Culture and well-being : anthropological approaches to freedom and political ethics / edited by Alberto Corsín Jiménez.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Jiménez, Alberto Corsín.

Series:

Anthropology, culture, and society

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Well-being--Philosophy.

Well-being.

Well-being--Cross-cultural studies.

Values--Cross-cultural studies.

Values.

Social norms--Cross-cultural studies.

Social norms.

Philosophy.

Genre:

Cross-cultural studies.

Physical Description:

vii, 207 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; Ann Arbor, MI : Pluto, 2008.

Summary:

The concept of well-being has emerged as a key category of social and political thought, especially in the fields of moral and political philosophy, development studies and economics. This book takes a critical look at the notion of well-being by examining what well-being means, or could mean, to people living in a number of different regions including Sudan, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, India, Sierra Leone and the UK.

The contributors take issue with some of the assumptions behind Western concepts of well-being. They explore what characterises a 'good life' and how this idea has been affected by globalisation and neoliberalism. The book makes a major contribution to social theory by presenting new analytical models that make sense of the changing shapes of people's life and ethical values.

Contents:

Introduction: Well-Being's Re-Proportioning of Social Thought / Alberto Corsin Jimenez 1

Part I Distributive values

1 The Impossibility of Well-Being: Development Language and the Pathologisation of Nepal / Ian Harper, Bryan Maddox 35

2 Good Ways and Bad Ways: Transformations of Law and Mining in Papua New Guinea / Eric Hirsch 53

Part II Persons

3 Well-Being: In Whose Opinion, and Who Pays? / Wendy James 69

4 Primed for Well-Being? Young People, Diabetes and Insulin Pumps / Griet Scheldeman 80

5 On Well-Being, Being Well and Well-Becoming: On the Move with Hospital Porters / Nigel Rapport 95

Part III Proportionalities

6 Measuring - or Practising - Well-Being? / Michael Lambek 115

7 'Realising the Substance of Their Happiness': How Anthropology Forgot About Homo Gauisus / Neil Thin 134

8 The Intension and Extension of Well-Being: Transformation in Diaspora Jain Understandings of Non-Violence / James Laidlaw 156

9 Well-Being in Anthropological Balance: Remarks on Proportionality as Political Imagination / Alberto Corsin Jimenez 180.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780745326801

0745326803

074532679X

9780745326795

OCLC:

171553189