OAGE 2020 - Designing Well-being Policies

The Well-being Economy aims at reconciling human well-being with safe and just Earth system boundaries, this class will explore the conceptual underpinnings of the Well-being economy and its policy applications at different levels of governance (UN, EU, national and local).

The worldview of this class is that human communities should better connect human well-being to resilience and sustainability via new ways to assess prosperity and bring those visions to life by integrating them into new policies using practical tools such as narrative-building, well-being surveys and budgeting. Building these new well-being policies means also building on existing experiences around the world (from New Zealand to Finland).

The purpose of this class is to introduce students to the on-going global “Well-being transition” and equip them with analytical and empirical tools to take active part in it. The class will indeed also work as a lab where students will learn how to imagine, design and build their own well-being vision.

Learning Outcomes

• Understanding the different dimensions of human well-being
• Understanding the connections between human well-being and sustainability
• Learning about well-being policies around the world

Professional Skills

• Learning how to use indicators and metrics to change policies
• Learning how to use narratives and frameworks to change policies
• Learning how to implement public policies

None

Seminar with class debates

Class participation, including debates on levers and obstacles (20%); A 10-pages policy brief detailing and illustrating a well-being policy proposal (60% + 20% poster presentation in 5’ in the final Forum session);

• In Class Presence: 2 hours a week / 24 hours a semester
• Reading and Preparation for Class: 2 hours a week / 24 hours a semester
• Research and Writing for Individual Assessments: 5 hours a week / 60 hours a semester