The place and practices of wellbeing in local governance

Atkinson, S.; Joyce, K.E.

Abstract

The concept of well-being has become prominent within national policy goals in the UK since the end of the 1990s. However, the concept of well-being remains ill defined, an instability that is increasingly understood as problematic to policy making. We engage with this terminological instability through an exploration of how the concept of well-being is practised discursively in local governance and critically examine the place of the concept in local policy making. In contrast to the current enthusiasm to define and measure well-being, we argue that the conceptual instability has inherent value for local governance. The concept of well-being is practised through a number of potentially conflicting discourses, but it is exactly this conceptual instability that enables a local negotiation and combination of alternative policy frameworks for local place-shaping strategies. As such, well-being not only is an overarching goal of governance but also contributes to the dynamics of the policy process.

Citation

Atkinson, S., & Joyce, K. (2011). The place and practices of wellbeing in local governance. Environment and planning. C, Government and policy, 29(1), 133-148. https://doi.org/10.1068/c09200

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Feb 1, 2011
• Deposit Date: Nov 16, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 22, 2011
• Journal: Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy
• Print ISSN: 0263-774X
• Electronic ISSN: 1472-3425
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 29
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 133-148
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1068/c09200
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1546834