Home not housing: Engaging with well-being outcomeshttp://www.scottishinsight.ac.uk/Programmes/Wellbeing2014/HomenotHousing.aspx

Home as a core component of well-being: Benchmarking the evidence base

Douglas Robertson**, Deborah Peel* and Beverley Searle***School of Applied Social Science, University of Stirling

*School of the Environment, University of Dundee

ENHR Conference 2014'Beyond Globalisation. Remaking Housing Policy in a Complex World‘

University of Edinburgh, 1-4 July, 2014

Overview

1. Project and policy context

2. ‘Knowledge mobilisation’ process

3. Interpreting well-being – preliminary findings

4. Re-positioning home and well-being?

1. Policy context

Source: Office of National Statistics, 2013

Source: Scottish Government, 2011.

The Purpose

Purpose Targets

National Indicators

- Increase the number of new homes- Improve access to suitable housing options for those in housing need- Improve people's perceptions of their neighbourhood- Improve people's perceptions about the crime rate in their area

- Reduce the proportion of individuals living in poverty

High Targets

Strategic Objectives National Outcomes

- We live in well-designed, sustainable places where we are able to access the amenities and services we need- We live our lives safe from crime, disorder and danger

Source: Scottish Government, 2011.

Scotland Performs

Source: Scottish Government, 2011.

Questioning Measurement?

“Metrics are supposed to help our quest to create a better world but they will never be a

substitute for public dialogue and thinking about what makes for a good society”

Source: Stiglitz, J. (2012) 4th OECD World Forum, New Delhi

SUII Well-being 2014

• A series of linked programmes around understanding, measuring and promoting well-being in collaboration with the Scottish Government, Scotland's Futures Forum, Carnegie UK Trust, Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, Audit Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, David Hume Institute, SCVO and Oxfam Scotland.

• Programmes will address the key issues around social, environmental and economic well-being with the aim of making a contribution to the development of policy and practice in Scotland and elsewhere, including the development of Scotland’s National Performance Framework, ‘Scotland Performs’.

Funded Programme Team

Douglas Robertson, University of StirlingDeborah Peel, University of DundeeBeverley Searle, University of DundeeJames Mitchell, University of EdinburghThilo Kroll, Social Dimensions of Health InstituteMartin Higgins, NHS LothianLisa Pattoni, IRISSRosemary Brotchie, Shelter ScotlandProfessor Jill Grant, Dalhousie University, Canada

Project - Home not housing: Engaging with well-being outcomes

(i) personal determinants : home and well-being(ii) environmental determinants : neighbourhood and well-being

To:

(a) review, rethink & reflect on the relationships between personal and environmental factors in the construction of our understandings of what constitutes home, drawing directly from a fuller appreciation of individual perceptions of belonging, identity and personal autonomy derived from a ‘knowledge mobilisation’ exercise;

(b) identify how this considered construction of home could contribute to the emerging public management discourse on outcomes and well-being; and

(c) explore how this emerging understanding of home would impact on alternative housing solutions that would better contribute to improving individual flourishing and personal wellbeing

2. The Knowledge Mobilisation Process

Workshop 1

Sharing Meanings of Home

Sharing learning

A Postcard Home

Carousel

Preliminary findings – how is it measuring up?

• Dimensions of home and well-being still being considered in an integrated way, so still not properly developed to enhance our understanding of just how home contributes to interpretations of well-being

• Official meanings (and indicators) separated and siloed by government department (built & natural environments, health & social care, planning), discipline (social / life sciences) and professions (planning, social work, housing, building control, environmental health, policing, community development)

Personal meanings of home: Complex & shifting

• Meaning of ‘home’ highly differentiated – via individual & household contexts, life-cycle and life-world experiences – “lost it / miss it”– Fun, busy, noisy & chaotic– Peaceful, quiet – to nourish & revitalise

• Home is critical to enhancing family life & relationships with friends – love, an emotional space

• Home provides is a place of sanctuary & self expression• Place of comfort and warmth • Place of self expression, freedom, independence - “a

place to be yourself”

Personal meanings of home: Complex & shifting

• Storage place for stuff• Site of work / employment and housework• Security & safety – ontological security, thus

critical to mental well• Place of care / support• Multiple places / different scales• Site of conflict / negative feelings

Official understandings of well-being

• Global measures of happiness or satisfaction with life overall, or with specific life domains (health, work, space, housing etc)

• Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (Hills & Argyle, 2002) taps into people’s emotional state, ability to make decisions, feeling satisfied, being healthy, showing an interest in other people, having a sense of life achievement and being in control

• Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey (1990s, 2000s)– focuses on having the resources necessary to participate in society, whereby a lack of such resources is an infringement on well-being.

• More recently the OECD (2013) Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Wellbeing (SWB) use the following definition:

Good mental state, including all of the various evaluations, positive and negative, that people make of their lives and the affective reactions of people to their experiences.

OECD definition moves beyond the ‘hedonic’ aspects (i.e. happiness) to incorporate the ‘eudaimonic’ aspects of SWB (i.e. measures of meaningfulness or purpose).

Public policy construction of housing & well-being

• Current notions of how housing contributes to well-being tend to be primarily driven by the previous dominant economic and physical quality focused discourses that framed housing policy

• Our preliminary findings challenge this construction

• Challenge of the emotional – both outcomes & measures?

Personal meanings of well-being : Complex & shifting

• Happiness• Relationships• Health• Stress free• Safety & security• Income / wealth• Nature / green space• Confidence

Invitation

Second seminar will take place on Tuesday 8th July 2014 in the Scottish Universities Insight

Institute, University of Strathclyde, Collins Building, 22 Richmond Street, Glasgow G1 1XQ.

http://www.scottishinsight.ac.uk/Programmes/Wellbeing2014/HomenotHousing.aspx

Home no housing – key to unlocking well-being

• Wellbeing rarely linked to housing beyond its shelter & build quality

• But is linked to home (and controversially home-ownership, rather than renting) through the concept of ontological security (Giddens, 1991)– security & trust in the world– confidence in the social order– for people to feel they have the right to be themselves &

believe they can achieve self-actualisation• Our preliminary work suggests it is far more complex

than this