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Hi! Kate here from How to Talk about a Wellbeing Economy narrative session. If you would like to sign up for the WEAll voices community, a group specifically focused on talking about Wellbeing Narratives and tactics sign up here]
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Was there anything in the session that particularly stood out to you?
And if there is anything you need more clarity on, please let us know!
Here are some resources from our June WEAll Talk: How to Talk About a Wellbeing Economy." Hereâs the link to the workshop video [Access workshop recording here], and you can access the presentation here.
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Hi All! Tomorrow we have our Intro to a Wellbeing Economy event hope you can make it!
About the event:
You might have heard the term âwellbeing economyâ before, but what does it mean? If youâre curious, this session is for you. Weâll explore how the concept emerged, the core principles and values that define itâlike the 5 Needs (Dignity, Nature, Participation, Fairness, Purpose) and the 4 Ps (Pre-distribution, Purpose, Prevention, and People Power)âand why now, more than ever, itâs crucial to shift towards an economic system that goes beyond growth. Weâll also examine real-world case studies that showcase how this approach is being put into practice, proving that a wellbeing economy isnât just a theoryâitâs a pathway to a more just and sustainable economic system thatâs already in motion.
Register here:
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Also thought you might like this fantastic video from the BBC on Degrowth, featuring WEAll ambassador Jason Hickel. It highlights inspiring examples of how we can transition towards a more sustainable and just economic system. Highly recommend giving it a watch! https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0jg7gxh/less-i
s-more-can-degrowth-save-the-world- (if you cannot view in your country let me know and I can send you the video to download)
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hi Kate, the video is not showing for me but I would love to watch it 
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I would also love to see it to but you canât watch BBC outside the UK I wonder can we find it somewhere else??
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Feel free to download the full version here @nelacadi and @LizzyNoone Dropbox
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Thanks @KatePetriw for sharing. As Impact Producer of âPurpose: a Wellbeing Economies Filmâ I think movies and documentaries are great ways to bring stories and spark conversations around a topic. They can also help to make easier the mission of amplification (maybe those things you canât explain to your friends or family, are better said in a film). Ultimately, itâs always fun to watch a movie 
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Can this Dropbox link be shared with other people who are interested in the topic?
Thanks
You can watch BBC abroad via a VPN, if you have one.
Well-Being Economics â From Slogan to Discipline?
https://www.ijhpm.com/jufile?ar_sfile=74666
âwell-being economicsâ to succeed in breaking us out of the trap of ecocidal overconsumption, it must still achieve the central aims of both degrowth and post-growth / steady state economic models, namely to achieve absolute and sufficient decoupling of environmental impacts from economic activity and human well-being
What do you think?
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I agree with the contention, but I think the language we use can be a significant barrier to further discussion. The term âdegrowthâ is negative and will put the backs up of many business people with regenerative mindsets who want to grow their companies. I think it would be more acceptable and helpful on the anti side to attack consumerism driven by advertising.
To succeed wellbeing economics must transcend the old-world political stances of marxism/socialism at one extreme and neoliberalism at the other.
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For those already thinking from a Well-being Economy perspective, the paragraph you quoted is likely to resonate well and align with the moral imperatives that drive the concept of the Well-being Economy forward.
For me, itâs other parts of the essay that make essential points about narrative and framing that are arguably more important, particularly for people listening to the WeAll ideas for the first time, such as:
promoting a well-being economy therefore requires an appeal to values both ancient and new those of us advocating for such a cultural change must recognise that to achieve this will require us to engage with people from all communities and backgrounds, forcing us to venture well beyond the comfort zones of âprogressiveâ politics"
I think the key words are cultural change. We can talk all day about Well-being policy initiatives that would be dead on arrival unless a critical mass of the electorate sees whatâs in it for them. That means significant percentages of national populaces disavowing the entrenched system of inequality and injustice and embracing the principles (or at least the mindset) laid out by WeAll. That can only happen if culture change precedes policy, in my opinion, even while many other important reasons remain to continue efforts on the policy front.
Iâm afraid books and scholarly articles arenât going to move the needle on public support for the ideas behind the Well-being Economy. To me the important question is: How could the core tenets of WeAll be dissolved and distributed organically through agents of cultural change? That will have to come before policy to allow any headway.
And how do most people come around to a new idea? Itâs not debate or conversation. Itâs when the results of an incumbent idea affects themselves and their loved ones negatively. When the majority of people in the U.S. ranked âThe Economyâ as the number one electoral issue, it reflects a level of discontent. On some level, most people realize they are affected negatively already by âThe Economyâ but for lack of understanding simply blame the alternative political party rather than the cultural system that prizes excess as a stand-in for success.
TLDR: Scholarly articles may preach to the choir, but I like that this one recognizes the importance of building narrative consistency across cultural ambassadors. IMO this precedes policy change.
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@MichaelB are you saying that culture change happens when people are personally affected and that the majority of the people in the US have already been personally affected by the state of the economy, but lack the understanding to connect their economic discontent to the alternative of a well-being economy? In that case the âdistribution of the core tenets through agents of cultural changeâ needs to be figuring out how to communicate those core tenets and who should be doing that communication? That sounds like something concrete to work on.
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Hi Judy, thatâs exactly what Iâm saying Maybe better said yourself!
A professional marketer knows that you need two things to push prospects through the purchase funnel towards a sale: attention and a consistently relevant message.
Same thing for cultural change. What has the message been for past 10 years? 50 years? (Growth! Productivity! Money! Success!) And who is it targeted to? (Literally everyone - via tv, movies, music, books, podcasts, social media).
We know whatâs gotten us in this mess, so obviously the message needs to change. To your point though, how does one âinfluence the influencers?â
I think thatâs the fundamental question but Iâm not sure I share your optimism about it being something concrete to work on. Convince me otherwise!
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Hi Vlad! I would always point out that to be truly scientific, the goal of the economy must be transparently and clearly defined. I would define âeconomicalâ as Wellbeing Energy Efficiency. With that, the goal is clear: to maximise wellbeing with minimal time, energy and resources. That is economical, in my view. From that, we can build a Real Economics science. Than, incentives are on innovation and progress in an intelligent direction, rather than blindly crashing it all in the pursuit of âgrowthâ and profit maximising âefficiencyâ. The KEY problem, is the current misrepresentation of money as both a measure of value and a commodity, which is unscientific, unjust and resulting in escalating disaster and an economic pseudoscience wherein the fundamental unit, money, does not even have a solid and sound definition a a measure. From that, the beast of compounding originatesâŚ
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In my opinion, degrowth is unavoidable, whether business people like or not. Business cannot be constructed anymore around the growth-incentive, which is incompatible with the planetary boundaries framework. So business people must get used to the word, and reinvent themselves. We cannot pander anymore to their sensitivities and avoid the hard reality that we have overshot planetary boundaries. This is why I lead with the word âdegrowthâ as much as I can to complement âwellbeingâ because I do not want to sweep the reality under the rug. Degrowth is NOT negative, itâs realistic and addresses the problems head-on.
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