Module 1: What is a wellbeing economy?
Only for economic departments?
All of the concepts that sit on the wellbeing economy picnic blanket are about how the economy works. That’s because the economy deeply affects the wellbeing of both people and the planet. There are, of course, plenty of government activities and approaches that might be described as ‘wellbeing approaches’ because of their holistic and preventative focus, but they do not all speak to economic system change.
At the same time, changing how the economy works isn’t just the job of economic, finance, or business departments. On the contrary, transforming our economic systems requires widespread changes across policy domains.
This includes, for example:
the goals we set in our education systems
how we think about land use and urban design
how we provide for basic needs like healthcare, housing, food, and justice
how we organise our democracies and strengthen the social fabric in and between our societies
how we design transport and enable accessibility for all
the value we assign to the informal economy such as care work and the commons
the role of arts and culture in bringing people together and generating new narratives and visions
All of these policy domains and government actors have fundamental roles to play in the transition to a wellbeing economy.