Cite as:
Atkinson S, Joyce K E, 2011, "The place and practices of well-being in local governance" Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 29(1) 133 – 148
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The place and practices of well-being in local governance

Sarah Atkinson, Kerry E Joyce

Received 11 December 2009; in revised form 20 October 2010

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.

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 References  36 references, 12 with DOI links ()