Which ‘being’ in wellbeing? Ontology, wellness and the geographies of happiness

Smith, Thomas S.J.; Reid, Louise

doi:10.1177/0309132517717100

Cited by 128 publications

(118 citation statements)

References 154 publications

(326 reference statements)

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“…This may occur in the course of an unfolding moment (reflecting the wider literature on more-than-representational experiences of health and wellbeinge.g. see Smith and Reid, 2017), a day, a year or the wider life course (Coleman and Kearns, 2015;Bell et al, 2017).…”

Section: Developing Spatio-temporal Evidence: How Therapeutic Places mentioning

confidence: 99%

From therapeutic landscapes to healthy spaces, places and practices: A scoping review

Bell

Foley

Houghton

et al. 2018

Social Science & Medicine

289

207

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The term 'therapeutic landscapes' was first coined by health geographer, Wilbert Gesler, in 1992 to explore why certain environments seem to contribute to a healing sense of place. Since then, the concept and its applications have evolved and expanded as researchers have examined the dynamic material, affective and socio-cultural roots and routes to experiences of health and wellbeing in specific places. Drawing on a scoping review of studies of these wider therapeutic landscapes published between 2007 and 2016, this paper explores how, where, and to what benefit the 'therapeutic landscapes' concept has been applied to date, and how such applications have contributed to its critical evolution as a relevant and useful concept in health geography. Building on themes included in two earlier (1999, 2007) edited volumes on Therapeutic Landscapes, we summarise the key themes identified in the review, broadly in keeping with the core material, social, spiritual and symbolic dimensions of the concept initially posited by Gesler. Through this process, we identify strengths and limitations of the concept and its applications, as well as knowledge gaps and promising future directions for work in this field, reflecting critically on its value within health geography and its potential contribution to wider interdisciplinary discussions and debates around 'healthy' spaces, places, and related practices.

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Section: Developing Spatio-temporal Evidence: How Therapeutic Places mentioning

confidence: 99%

From therapeutic landscapes to healthy spaces, places and practices: A scoping review

Bell

Foley

Houghton

et al. 2018

Social Science & Medicine

289

207

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For instance, people may experience stress or fulfillment as concrete and/or abstract, and also as something that is momentary, and/or long-term experiences in their lives. High subjective wellbeing is experienced when unpleasant emotions such as anger and sadness are infrequent or entirely absent (Smith and Reid 2018;Svane et al 2019).…”

Section: What Constitutes Wellbeingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More recent definitions of subjective wellbeing pay attention to finding meaning in life, and the extent to which a person feels satisfied with the quality of their overall lifean overall assessment that suggests a life well lived (Deci and Ryan 2008;McMahan and Estes 2011;Smith and Reid 2018). Other elements include marital satisfaction, developing moral and ethical character and personality.…”

Section: What Constitutes Wellbeingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wellbeing in the Workplace: A New Conceptual Model and Implications for Practice

Alagaraja

2020

The Palgrave Handbook of Workplace Well-Being

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The concept of wellbeing is certainly not new. Both employers and employees continue to find ways and strategies for improving and sustaining wellbeing at the individual and organizational levels. The chapter attempts to address the issues and challenges in developing institutional strategies. Employees are motivated to enhance and sustain improved levels of wellbeing to be able to contribute to work as well as their satisfaction with life in general. The personal level emphasis for the employee is important and also a focus of the chapter. In order to address institutional and personal level approaches to wellbeing, a primary goal of the chapter is to review recent literature on wellbeing, identify key constructs or dimensions that constitute wellbeing, develop a conceptual model, and present implications for practice. The review of literature on wellbeing offers a way to

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“…It questions the often taken‐for‐granted notion that all humans possess an innate affiliation with nature (Wilson, ), and calls for a more‐than‐human, relational approach to well‐being; an approach that values and “considers the actions, presence and roles of non‐humans in everyday lives” (Maller, , p. 101), including different animals, microbes, plants, rocks, tools or technologies and so forth. This approach recognises well‐being as a process (Schwanen & Atkinson, ), rather than an individual acquisition or commodity, engaging with the “complex taking place of wellbeing” (Smith & Reid, , p. 2) and people's shifting opportunities to feel well through the course of their everyday and whole lives. Such relational conceptions of well‐being therefore emphasise the transformative social, spatial and temporal relationships through which feelings of well‐being emerge, persist or develop (Atkinson, ), be it through moments of connection, comfort, invigoration, autonomy or otherwise.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Negotiating nature's weather worlds in the context of life with sight impairment

Bell

Leyshon

Phoenix

2019

Trans Inst British Geog

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We have seen longstanding research interest in diverse nature–society relations, including contentious debates regarding what nature is, the role of humans within or apart from it, and how varied types of non‐human nature shape different societies and individuals within society. Within this work, relatively little attention has been paid to an important aspect of nature experienced everyday: people's “weather‐worlds.” These encompass the qualities of sensory experience that are shaped by fluxes in the medium – the air – in which we routinely live and breathe. Such currents, forces and pressure gradients underwrite our capacities to act and interact with both the animate and inanimate materials and beings we encounter as we negotiate our everyday lives. We focus on these weather worlds here, drawing on the findings of an in‐depth qualitative study exploring how people with varying forms and severities of sight impairment describe their nature experiences, with the weather emerging as an immediate and often highly visceral form of everyday nature encounter among all participants. We reflect on the ephemeral qualities of people's weather‐worlds, highlighting their potential to comfort, invigorate and connect, but also to disorientate, threaten and isolate, at times supporting moments of well‐being or exacerbating experiences of impairment and disability. In doing so, we highlight how attending to the weather is essential if we are to fully understand people's emplaced experiences of well‐being, impairment and disability with(in) diverse forms of multi‐elemental, assembled nature.

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Which ‘being’ in wellbeing? Ontology, wellness and the geographies of happiness

Cited by 128 publications

References 154 publications

From therapeutic landscapes to healthy spaces, places and practices: A scoping review

From therapeutic landscapes to healthy spaces, places and practices: A scoping review

Wellbeing in the Workplace: A New Conceptual Model and Implications for Practice

Negotiating nature's weather worlds in the context of life with sight impairment

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