Re-understanding well-being in the Global South: a literature review and conceptual synthesis
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy
ISSN: 0144-333X
Article publication date: 27 September 2023
Issue publication date: 19 February 2024
Abstract
Purpose
The significance of well-being in social development policy and practice is increasingly acknowledged by scholars and practitioners worldwide. Nevertheless, when examining well-being within the context of Global South trends, existing conceptualisations seem to yield incongruent indicators. Given the background, this paper aims to synthesise theoretical and empirical literature on well-being to foster an understanding of well-being in contemporary Global South.
Design/methodology/approach
This article reviews the now large literature on the well-being in the Global South. The article begins with a discussion of the contributions of state-of-the-art developments in well-being studies, a realm experiencing remarkable growth in social policy studies. It then turns to the prominent well-being constructs that have garnered considerable attention within the literature, with an examination of the Global North and Global South context followed by reinterpretation of these concepts to facilitate a comprehensive study of well-being beyond the realms of welfare states. Concluding the narrative, a succinct outline of potential pathways for future research is presented in the final section.
Findings
The review reveals that the concept of well-being in the Global South does not necessarily deviate entirely from the prevailing belief that the region is fundamentally distinct from the Global North on a conceptual level. The authors have discovered that three core dimensions of well-being, namely objective, subjective and relational, are observable across societal boundaries due to the diffusion of knowledge and social and cultural practices that have progressively aligned them with Global North-style modernisation. An exception arises in the relational aspect, where the attainment of positive collective relationships precedes individual happiness to some extent. The paper advances a renewed perspective on well-being, portraying it as a situational, interconnected, collective undertaking and continuous process. These approaches empower the researchers to address the overarching question of which analytical foundations can most effectively uncover the intricacies of well-being in diverse and contemporary circumstances.
Originality/value
This paper helps the researchers to address the overarching question of which analytical foundations can most effectively uncover the intricacies of well-being in diverse and contemporary circumstances, thereby facilitating future enhancements in social policy design.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Competing interests: The authors declare none.
Citation
Pinem, M.L., Yuda, T.K. and Chen, A. (2024), "Re-understanding well-being in the Global South: a literature review and conceptual synthesis", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 44 No. 1/2, pp. 114-129. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-08-2023-0197
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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