Introduction

Abstract

What makes life worth living? Which people are the happiest? Does money buy happiness? An increasing number of scholars, politicians, journalists and others have shifted their attention to understanding what the ‘good life’ really means to people. The academic community has put these questions to empirical test; there is a growing scholarly literature on happiness and quality of life. There are also new fields, such as Positive Psychology, which extends psychology’s traditional emphasis on mental illness to positive human functioning, and Happiness Economics which combines economics with other fields such as psychology and sociology. Policy makers and government officials have begun to formulate happiness-related policies based on findings which show that happiness is influenced by societal circumstances. Most of this literature focused on the West, and later studies have shown that the decisions and conclusions drawn from these assumptions do not necessarily apply in the non-Western world. This book examines the meaning of happiness in many non-Western cultures.