| Summary: | "It was hardly a surprise to philosophers or members of every religion in the world when economists announced in the 1970s that happiness was not correlated with rises in personal income or national GDP; their traditions had made this point for millennia. But it did prompt a response: the happiness agenda, a movement that endorses metrics indicating happiness and well-being as a guide to public policy, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network annual World Happiness Report. A surprising and unnerving 2021 Gallup report revealed that Americans are "thriving" at the highest levels ever measured-despite COVID, declining life expectancy, alarming rises in economic insecurity, political polarization, creeping authoritarianism, stress, and loneliness. This collection challenges the report's assumptions, investigating the nature of happiness and well-being in cross-cultural, multiracial contexts. It examines terminology, theoretical approaches, and measurement criteria; interpretations of self-reports; the sciences of emotion; the importance of culture; and racial and hermeneutic injustice, concluding that there are vast inter- and intracultural differences in ideas and theories about happiness but that all are socially based, culturally specific and normative-ethics-based-in contrast to standard indices and measurements, which are empirical snapshots of economic conditions. If subjective measures of well-being are to guide policy, they must presume a deep connection to social justice, and they work best if the causes of unhappiness and ill-being are identified and solutions to eliminate them are prioritized"
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