A reason to smile! The Encyclopedia of Happiness from Constructor University provides insights into our wellbeing
“Our universal pursuit of happiness should be informing our policymakers,” says Hilke Brockmann, Professor of Sociology at Constructor University in Bremen and co-editor of the newly released Encyclopedia of Happiness, Quality of Life, and Subjective Wellbeing (EoH). The EoH compiles the latest findings in the field with contributions from over 100 scholars, including all six editors of the UN’s World Happiness Report. Furthermore, by incorporating a diverse range of international and interdisciplinary views, it provides a unique, systematic outlook for research moving forward.
With the science of well-being entering the realm of policy, the EoH is a vital document for policymakers, as well as members of the scientific community. It entails overview articles uniting the latest international and interdisciplinary research and covers all aspects of the science, from tools and methods to approaches. Thus, it provides lawmakers with an up-to-date scientific foundation for basing policy decisions, while also giving them an outlook on future research.
Organized into five sections, the EoH is a representative artefact of foundational concepts, determinants of happiness, cultural differences in happiness, trending and emerging topics, and also takes a closer look at data, methods and measures. “By focusing on new research in the field, the EoH is designed to encapsulate all of the knowledge we have on the subject, so that we can further inform our policy decisions moving forward and identify future research areas,” said Brockmann.
The Encyclopedia of Happiness was co-edited by Roger Fernandez-Urbano, PhD and post-doctoral fellow at the Paris School of Economics, and Hilke Brockmann, Professor of Sociology at Constructor University in Bremen. It is published by Edward Elgar and is available as both a hardback (€214) and eBook (€48).
Questions answered by:
Hilke Brockmann | Professor of Sociology, Constructor University
hbrockmann@constructor.university