The Governance of Well-being: Towards a "Brave new World"?

This article describes the phenomenon of the "governance of well-being," which includes the use of happiness as a tool of power used by governmental, non-governmental, and public and private organizations around the world. Based on a chronological exploration of contemporary global policie...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Romaní Rivera, Alex|||0000-0003-2045-8468, Parellada Guillamón, Sergi|||0009-0003-8802-5922, Tirado Serrano, Francisco Javier|||0000-0001-7093-056X
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
español
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:uabarcelona_::915e2639543d73c3ac406f8891007bc9
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/328528
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Happiness
Governmentality
Positive psychology
Psychopolitics
Power
Felicidad
Gubernamentalidad
Psicología positiva
Psicopolítica
Poder
Descripción
Sumario:This article describes the phenomenon of the "governance of well-being," which includes the use of happiness as a tool of power used by governmental, non-governmental, and public and private organizations around the world. Based on a chronological exploration of contemporary global policies and through the happiness practices that we can find in the different areas of daily life, it is explained that happiness is becoming a device of social control and that it is being institutionalized through its 1) universalization, 2) privatization, 3) scientification, and 4) blackboxing. Finally, the consequences of all this are exposed in order to prevent the imperative of happiness from governing us towards a Huxleyan "brave new world," in which a "welfare regime" could prevail that seems less and less utopian.