Module 1: What is a wellbeing economy?
Only for economic departments?
All of the concepts that sit on the wellbeing economy picnic blanket are explicitly about the operation of the economy. They focus on the economy because of the profound impact that the economy has on the wellbeing of 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, this does not mean that economic systems change is the sole responsibility of economic, finance and 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
the ways in which basic needs, such as health, housing, food, and justice are met
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
and 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.