SOCI 200: Family, Climate Change, and Well-Being

What is well-being?

The ability of people to live healthy, meaningful, secure, and fulfilling lives, with their basic needs met.

According to Lamb & Steinberger (2017), what does well-being refer to?

What allows people to live good, flourishing lives, not just how much they consume.

What are the three broad approaches to well-being?

Hedonic well-being, Eudaimonic well-being, and politically/procedurally developed frameworks like the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

What does GDP stand for?

Gross Domestic Product.

What is GDP?

The total monetary value of all final goods and services produced within a country's borders during a specific period.

Why might GDP be a poor measure of family well-being?

It does not adequately address justice, poverty, social participation, or environmental sustainability.

Define hedonic well-being.

A good life defined in terms of pleasure, happiness, and life satisfaction, often measured through subjective assessments.

What are the limitations of hedonic well-being?

Adaptive preferences may lead to high reported happiness despite material deprivation; it emphasizes individual solutions over collective conditions.

What does eudaimonic well-being focus on?

Activities, capabilities, relationships, freedoms, and conditions that allow people to live meaningful and flourishing lives.

What are some contemporary examples of eudaimonic well-being?

Amartya Sen's capabilities approach, Martha Nussbaum's capabilities framework, and multidimensional poverty approaches.

What do the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to address?

Climate issues while recognizing multiple dimensions of human development, including health, education, and gender equality.

What is the relationship between well-being and climate justice?

Human needs and justice should guide climate mitigation, considering both intra-generational and inter-generational equity.

What has climate mitigation research historically focused on?

Temperature targets, emissions budgets, economic costs, and technological solutions, often neglecting well-being.

How does energy consumption relate to climate change and well-being?

Energy is a crucial link, but the relationship is not linear; once essential needs are met, additional consumption may yield little extra well-being.

What should be examined regarding resource consumption?

Who consumes resources, what forms of consumption generate meaningful well-being, and how high-emitting activities affect opportunities for others.

What is a key consideration in climate mitigation?

Securing universal human well-being within ecological limits, rather than just reducing emissions at the lowest economic cost.

What does a multidimensional conception of well-being support?

Identifying minimum provisioning levels, questioning excessive consumption, addressing inequality, and designing low-carbon systems.