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Sustainable well-being

Research group
01.01.2020 -
Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies

Sustainable well-being comprises sustainability and well-being at the individual, societal, and planetary levels. It presents a holistic and integrated systems approach combining sustainability, the standard of living, and quality of life.

Well-being consists of standard of living and quality of life. Standard of living is associated with material living conditions. Material possessions characterize it. Quality of life refers to sources of well-being beyond material prosperity, such as meaning in life, social connectedness, and personal flourishing. It also includes affective conditions such as peace of mind, joy, and delight. It may also have more philosophical approaches, such as questioning the human place in the world.

Sustainable wellbeing refers to the social-ecological worldview where people, communities, and societies are subsystems of the biosphere. Sustainable development, or sustainability, is based on the idea of “enough, for all, forever.” Sustainable ways of living are associated with certain behaviours, emotions, thoughts, attitudes, and values.

19 researchers are working for the research group on Sustainable well-being. Most of them are PhD candidates.

Funded Research Projects:

  • Sufficiency solutions for a resilient, green, and just Finland (SISU). Funded by the Strategic Research Council (SRC), Academy of Finland. Consortium: UEF, LUT, UTU, XAMK, DEMOS
  • Ethical Competencies for Sustainability in Higher Education and Working Life. Funded by Finnish National Agency for Education. Consortium: Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, Arcada yrkeshögskola, University of Jyväskylä, University of Tampere and University of Eastern Finland.
  • Creating well-being in daily life through inclusive RDI. Funded by Finnish National Agency for Education. Consortium: Metropolia UAS with partners.

Leader of the research group:
Arto O. Salonen, Professor (social pedagogy, especially sustainable well-being)
tel. +358 50 359 0613
arto.salonen@uef.fi

Collaborative partner:
Ulla Härkönen, Professor Emerita
tel. +358 50 3319327
ulla.harkonen@uef.fi

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