Wellbeing and poverty in marginalised communities : Zambia and India compared.

Abstract

This paper presents initial findings from ongoing interdisciplinary research into subjective and objective dimensions of wellbeing in two marginalised communities, one in India and one in Zambia. It begins by introducing the research and the model of wellbeing it has developed. It then describes the locations and some basic similarities and differences between them. Initial results are then presented. These give pause for thought to anyone who maintains that wellbeing is a purely individual or psychological matter. Preliminary though the findings are, they clearly point to the fact that economics and politics are critical to people’s ability to achieve wellbeing. This is shown both in the salience of structural differences such as wealth and gender/marital status in predicting levels of inner wellbeing, and in the importance of the ‘enabling environment’: policy and polity, security and insecurity.

Citation

White, S. Wellbeing and poverty in marginalised communities : Zambia and India compared. (2012)

Wellbeing and poverty in marginalised communities : Zambia and India compared.

Published 1 January 2012