Basic needs and wealth as independent determinants of happiness: An illustration from Thailand

Guillen-Royo, Monica, Velazco, Jackeline and Camfield, Laura ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0165-9857 (2013) Basic needs and wealth as independent determinants of happiness: An illustration from Thailand. Social Indicators Research, 110 (2). pp. 517-536. ISSN 0303-8300

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Abstract

Thailand has been a global economic success story, transforming from one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia in the 1960s, to a modern and dynamic nation, and all within the lifetime of the current generation. However, growth has been accompanied by marked increases in economic inequality both at the regional and individual levels. In this context studying how relatively poor people appraise their situation ('subjective wellbeing') and how this relates to traditional 'objective' measures of wellbeing such as wealth and basic needs is particularly relevant. This paper investigates the relationship between basic needs as defined by the Theory of Human needs (THN, Doyal and Gough 1991), material wealth and happiness. Specifically, we intend to answer the following research question: Are wealth and basic needs indicators always interchangeable when analyzing happiness determinants in low income settings? The paper focuses on seven communities in the South and North-east of Thailand with contrasting levels of access to markets and services. It challenges the common assumption that at low economic levels, wealth or income matter for people's happiness because they increase satisfaction of basic needs, arguing instead that wealth might contribute to happiness for personal or symbolic reasons, which are not related to the use of goods as basic needs satisfiers. Thus, it suggests that indicators of wealth and basic needs should not be used interchangeably when studying happiness determinants in low income settings.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sdg 10 - reduced inequalities ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/reduced_inequalities
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development)
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Gender and Development Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Impact Evaluation Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Life Course, Migration and Wellbeing University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	25 Oct 2013 12:54
Last Modified:	09 Apr 2024 02:37
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/43892
DOI:	10.1007/s11205-011-9941-3

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