Emerging functions of the wellbeing concept in regional development scholarship: A review

• Published in: Environmental science & policy Vol. 115; pp. 143 - 150
• Main Authors: Fudge, Maree, Ogier, Emily, Alexander, Karen A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-01-2021
• Subjects: Common pool resources; Industry development; Policy; Regional development; Wellbeing; Policy; Wellbeing; Regional development; Common pool resources; Industry development
• ISSN: 1462-9011; 1873-6416
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2020.10.005

•Wellbeing ‘turn’ influencing regional development.•The concepts are differently constituted.•Nuanced and mixed methods approach is required.
Wellbeing has become important in regional development policy as decision-makers grapple with delivering public goods from industry exploitation of resource commons. We asked how these differently constituted concepts–‘regional development’ and ‘wellbeing’ – are handled in the literature. We identified four findings: i) an increasing focus on holistic sustainable development in regional development; ii) different approaches for pre-development planning and post-development impact assessment; iii) four key wellbeing components most common in regional development; iv) emergence of mixed methods approaches to investigating wellbeing and regional development. We conclude that synthesising wellbeing and regional development within a carefully designed interdisciplinary approach is required.