Before diving into the wellbeing effects of shared reading (in next month’s blog!), it is worth considering what it means to be well. Rooted in ancient philosophy and religious practices, the modern scientific study of wellbeing is vast, spanning many fields including psychology, economics, philosophy, sociology, geography, development, and health. Yet a precise, universal definition remains elusive. We can’t even agree on whether to spell it ‘wellbeing’ or ‘well-being’! Wellbeing is a broad and ambiguous term. It is often seen as synonymous with happiness, quality of life, or flourishing. Importantly, the way wellbeing is defined can influence policies, programs, services, and our understanding of people’s lived experiences.
The way we think about wellbeing is built upon two principal philosophies: hedonism (the more pleasure and happiness the better) and eudaimonism (wellbeing is found through meaning and purpose). These two philosophies informed two distinct approaches to wellbeing. Subjective wellbeing refers to how individuals experience and evaluate their positive mood, absence of negative mood, and life satisfaction. Psychological wellbeing emphasizes the developmental factors (e.g., autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations with others, purpose in life, and self-acceptance) that shape wellbeing. Much of the research investigating wellbeing has used standardized scaled instruments to identify and evaluate various determinants and dimensions of wellbeing.
Feminist and postcolonial scholars are increasingly criticizing the predominantly Western, cis-gendered, middle class, and White base of this research. The advent of “positive psychology” brought with it the wellness industry and an individual’s obligation to be happy, cheerful, to pull themselves together, and to consider negative emotions as a sign of failure in need of treatment. A focus on an individual’s thoughts and emotions can obscure persistent structural inequalities and let government and community off the hook.
Emerging research explores a more relational view of wellbeing. When asked to describe what wellbeing means to them, people rarely only refer to themselves. Increasingly, wellbeing is understood as something that emerges through relationships with others. This shift emphasizes that wellbeing is embedded in cultural, social, and political structures, practices, and systems. Rather than a permanent outcome to be achieved, relational wellbeing is understood to be an always-unfinished process, a set of interrelated practices in relation to self, others, place, and objects: accessing and sharing valued resources; experiencing self-worth and confidence; exercising participation; building social connections; enhancing physical and mental wellness; finding meaning and purpose.
It is this more inclusive, relational approach to wellbeing that has informed my thinking and guided my current research. My PhD work investigates what wellbeing means to the research participants on their own terms, not ranked or rated against one another or a set of pre-determined dimensions. I examine the set of practices involved in shared reading and seek to understand how those practices may be fundamental to the experience of relational wellbeing.
