Talking About Happiness
It was such an exciting opportunity to speak with the editors of the recently published volume “Infrastructure, Well-being, and the Measurement of Happiness.” I sat down on Zoom with contributors Hoda Mahmuodi, Jenny Roe, and Kate Seaman. They shared their insight into the origins of the volume and how it came together, as well as delving into the contents, highlighting why happiness is an emerging measure for well-being, climate change, systemic injustice, and the communities around us.
Professor Mahmoudi provided a fantastic insight into how the volume was conceptualized and developed. She shared that she had an experience discussing happiness and research into different aspects of human life with colleagues. “That conversation led to the Baha’i Chair then organizing a conference in 2019 on the topic of infrastructure and happiness. We invited dozens of people to that conference and asked if they would speak on the different themes that they were conducting research on. And it was wonderful because we ended up getting a rather International representation of a group of individuals from different disciplines. It was a very interdisciplinary approach to the field of infrastructure well-being and happiness.” That initial idea of an interdisciplinary approach shines through in the final published work as well.
Part of that is due to the significant contributions of Professor Jenny Roe, whose work is based on psychology. She was able to give more context for what this volume really means when it says happiness and well-being. “Happiness is a really transient emotion, so in my work, we measure happiness and we also measure an emotion which is still a slightly longer term kind of feeling. And it’s measured in short-term spaces… You know, a typical measure would be how happy are you feeling right now rather than how happy have you felt over the last two weeks. We don’t measure it in the long term. In terms of the importance of the book I think that really echoes back to what I said earlier about it being integral and triggering and catalyzing. Although it’s a transient state, it catalyzes much more kind of permanent states like longer term mood, like longer term mental performance.” Professor Roe went on to explain there are many factors that impact happiness, such as mental health, physical health, a sense of well-being, satisfaction in your work, and a sense of belonging to a community.
“In the volume we’re also interested in the other factors that support happiness too, so it’s a broader approach to happiness, looking at things like mental health and well-being, physical health and well-being.”
Finally, Dr. Kate Seaman built on these ideas, describing why it is important to look at happiness and well-being when thinking about development and growth. Happiness “is something that is being used at the international level. You have the United Nations World happiness report as well which is using happiness as a kind of integral measure now. And they can then operationalize this as well. So governments can use this to determine what policies contribute to happiness, what policies just detract from happiness. And so I think it is an increasingly important measure and again a different way of approaching some of these subjects. And bringing in what Jenny already mentioned, is a more human-centered approach. So again, it’s not just about the practicalities but it’s about how it impacts people.”
In addition to my questions, we were able to answer many questions from our audience. Questions about the impact of history, as well as how we can look to the future, stimulated deep discussions. The three panelists were able to share their unique perspectives and approaches to these increasingly important issues and gave a deeper insight into the value and meaning of this volume.
About the Author
Stella Hudson is a Graduate Assistant with the Baha’i Chair for World Peace. She graduated from the College of William and Mary in 2021 with a B.A. in English. She will graduate from the University of Maryland with her MLIS in spring 2023.