Local Meanings of Wellbeing and the Construction of Wellbeing Indicators

There have been attempts to develop and employ tools for measuring development that shifted away from economic growth. In Thailand, a number of alternative indicators to measure the progress of development were created and employed. However, the indicators and measurements of development continued t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social indicators research 2018-07, Vol.138 (2), p.689-703
Main Authors: Weeranakin, Pattaraporn, Promphakping, Buapun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Community
Community Relations
Economic growth
Economics
Focus Groups
Human Geography
Inconsistency
Leadership
Local government
Meaning
Measurement
Microeconomics
Public Health
Qualitative Research
Quality of Life Research
Social research
Social Sciences
Sociology
Well being
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Summary:There have been attempts to develop and employ tools for measuring development that shifted away from economic growth. In Thailand, a number of alternative indicators to measure the progress of development were created and employed. However, the indicators and measurements of development continued to be challenging, partly because of the dynamic changes of socio-economics, and partly due to the inconsistency between aggregated and local, or individual units of measurement. This paper aims to study meanings and develop wellbeing indicators of a community in the Northeast of Thailand. The data was derived from qualitative research conducted during 2013–2014. Focus group discussions with thirty-five formal and informal community leaders were used, and in-depth interviews were applied to collect data from thirty key informants. The results showed that the indicators of community wellbeing are classified into four groups, namely objective community wellbeing, community trust, community security, and community strength. The objective community wellbeing indicators were consistent with those that are used to guide policy and practice in Thailand. However, based on the local meaning of community wellbeing, new dimensions of indicators were found and proposed. This study recommended that these indicators should be developed further, to be employed as a tool to monitor progress, especially by local government.
ISSN:0303-8300
1573-0921
DOI:10.1007/s11205-017-1692-3