Pathways towards a Wellbeing Economy in European Cities
By Nicky Pouw and Joscha Betke + Panelists
This panel session aims to bring together researchers, practitioners and policymakers from across European cities to exchange knowledge and experiences on redirecting the urban economy towards wellbeing, instead of GDP growth. The need for a new economic narrative that ultimately serves us – the people – is no longer implicit. Researchers, civil society groups and (inter)governmental organizations, such as the OECD and the Council of the European Union, embrace the idea that we need to move beyond GDP growth, towards an economy that places the inclusive and sustainable improvement of citizen's wellbeing at its heart. This implies also different ways of working in urban governance that demand more citizen-centered decision-making and bottom-up, co-creative approaches.
Together we want to inspire and cross-fertilise initiatives taken across cities and share knowledge on implementing a wellbeing economy approach that includes the design of new policy instruments and methods. For instance, our research in Amsterdam aims to develop a ‘Community Wellbeing Dashboard’ for specific neighbourhoods in co-creation with the neighbourhood residents. Such a Dashboard will display people’s wellbeing within multiple dimensions, and the interaction between these dimensions, to inform economic policy accordingly.
The panel debate and interactive discussion with the participants will be centered around a few guiding questions on the key challenges and new directions for innovative solutions. For example, what can we, as policymakers, researchers, and practitioners, and as active agents of change, do to create a Wellbeing Economy?
Panelists:
• Dr Katherine Trebeck (Co-founder & Senior Strategic Advisor for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance)
• Frans Bieckmann (Strategic Advisor for the City of Amsterdam & Director of Fearless City Amsterdam)
• Eveline Kokx-van Aalsburg (Strategic Policy Advisor at the Municipality of The Hague)
• Michael Birkjær (Senior Analyst at The Happiness Research Institute Copenhagen)
• Tobias Daur (Economy for the Common Good (ECG) [Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie] Consultant)
• Dr Nicky Pouw (Associate Professor of Economics of Wellbeing at the University of Amsterdam)
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