Gross national happiness
Gross National Happiness (GNH) is an attempt to define a standard of livingin more holistic and psychological terms than Gross National Product.
The term was coined by Bhutan's King Jigme Singye Wangchuckin 1972. It signalled his commitment to building an economy that would serve Bhutan's unique culture based on Buddhistspiritual values. Like many worthy moral goals it is somewhat easier to state than to achieve, nonetheless, it serves as a unifying vision for the Five Year planning process and all the derived planning documents that guide the economic and development plans to the country.
While conventional development models stress economic growth as the ultimate objective, the concept of GNH is based on the premise that true development of human society takes place when material and spiritual development occur side by side to complement and reinforce each other. The four pillars of GNH are the promotion of equitable and sustainable socio-economic development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the natural environment, and establishment of good governance.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- 1 One of many alternative indicators
- 2 GNH Conference
- 3 References
- 4 See also
- 5 External links
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One of many alternative indicators
Some argue that, unlike the Genuine Progress Indicatorwhich actually tries to measure well-being, the GNH does not attempt to quantify happiness. However, another school is in fact attempting to capture the concept of Happiness in quantiative terms. The two measures agree, however, that well-being is more relevant and important than consumption. The problem is that GNH depends on a series of subjective judgements about moral values. In practice this means that it is open to whoever defines the frame of reference, invariably governments, to define GNH in a way that suits their interests.
Alternative indicators of economic progress have also been supported by a number of NGOssuch as the UK's New Economics Foundation, and are employed in some governments notably in Europe and Canada.
GNH Conference
RETHINKING DEVELOPMENT: Local Pathways to Global Wellbeing, The Second International Conference on Gross National Happiness was held in Antigonish, Nova ScotiaJune 20 to June 24, 2005, co-hosted by Genuine Progress Index Atlantic; the Coady International Institute; Shambhala; the Centre for Bhutan Studies; the Province of Nova Scotia; the Gorsebrook Research Institute at Saint Mary's University; and the University of New Brunswick.
Conference proceedings are available online. Of special interest are keynote presentations by Jigmi Y. Thinley, Minister of Home and Cultural Affairs, Bhutan, What Does Gross National Happiness (GNH) Mean?, and by John Ralston Saul, Good Governance as the Key to Gross National Happiness.
References
- Layard, Richard (2005), Happiness: Lessons from a new Science, The Penguin Press
See also
- Post-materialism
- Utilitarianism
External links
- Nadia Mustafa, Time, 10 January2005, "What About Gross National Happiness?" [1]
- Rajni Bakshi, Resurgence, 25 January2005, "Gross National Happiness" [2]
- "Gross National Happiness - a set of discussion papers", Centre for Bhutan Studies [3]
- Institute of Empirical Research in Economics, Zurich University [4]? Working papers [5]search with "happiness"
- Frank Dixon, Innovest Inc. February 2004, "Gross National Happiness: Improving Unsustainable Western Economic Systems" [6]
- BBC Story of Bhutanese Refugees [7]
- Andrew C. Revkin, {{qif
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- GNH 2 Media Clipstracks the appearance of the notion of "Gross National Happiness" in the media 2000-2005 [8]
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Categories: Economics and finance stubs| Macroeconomics| Ethics| Economic ideologies
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross+national+happiness Wikipedia article Gross national happiness.
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