Participatory wealth ranking
Subjective well-being in cities: a cross-cultural analysis in Bogotá, Belo Horizonte and Toronto
Wellbeing indices reflect the individual and contextual dimensions of subjective well-being
Authors:
M. Hamilton; E. Willis
Publisher:
ESRC Research Group on Wellbeing in Developing Countries . University of Bath, 2007
This paper studies subjective well-being in Bogotá (Colombia), Belo-Horizonte (Brazil) and Toronto (Canada) using the Personal and National Well-being Indices (PWI, NWI) and a measure of satisfaction with life as a whole.
Subjective well-being should be seen as a multidimensional concept whose antecedents include individual traits as well as social and cultural variables.PWI consists of a personal dimension as well as cultural and contextual variables. The NWI as a contextual antecedent of PWI captures those variables such as economic conditions, social relationships, the state of the natural environment, government, business and security. The NWI is therefore linked to the notion of opportunities.
The paper finds significant differences across cities and correlations between subjective well-being and demographic variables. Perceived social status is one of the most powerful determinants of subjective well-being: PWI increases with income, perceived social class or socioeconomic level.
Satisfaction with spirituality turned out to be an important factor and should be considered by future research. Also, the differences between individual and city-based subjective well-being measures should be further explored.
