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Mapping Happiness, Managing Urban Emotions

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Assembling Neoliberalism

Abstract

Measuring and mapping happiness has become a popular and potentially market-shaping activity, and a core governmental concern. In this chapter, we explore whether the “happiness industry” can be rightly considered as a neoliberal phenomenon. We examine happiness and well-being through the analytic of assemblage in order to focus attention on alternative and place-based approaches to happiness, which signify an alternative to dominant neoliberal framings. We compare the research approaches provided through geo-informatic analyses of urban psychophysiology, community activism associated with participatory happy cities initiatives and critical psychologists and geographers who focus in particular on interpretive accounts of emotional subjectivity. The idea of a “critical social psychological geography” is put forward as a way to provide new understandings of the political significance of happiness measurement and mapping.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Jessica Pykett

  2. School of Business, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    John Cromby

Authors
  1. Jessica Pykett
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  2. John Cromby
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Humanities & Social Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW, Australia

    Vaughan Higgins

  2. Office of the Provost, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

    Wendy Larner

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Pykett, J., Cromby, J. (2017). Mapping Happiness, Managing Urban Emotions. In: Higgins, V., Larner, W. (eds) Assembling Neoliberalism. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58204-1_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58204-1_10

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-58203-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-58204-1

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