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Exploring Geographies of Happiness and Well-Being in Britain
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External Links:  ResearchersAbstract:The aim of the research proposed here is to investigate different definitions of happiness and explore the degree to which happiness varies over time and space. In particular, the research proposed here aims at extending existing work (from Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, to more recent work conducted by economists, such as the research reported by David Blanchflower and Andrew Oswald in a paper entitled “Well-Being Over Time in Britain and the USA”, published in 2004 in the Journal of Public Economics, vol. 88, pp. 1359-1386) on the perception of happiness by providing a detailed explanation of the factors and life events that make different types of individuals happy and how these affect the overall structure and cohesion of society. This research will produce an extensive critical review of existing theories of happiness. This will involve an attempt to provide an answer to the question: Can happiness be measured, quantified and valued in monetary terms? Recent theories and methodologies of providing measurements of happiness will be critically discussed and their advantages and limitations will be thoroughly investigated. Further, new possibilities for testing these theories, in the light of recent advances in socio-economic data availability, will be highlighted. One of the main objectives of this research will be to add a geographical dimension to the existing research on happiness. The proposed research will build a geographical model of happiness. This model will be capable of providing information on the different degrees of happiness attained by people in different regions and localities, under alternative scenarios and happiness definitions. The factors and life events affecting happiness during the lifetime of different types of individuals will be thoroughly examined in order to build a model capable of predicting future trends in happiness and prosperity for different geographical areas. Further, the relationship between what defines happiness and socio-economic phenomena such as unemployment and income inequalities will be explored by addressing questions such as: “would society be more equal, if people were prepared to pay higher taxes, in order to ameliorate socio-economic inequalities?”. In this context, the degree to which an individual’s happiness is affected by other people’s happiness will be explored and a projection of alternative futures for British society will be attempted, under different scenarios and definitions of happiness. The final research publications will include thematic maps of happiness (defined in alternative ways and under different assumptions) in Britain at different geographical scales, under various scenarios. In particular, the publications will include projections of how British society will look in the next 10 and 20 years, under alternative assumptions on social values. Department:Department of Geography, University of Sheffield Duration:1st Jan 2006 - 19th February 2008 Grant Type:Research Fellowship PublicationsDimitris Ballas’ research findings (PDF) Ballas, D. and Tranmer, M. (Forthcoming) Happiness over time and space: a multilevel event history analysis, to be submitted to International Regional Science Review. Ballas, D. and Tranmer, M. (Forthcoming) Happy places, happy households or happy people? A multi-level modelling approach to the analysis of happiness and well-being, to be submitted to the Journal of Royal Statistical Society Series A (Statistics in Society). Ballas, D. (Forthcoming) Happiness and geography, submitted to the journal Geography Ballas, D. (Forthcoming) A spatial microsimulation model of happiness and well-being”, paper to be submitted to Papers in Regional Science Ballas, D, and Fritz, S. (Forthcoming) Geographical modelling of happiness and well-being using population surveys and remote sensing data, submitted to the International Journal of Geographical Information Science. Ballas, D. and Dorling, D. (Forthcoming) Exploring geographies of happiness and well-being in Britain”, paper to be submitted to the journal, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers Ballas, D. (2010) Geographical simulation models of happiness and well-being, in Stillwell, J., Norman, P., Thomas, C. and Surridge, P. (eds.) Spatial and Social Disparities Understanding Population Trends and Processes Volume 2, Springer, Dordrecht. Ballas, D. and Dorling, D. (2009) Human scale visualisations and society, in Nyerges, T., Couclelis, H. and McMaster, R. (eds.) Handbook of GIS & Society Research, Sage. Dorling, D. and Ballas, D. (2008) Spatial divisions of poverty and wealth, In Ridge, T. and Wright, S. (eds.) Understanding Poverty, Wealth and Inequality: Policies and Prospects, Policy Press, Bristol. Ballas, D., Dorling, D. and Shaw, M. (2007) Social inequality, health, and well-being, In Hawrorth, J. and Hart, G. (eds.) Well-Being: Individual, Community, and Social Perspectives, Palgrave, Basingstoke, pp. 163-186. Ballas, D. and Dorling, D. (2007) Measuring the impact of major life events upon happiness, International Journal of Epidemiology, 36: 1244-1252. PresentationsBallas, D. (2009) Exploring geographies of happiness and well-being, Presentation at UPTAP workshop, Leeds, 23 March. Ballas, D. (2008) Happy people or happy places? Exploring geographies of happiness in Britain, Invited key note speech, Social Future Institute's conference on 'Health, Wellbeing and Happiness: From local action to global change, University of Teesside, Middlesbrough, 29 June - 2 July. Ballas, D. (2008)Modelling the geographical, environmental and socio-economic determinants of happiness, Invited presentation at the annual GEOBENE meeting, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria, 23 June. Ballas, D. (2008) Presentation at the ‘Studying, Modeling and Sense Making of Planet Earth’ UNESCO-sponsored international conference, Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Greece, 1-6 June. Ballas, D. (2008) Exploring geographies of happiness and well-being and the implications for public policy, Invited seminar presentation, Department of Planning and Regional Development, Graduate Programme Seminar Series, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece, 29 May. Ballas, D. (2008) Modelling the socio-economic and geographical determinants of subjective happiness and well-being, Invited seminar presentation, Department of Economics, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, Scotland, 23 April. Ballas D. (2008) Simulation models of happiness and well-being, Invited seminar presentation, School of Geography, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, 18 February. Ballas, D. (2008) So are people living in Wales happy?, Invited presentation to the South Wales group of the Royal Statistical Society, Cardiff, Wales, 30 January. Ballas, D. (2008) Presentation at the RSAI World Congress, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, 17-19 March. Ballas, D. (2007) Presentation at the 54th Annual North American Meeting of the Regional Science Association International, Savannah, Georgia, USA, 7-10 November. Ballas, D. (2007) Presentation at the Annual conference of the British Society for Population Studies, St Andrews, Scotland, 11-13 September. Ballas, D. (2007) Presentation at the 1st General Conference of the International Microsimulation Association “Celebrating 50 years of Microsimulation”, Vienna, Austria, 20-22 August. Ballas, D. (2007) Building spatial models of happiness and well-being, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria, 21 August. Ballas, D. (2007) Spatial microsimulation for urban, regional and social policy analysis, Invited presentation at the Royal Statistical Society annual conference, University of York, York, 18 July. Ballas, D. (2007) Spatial microsimulation approaches to creating and updating small area microdata, Presentation at the ‘Combining and Enhancing Data’ National Centre for e-Social Science workshop, University of Manchester, 22-23 January. Ballas, D. (2006) Presentation at the 53rd Annual North American Meeting of the Regional Science Association International, Toronto, Canada, 16-18 November. Ballas, D. (2006) Exploring geographies of happiness and well-being in Britain, Presentation at the School for Health and Related Research (ScHARR), University of Sheffield, 29 September. Ballas, D. (2006) Geography, economics and happiness, Invited seminar presentation, World Universities Network virtual seminar, Horizons in Human Geography series, 19 September. Ballas, D. (2006) Presentation at the 46th congress of the European Regional Science Association, Volos, Greece (theme: Social segregation, poverty, social policy and social capital), 30 August – 3 September. Ballas, D. (2006) Social justice and well-being: Exploring the relationship between income and wealth inequalities and happiness at different geographical scales, Invited presentation, University of Tokyo, Japan, 19 May. Ballas, D (2006) Exploring geographies of happiness and well-being in Britain, Invited presentation, Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research (CCSR), University of Manchester, Manchester, 28 March Ballas, D (2006) Presentation at Third International Population Geographies conference, University of Liverpool, 19-21 June. Ballas, D. (2006) Presentation at the 36th Regional Science Association International (British and Irish Section) conference, Jersey, Channel Islands, 16-18 August 2006
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