being. Reported levels of well-being varied with interviewees’ socio-economic characteristics and environmental behaviour. Our findings offer interesting insights for marine conservation practice and policy that aims to foster both biodiversity and human well-being.

Walls of glass. Measuring deprivation in social participation

This paper proposes a measure for deprivation in social participation, an important but so far neglected dimension of human well-being. Operationalisation and empirical implementation of the measure are conceptually guided by the capability approach. Essentially, the paper argues that deprivation in social participation can be convincingly established by drawing on extensive non-participation in customary social activities. In doing so, the present paper synthesizes philosophical considerations, axiomatic research on poverty and deprivation, and previous empirical research on social exclusion and subjective well-being. An application using high-quality German survey data supports the measure’s validity. Specifically, the results suggest, as theoretically expected, that the proposed measure is systematically different from related concepts like material deprivation and income poverty. Moreover, regression techniques reveal deprivation in social participation to reduce life satisfaction substantially, quantitatively similar to unemployment. Finally, the validity of the measure and the question of preference vs. deprivation are discussed.

Assessing the effects of autarchic policies on the biological well-being: Analysis of deviations in cohort male height in the Valencian Community (Spain) during Francoist regime.

This article aims to assess the impact of autarchic policies on the biological dimensions of human well-being during Francoist regime in Spain. This is done by examining the nutritional status of the population through the study of male adult heights. Our case study is the Valencian Community with the focus on the period 1940-59 which witnessed the implementation of such policies. The heights of 21-year old draftees born between 1900 and 1954 from nine municipalities (N=87,510) were analyzed in the light of inter-cohort deviations from a secular trend established for cohorts that were not exposed to autarchy-related hardships. Height was regressed on infant mortality as a way to control for infection and therefore approach the net effect of nutrition on height outcomes. Contrarily to what was displayed by cohort height trends in themselves, the results reveal a significant worsening of the nutritional status of the male population at the time. Deviations from the expected height trend across municipalities ranged between -0.5 and -3.4mm per year. The effects of malnutrition are found to be larger among cohorts born in the period 1920-34 in coherence with a longer exposure to autarchy hardships during adolescence. Pre-autarchy nutrition levels observed among the cohorts of 1900-14 were not regained until the cohorts 1945-49. The results also show that malnutrition had an unequal impact with the large industrial towns of our sample experiencing the poorest height outcomes. Overall, these results invite to revise conclusions obtained from the sole evidence of height trends and they question the efficiency of intervention policies implemented in Spain during the 1940s.

Distributional Impacts of Carbon Pricing Policies Under Paris Agreement: Inter and Intra-Regional Perspectives

While bringing multiple benefits for the environment, achievement of the stringent global greenhouse gas emissions reduction target, like the one outlined in the Paris Climate Agreement, is associated with significant implementation costs and could impact different dimensions of human well-being, including welfare, poverty and distributional aspects. In this paper, we analyze the poverty and distributional impacts of different carbon pricing mechanisms consistent with reaching the Paris Agreement targets. We link a global recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium model ENVISAGE with the GIDD microsimulation model and explore three levels of mitigation effort and five carbon pricing options (trade coalitions). Results suggest that while there is a higher incidence of poverty in all scenarios, mainly driven by lower economic growth, Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) policies result in progressive income distribution at the global level. Such progressivity is caused not only by lower relative prices of food versus non-food commodities, but also by a general decline in skill wage premia. Achievement of the NDC targets without regional cooperation results in 0.45% increase in the number of people living in extreme poverty (below PPP$1.90/day) by 2030, while a more ambitious 2oC-consistent target increases this number to 1.25%. Global cooperation significantly eases the burden on poor, reducing the poverty headcount (additional number of people leaving in extreme poverty) by almost three times in the case of 2oC-consistent target and bringing it to the baseline scenario level in the case of NDC target. The global Gini coefficient falls between 0.01 and 0.04 percentage points depending on the mitigation effort and collaboration mode, while reduction in the Theil index is between 0.01 and 0.11 percentage points. Results also indicate that the reductions in inequality come mainly from reduction in income from top earners, as the results are much more sensitive to the NDC policies closer to the top of the income distribution.

Human well-being in the Anthropocene: limits to growth

Non-technical summary Transformation of the world towards sustainability in line with the 2030 Agenda requires progress on multiple dimensions of human well-being. We track development of relevant indicators for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1–7 against gross domestic product (GDP) per person in seven world regions and the world as a whole. Across the regions, we find uniform development patterns where SDGs 1–7 – and therefore main human needs – are achieved at around US$15,000 measured in 2011 US$ purchasing power parity (PPP). Technical summary How does GDP per person relate to the achievement of well-being as targeted by the 2030 Agenda? The 2030 Agenda includes global ambitions to meet human needs and aspirations. However, these need to be met within planetary boundaries. In nascent world-earth modelling, human well-being as well as global environmental impacts are linked through economic production, which is tracked by GDP. We examined historic developments on 5-year intervals, 1980–2015, between average income and the advancement on indicators of SDGs 1–7. This was done for both seven world regions and the world as a whole. We find uniform patterns of saturation for all regions above an income threshold somewhere around US$15,000 measured in 2011 US$ PPP. At this level, main human needs and capabilities are met. The level is also consistent with studies of life satisfaction and the Easterlin paradox. We observe stark differences with respect to scale: the patterns of the world as an aggregated whole develop differently from all its seven regions, with implications for world-earth model construction – and sustainability transformations. Social media summary Reaching human well-being #SDGs takes GDP levels of $15k. This may help shape transformation to a world that respects #PlanetaryBoundaries.

Sustaining an Alaska Coastal Community: Integrating Place Based Well-Being Indicators and Fisheries Participation

The incorporation of human dimensions into ecosystem-based fisheries management has largely focused on metrics of economic welfare. Yet researchers have demonstrated the variety of well-being that is derived from fisheries as well as the need for localized and collaborative scientific efforts that result in appropriately contextualized metrics. This article presents the results of a project intended to address these needs and inform the North Pacific fisheries management process with a set of indicators that are related to multiple dimensions of human well-being and links to fisheries participation. The article showcases a mechanism of applying a well-being framework and participatory methods to develop locally relevant quantitative indicators for one of the most highly engaged fishing communities in Alaska - Sitka. These indicators can be used to track how fishery shocks may reverberate through social systems and affect fishing communities. Furthermore, the discussion of the multifaceted well-being indicators presents information on local values and complex dynamics between community well-being and fisheries that are difficult to conceptualize and integrate into management decisions. Ultimately, this work can facilitate a more comprehensive incorporation of human dimensions into ecosystem-based frameworks in fisheries management, contextualizing that expansion within locally relevant narratives that engage stakeholders in resource management.

It's Not Just About the Worm: Social and Economic Impacts of Harvesting Imbrasia Belina larvae (Kruger National Park, South Africa)

A mopane worm (Imbrasia belina) harvesting project in the Kruger National Park (KNP) was used as a case study to test whether conservation related benefit sharing has a net positive impact on multiple dimensions of human well-being. Furthermore, the study assessed whether and to what degree, sharing such benefits influenced local perceptions of conservation, a requirement for the sustainability of protected areas across the globe. The project involved 263 people from 16 villages, adjacent to the KNP, harvesting 4,688 L worms contributing the equivalent of over half of the average household income during the months of harvest. Despite paying for transport, the participants gained from the experience; instilling the feeling that the park is opening up to them, and as a result seeing the park differently. For most participants the project provided them their first opportunity to visit the park, and participants perceived this to have further contributed positively to their wellbeing as a result of the associated learning experiences. Furthermore, participants enjoyed meeting and getting to know the park staff, with these new social connections contributing positively to social wellbeing. Respondents perceived their relationship with the park to be positive and expressed hope for building on this in the future. We conclude that measuring the multiple dimensions of human wellbeing in impact assessments is beneficial, and that the social connections that are built between neighbours, protected area staff and the natural and cultural resources within protected areas as a result of such projects can have mutually beneficial outcomes both for people and conservation.