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• Consolidate and build on the work of the Wellbeing in Developing Countries Research Group (WeD) by using its data and findings to explore the political challenges and benefits for political and policy agencies of adopting a wellbeing perspective. The particular element of this proposal that focuses of the WeD-Thailand research will allow close observation of the ways in which the research agenda evolves in a particular country and how its findings are used to engage with Thai policy initiatives and with systems of local government.
• Seek to maximize the impact of WeD findings by engaging with a major network of development policy-makers, practitioners and policy-focused academics (the Centre for Social Protection at IDS, Sussex) on how the wellbeing perspective and methodology might be of value to development agencies and organisations.
• The academic and policy communications engaged in will be used to develop appropriate strategic proposals for the development of the wellbeing research agenda. In particular it will seek to identify partnerships in both development practice and in academia with whom to advance the wellbeing research.
• Wellbeing is an increasingly prominent word in the political lexicon; however, it is essential that it is further developed as a concept in the social sciences and that its conceptual development is accompanied by methodological development. The WeD conceptual framework and methodology represent important progress in developing an approach to wellbeing that is profoundly interdisciplinary and which combines a range of different social research approaches (quantitative-qualitative, objective-subjective). The fellowship will permit inter-alia a review of the conceptual framework and methodology as well as provide indications as to how it can be further communicated to wider audiences of users and concerned academics.
• The WeD research has always by definition been international and it has promoted a range of international partnerships, and provided insights into how such partnerships can be made to work effectively (and also what the obstacles can be). There area range of insights into international work offered by the WeD experience, but aside from that it is also apparent that the concept of wellbeing is an international concept. It has resonance in political systems around the globe and this is attested to by the global nature of inquiries to the WeD group. One of the purposes of this fellowship will be to explore the international implications of the concept and how we might work with it on a global scale.