Social capital and well-being in times of crisis

John F. Helliwell, Haifang Huang, Shun Wang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

155 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper attempts to show how the quality of the social fabric of a community or nation affects its capacity to deal with crises and to develop human and natural resources in ways that maintain and sustainably improve subjective well-being. Three types of crisis will be used as examples. These include economic crises; transition and other institutional crises; and conflicts over sustainable resource use. The bulk of the new results in this paper relate to economic crises and institutional transitions, and shows that communities and nations with better social capital and trust respond to crises and transitions more happily and effectively.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)145-162
Number of pages18
JournalJournal of Happiness Studies
Volume15
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Economic crises
  • Happiness
  • Social capital
  • Social context
  • Subjective well-being
  • Sustainable development
  • Transition

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