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Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research pp 6193–6197Cite as

Social Well-Being

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Social well-being has been identified by the World Health Organization [WHO] (1948) as a central component of individuals’ overall health. The concept has been conceptualized and operationalized in many different ways.

Within economic disciplines, studies have initially operationalized social well-being using objective criteria such as gross domestic product (GDP) that reflects the relative prosperity of communities and societies; more recently, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD] (2011) proposed additional criteria, besides macroeconomic statistics, to better measure individuals’ perceptions of well-being and progress. Research within social sciences has operationalized social well-being in terms of behaviors that reflect community and organizational participation, community or group membership, or social capital and social cohesion (Andrews & Withey, 1976; Coleman, 1988; Putnam, 2000).Within psychology, the focus has been on individual-level...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Viale Berti Pichat, 5, Bologna, Italy

    Elvira Cicognani

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  1. Elvira Cicognani
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Correspondence to Elvira Cicognani .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC, Canada

    Alex C. Michalos

  2. (residence), Brandon, MB, Canada

    Alex C. Michalos

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Cicognani, E. (2014). Social Well-Being. In: Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_2797

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