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This book provides a comprehensive treatment of how happiness and wellbeing are measured. It presents an accessible summary of the philosophy, methodology, and applicability of the various measurement techniques that have been generated by the leaders of the happiness movement. It traces the history of development of the core ideas, and clarifies the unexpectedly wide range of techniques that are used. The book provides an unbiased assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and differentiates the contributions that have been made by psychologists, economists, environmentalists, and health scientists. It examines applications at a personal scale, in the workplace, at a societal scale, and on the world stage. It does so in an easy-to-read anecdotal writing style that will appeal to a wide range of academic and lay readers who enjoy popularized non-fiction that address matters of social concern.
List of contents
- Part I The Multi-faceted World of Happiness and Wellbeing. - 1. An Introduction to the Concepts and Ideas. - 2. The Positive Psychology Movement. - 3. The Social Indicators Movement. - 4. The Sustainability Movement. - 5. Happiness Studies in the Biological and Medical Sciences. - Part II Eudaimetrics. - 6. The Assessment of Personal Happiness and Life Satisfaction. - 7. The Dimensions of Communal Wellbeing. - 8. The Building Blocks of Communal Wellbeing. - 9. The Wellbeing of Nations. - 10. The Livability of Cities. - 11. Satisfaction in the Workplace. - Part III Nexus. - 12. Policy, Politics and Happiness.
About the author
R. Allan Freeze is now retired. In his earlier career he worked as a research scientist for Environment Canada in Calgary, AB and the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY. He joined the faculty at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC and during his career at the UBC, he was Director of the Geological Engineering Program for six years and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies for three years. During his academic career Allan Freeze published over 150 research papers. He has received the Horton and Macelwane Awards from the American Geophysical Union, the Meinzer Award from the Geological Society of America, the Hubbert Award from the National Ground Water Association, the Theis Award from the American Institute of Hydrology, and the Farvolden Award from the Canadian chapter of the International Association of Hydrogeologists. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a Foreign Member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. He is a former Editor of the journal
Water Resources Research, and a former President of the Hydrology Section of the American Geophysical Union. In 2002, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario. He is coauthor, with John Cherry, of the widely used textbook
Groundwater. He is also the author of two popular-science books:
The Environmental Pendulum: A Quest for the Truth about Toxic Chemicals, Human Health, and Environmental Protection, published by the University of California Press in 2000, and
The Fluoride Wars: How a Modest Public Health Measure Became America's Longest-Running Political Melodrama, published by John Wiley and Sons in 2009.
