Browsing by Subject "economy"

In recent years, the role of economic models in guiding government policy has provoked discussion as human wellbeing and the state of the environment are threatened by multiple sustainability challenges, most notably by the ecological sustainability crisis. The mainstream economic approach has received criticism since it has not been able to solve these challenges and thus, several alternative approaches in pursuit for a just and sustainable future have gained popularity both nationally and internationally. In this thesis I focus on the wellbeing economy concept in the Finnish welfare state in the early 2020s. Wellbeing economy was introduced in Finland by the Finnish Federation for Social Affairs and Wealth (SOSTE) in 2012 to highlight the interdependency of human wellbeing and economy. The concept has since been developed and realized by different actors of the society, but it is not yet that well-known among the public. To find out the potential role of this new economic approach in the transition towards sustainable welfare society, it is important to get a clear picture of how the concept is interpreted by its advocates. Therefore, in my case study, I examined the expert narratives of wellbeing economy. My main research question is: What does the concept of wellbeing economy mean in Finland in the early 2020s? This question is complemented by two sub-questions: 1) What are the shared contents and practices associated with wellbeing economy? and 2) What are the key differences between different conceptions of wellbeing economy? The underlying disagreements in theory and in practice of wellbeing economy might impact the integrity of the concept even if the concept formulation of wellbeing economy seems consistent. I conducted seven (7) semi-structured expert interviews from five (5) different organizations during the spring 2021. The interviews were thematically analysed with a focus on the memes of neoliberal narratives and the memes of alternative narratives as well as the conflicting memes in alternative narratives. In this study, a meme is defined as the structural component of a narrative. Finally, I identified similarities and differences in these building blocks of wellbeing economy narratives between different experts. I found that there were more shared memes than differences in the experts’ conceptions of wellbeing economy. Most of the interviewees mentioned memes of neoliberal narrative. All the interviewees mentioned the alternative narrative memes connected networks, sustainability, cooperation with others, and human dignity, prosperity, and wellbeing. Most of them also considered the Covid-19 pandemic as an opportunity in crisis. However, the meme a new economic system created the greatest division in the interpretations of wellbeing economy. In conclusion, some interviewees supported the neoliberalism more clearly while others opposed this narrative, and the rest were not clearly for or against the growth-agenda. The ambiguity of the concept especially in terms of economic growth should be further discussed in addition to specifying, for instance, what is meant by sustainability and wellbeing in wellbeing economy. Further research is also needed to find out how the discussion about wellbeing economy concept will develop in Finland and internationally.