Welcome!
Wellbeing and Public Policy (WaPP) is a major international conference to be held in Wellington, New Zealand on 13-15 June 2012. The purpose of the conference is to bring together policymakers and world experts to discuss recent advances in wellbeing research and the application of wellbeing research to policymaking at all levels of government.
With rising academic, public and political interest in wellbeing, more and more government officials are considering using wellbeing research to inform their policy decisions. This conference will promote interdisciplinary dialogue on how wellbeing research might best be applied to policymaking. Several interrelated issues will be addressed (more detail on these topic below):
- What should the role of wellbeing and wellbeing research be in policymaking?
- How should wellbeing be defined for research and policymaking?
- How should wellbeing be measured for research and policymaking?
- What role, if any, should subjective measures of wellbeing play in policymaking and national accounts?
- What evidence is there on policies that improve wellbeing?
The third day of the conference will be dedicated to invitation only high-level workshops focused on specific topics. See them on the Workshops tab.
The registration fee for the conference and eligibility for the workshops is NZ$500.
(Cancellation Policy: Cancellations before 6 June 2012 will receive a $300 (GST Inc) refund. No refund will be given from 7 June 2012).
Authors of the best papers from the conference (and a similar one in the UK the month after) will be invited to publish their paper in a special issue of the International Journal of Wellbeing. (Dealine for submissions 1 September 2012).
Wellbeing and Public Policy is hosted by the International Journal of Wellbeing in conjunction with Victoria University of Wellington and the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand.
Organisers: Philip Morrison, Dan Weijers, and Aaron Jarden.
CONFERENCE TOPICS
What should the role of wellbeing and wellbeing research be in policymaking?
- Productivity, sustainability, and wellbeing – what should the government and the public sector be prioritising?
- How to inform policymakers about measures of wellbeing and livings standards frameworks
- How to enable and improve policymakers understanding and use of wellbeing research and livings standards frameworks
- Should policymakers just use existing wellbeing research or actively encourage new research on specific topics? And what are the best ways to do this?
- What levels of government should use wellbeing research for policymaking and what are the difficulties of doing this at different levels of government?
How should wellbeing be defined for research and policymaking?
- The limits of GDP: what else we want to know about to improve wellbeing
- Should there be an overall/summary indicator index?: Pluralistic/Dashboard vs. monistic and hybrid approaches
- What needs to be covered?: Capabilities, outcomes, mental, physical, material
- Is one notion of wellbeing or one facet of wellbeing going to be used as a benchmark to assess the importance or inclusion of other notions and facets?
- Who should be consulted on the definition of wellbeing?: Should this be an academic, policy/political, public, or hybrid issue?
- The international coordination of the definition
How should wellbeing be measured for research and policymaking?
- The testing and validation process in practice
- The right questions: What they are and how to ask them
- Census, household surveys, panel data: Who to ask and how to ask them
- The international coordination of the measures
- How to measure everyone’s wellbeing: Using subjective measures of wellbeing to assess children
What role, if any, should subjective measures of wellbeing play in policymaking and national accounts?
- Strengths and weaknesses of subjective measures
- Assessing the relative significance of subjective and objective measures of wellbeing for policymaking – which, if any, is more important?
- What to do about subjective objective discrepancies
- Should the government and policymakers change attitudes as well circumstances in the name of improving subjective wellbeing?
What evidence is there on policies that improve wellbeing?
- Employment /inflation tradeoffs and their effect on wellbeing
- Job security/production efficiency tradeoffs and their effect on wellbeing
- The relationship between subjective wellbeing/engagement and production
- Parental leave and wellbeing
With rising academic, public and political interest in wellbeing, more and more government officials are considering using wellbeing research to inform their policy decisions. This conference will promote interdisciplinary dialogue on how wellbeing research might best be applied to policymaking. Several interrelated issues will be addressed (more detail on these topic below):
- What should the role of wellbeing and wellbeing research be in policymaking?
- How should wellbeing be defined for research and policymaking?
- How should wellbeing be measured for research and policymaking?
- What role, if any, should subjective measures of wellbeing play in policymaking and national accounts?
- What evidence is there on policies that improve wellbeing?
The third day of the conference will be dedicated to invitation only high-level workshops focused on specific topics. See them on the Workshops tab.
The registration fee for the conference and eligibility for the workshops is NZ$500.
(Cancellation Policy: Cancellations before 6 June 2012 will receive a $300 (GST Inc) refund. No refund will be given from 7 June 2012).
Authors of the best papers from the conference (and a similar one in the UK the month after) will be invited to publish their paper in a special issue of the International Journal of Wellbeing. (Dealine for submissions 1 September 2012).
Wellbeing and Public Policy is hosted by the International Journal of Wellbeing in conjunction with Victoria University of Wellington and the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand.
Organisers: Philip Morrison, Dan Weijers, and Aaron Jarden.
CONFERENCE TOPICS
What should the role of wellbeing and wellbeing research be in policymaking?
- Productivity, sustainability, and wellbeing – what should the government and the public sector be prioritising?
- How to inform policymakers about measures of wellbeing and livings standards frameworks
- How to enable and improve policymakers understanding and use of wellbeing research and livings standards frameworks
- Should policymakers just use existing wellbeing research or actively encourage new research on specific topics? And what are the best ways to do this?
- What levels of government should use wellbeing research for policymaking and what are the difficulties of doing this at different levels of government?
How should wellbeing be defined for research and policymaking?
- The limits of GDP: what else we want to know about to improve wellbeing
- Should there be an overall/summary indicator index?: Pluralistic/Dashboard vs. monistic and hybrid approaches
- What needs to be covered?: Capabilities, outcomes, mental, physical, material
- Is one notion of wellbeing or one facet of wellbeing going to be used as a benchmark to assess the importance or inclusion of other notions and facets?
- Who should be consulted on the definition of wellbeing?: Should this be an academic, policy/political, public, or hybrid issue?
- The international coordination of the definition
How should wellbeing be measured for research and policymaking?
- The testing and validation process in practice
- The right questions: What they are and how to ask them
- Census, household surveys, panel data: Who to ask and how to ask them
- The international coordination of the measures
- How to measure everyone’s wellbeing: Using subjective measures of wellbeing to assess children
What role, if any, should subjective measures of wellbeing play in policymaking and national accounts?
- Strengths and weaknesses of subjective measures
- Assessing the relative significance of subjective and objective measures of wellbeing for policymaking – which, if any, is more important?
- What to do about subjective objective discrepancies
- Should the government and policymakers change attitudes as well circumstances in the name of improving subjective wellbeing?
What evidence is there on policies that improve wellbeing?
- Employment /inflation tradeoffs and their effect on wellbeing
- Job security/production efficiency tradeoffs and their effect on wellbeing
- The relationship between subjective wellbeing/engagement and production
- Parental leave and wellbeing
