The complex territory of well‐being: contestable evidence, contentious theories and speculative conclusions

Abstract

This paper brings together evidence and theories from a number of disciplines and thinkers that highlight multiple, sometimes incommensurable understandings about well‐being. We identify three broad strands or themes within the literature(s) that frame both the nature of the problem and its potential solutions in different ways. The first strand can be categorised as the ‘hard’ science of wellbeing and its stagnation or decline in modern western society. In a second strand, social and political theory suggests that conceptualisations of well‐being are shaped by aspects of western culture, often in line with the demands of a capitalist economic system. A third theme pursues the critique of consumer culture's influence on well‐being but in the context of broader human problems. This approach draws on ecology, ethics, philosophy and much else to suggest that we urgently need to reconsider what it means to be human, if we are to survive and thrive. Although no uncontroversial solutions are found within any of these themes, all play a necessary part in contributing to knowledge of this complex territory, where assumptions about the nature of the human condition come into question.