Abstract
Since its invention by Simon Kuznets in the 1930s, the notion that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reflects human well-being and should guide public policy has been called into question. In the wake of the financial, political, and environmental crises that have defined the early twenty-first century—including the COVID-19 crisis—researchers and civil society are at work to redefine how we measure well-being and collective success. Commendable efforts have been made by national governments and their statistics departments, multilateral organizations like the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations, and the European Union to advance this policy agenda. While these efforts set the pace for why and what we need to dethrone GDP, the time is precipitous for actors with localized understandings of well-being to advance the global well-being agenda. The Nova Scotia Quality of Life Initiative (NSQoL) (https://www.nsqualityoflife.ca/), led by Engage Nova Scotia, using the Canadian Index of Well-being (CIW) measurement tool, is a leading example of the salience of subnational initiatives in advancing global goals. In this chapter, we analyze data from the 2019 NSQoL survey to show how regional well-being exercises illustrate what matters to people locally, where quality of life can be improved, and how inequalities in well-being vary regionally. More pointedly, this regional case study argues that a trust-based approach to well-being initiatives equates to their success and sustainability in the near and long term.
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Notes
- 1.
Expressed as a percentage of GDP, Canada had the second highest level of subnational government expenditures (31.6%) after Denmark (34.8%) and well above the OECD total average (16.2%).
- 2.
Measure of America: http://www.measureofamerica.org/.
- 3.
OECD Regional Well-being: https://www.oecdregionalwellbeing.org/.
- 4.
Centre for Thriving Places (Previously Happy City): https://www.thrivingplacesindex.org/results/england.
- 5.
The Centre for Thriving Places team operates in a dual capacity insofar as they collect and consult, leveraging well-being measurements to help inform and build local capacity alongside in-community partners and government.
- 6.
Measures of Australia’s Progress: https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/1370.0.
- 7.
- 8.
Where humans and other animals part ways is in the unique ability of humans not only to collaborate (for survival and reproduction) but also to cooperate in building, sharing, and passing on to future generations common knowledge. There is a fundamental difference between the human species and the others in the capacity we have not only to reproduce cooperative behaviors observed among our elders, but to build sustainable and flexible institutions that allow cooperation of every human with every other, beyond the bonds of blood. The lionesses teach their offspring very early, through play, to hunt in packs. But it’s still same way that lion cubs learn and that, become lions, they will hunt. And they will never hunt with strangers. Humans can change the rules of the social game at each generation.
- 9.
Engage Nova Scotia: https://engagenovascotia.ca/.
- 10.
Engage staff reference the IAP2 model for public participation as a useful model for stakeholder engagement: https://iap2canada.ca/Resources/Documents/0702-Foundations-Spectrum-MW-rev2%20(1).pdf.
- 11.
See the CIW framework of domains and indicators at https://uwaterloo.ca/canadian-index-wellbeing/what-we-do/domains-and-indicators.
- 12.
For a full version of the Nova Scotia Quality of Life Index: https://engagenovascotia.ca/2018-quality-of-life-index.
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Acknowledgments
The contributions of the Canadian Index of Wellbeing and Dr. Bryan Smale are invaluable to this chapter. Indeed, they are integral to the success of the Nova Scotia initiative and, more broadly, to the well-being agenda in Canada and beyond. It is with utmost appreciation and gratitude that we use, with approval, CIW research (completed with Engage Nova Scotia) in this chapter.
Comments and contributions from Engage Nova Scotia have been instrumental to this case study, which relies heavily on the insights from their staff, including Danny Graham, Hailey Vidler, and Taylor Hill.
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Flood, M., Laurent, É. (2021). In Well-being We Trust: The Nova Scotia Quality of Life Initiative. In: Laurent, É. (eds) The Well-being Transition. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67860-9_10
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