tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/world-happiness-index-53412/articlesWorld Happiness Index – The Conversation2023-02-01T06:12:05Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1975802023-02-01T06:12:05Z2023-02-01T06:12:05ZI’ve spent years studying happiness – here’s what actually makes for a happier life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506104/original/file-20230124-12-si7r66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=100%2C60%2C6609%2C4406&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/search/happy%20people/">Pexels/ajay donga</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s one thing to know what makes people happy, but quite another to live a happy life oneself. I didn’t get a true taste of happiness until I quit my decade-long career as a happiness academic, packed all I’d need for many months onto a bicycle, and began <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-i-quit-my-day-job-researching-happiness-and-started-cycling-to-bhutan-105531">meandering my way around the world</a> to Bhutan.</p>
<p>For those unfamiliar with Bhutan, it’s a small Himalayan kingdom, famed for basing <a href="https://weall.org/resource/bhutan-gross-national-happiness-index">all its national policy decisions on happiness</a>.</p>
<p>Quite the destination, quite the journey.</p>
<p>And I would learn more about happiness than I did as an academic. That’s not to dismiss knowledge acquired through books and letters. Yet there’s a lot to be said for actually getting direct experience in life. </p>
<p>Below are <a href="https://journeyforhappiness.co.uk/shop/">some of the important things</a> I learned on a journey for happiness.</p>
<h2>For sustained happiness, go deep</h2>
<p>When people talk about happiness <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/frank-furedi-be-afraid-here-come-the-happiness-police-5329919.html">some dismiss it</a> as a viable societal goal because happiness policy can be misconstrued as being about people smiling and laughing all the time.</p>
<p>Yet pleasant as smiling and laughing are, doing them all the time is neither realistic nor desirable. Difficult emotions are a natural part of life. These days I love a cry – it’s <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/is-crying-good-for-you-2021030122020#:%7E:text=Researchers%20have%20established%20that%20crying,both%20physical%20and%20emotional%20pain.">an important release</a>. And anxiety, which I’m prone to, is something I’ll be open and curious about rather than hide from.</p>
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<img alt="Quarter life, a series by The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/quarter-life-117947?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">This article is part of Quarter Life</a></strong>, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life.</em></p>
<p><em>You may be interested in:</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/houseplants-dont-just-look-nice-they-can-also-give-your-mental-health-a-boost-186982">Houseplants don’t just look nice – they can also give your mental health a boost</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-philosophy-behind-the-japanese-art-form-of-kintsugi-can-help-us-navigate-failure-193487?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">How the philosophy behind the Japanese art form of kintsugi can help us navigate failure</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-spend-time-wisely-what-young-people-can-learn-from-retirees-189340">How to spend time wisely – what young people can learn from retirees</a></em></p>
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<p>The kind of <a href="https://people.acciona.com/organizational-culture/human-flourishing/?_adin=02021864894">happiness I value is deeper</a> – grounded in connection, purpose and hope, yet has room for sadness and anxiety too. Indeed, it’s this kind of happiness that a country like <a href="https://ophi.org.uk/policy/gross-national-happiness-index/">Bhutan aspires to</a>, and I think more countries (and people) should, too.</p>
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<img alt="Woman with dog." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506101/original/file-20230124-20-u3basp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506101/original/file-20230124-20-u3basp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506101/original/file-20230124-20-u3basp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506101/original/file-20230124-20-u3basp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506101/original/file-20230124-20-u3basp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506101/original/file-20230124-20-u3basp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506101/original/file-20230124-20-u3basp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Happiness can be found in the everyday.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-smiling-woman-petting-black-dog-2124882/">Pexels/Gabriela Cheloni</a></span>
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<h2>Have goals but prepare to let them go</h2>
<p>Goals can be helpful. They give direction in our day-to-day lives. But it’s easy to get wrapped up in attaining an outcome, believing our happiness depends on it. </p>
<p>Rather than being in what psychologists call <a href="https://www.headspace.com/articles/flow-state">flow</a> – an immersive, in-the-moment state of being – we might doggedly push on towards a goal. Even though achieving our goals <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90318268/why-reaching-your-goals-wont-make-you-happier">won’t always bring us happiness</a>.</p>
<p>When I was cycling to Bhutan, I let go of the idea of ever reaching Bhutan many times, and through doing so I ensured my journey remained purposeful and enjoyable. And, when I did arrive, beautiful as Bhutan was, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2cHuUflGZg">exhaustion and homesickness dominated</a>. If we’re not happy along the way, then we ought to question whether it’s worth going at all.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506096/original/file-20230124-21-ecnl5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Bridge covered in flags with hills in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506096/original/file-20230124-21-ecnl5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506096/original/file-20230124-21-ecnl5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506096/original/file-20230124-21-ecnl5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506096/original/file-20230124-21-ecnl5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506096/original/file-20230124-21-ecnl5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506096/original/file-20230124-21-ecnl5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506096/original/file-20230124-21-ecnl5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Iron Chain Bridge of Tamchog Lhakhang Monastery, Paro River, Bhutan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/iron-chain-bridge-tamchog-lhakhang-monastery-667317535">Shutterstock/Sabine Hortebusch</a></span>
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<h2>Don’t be misled by stories</h2>
<p>There are many stories about what a happy life entails, but they’re not always backed up by reliable evidence. An example would be the “when I achieve this, I will be happy” story described above. Another popular story is that money buys happiness. I spent much of my research career examining <a href="https://theconversation.com/however-you-spend-it-money-isnt-the-key-to-happiness-25289">this</a> (and travelling humbly for 18 months).</p>
<p>What is clear is that having more money (beyond the point of meeting basic needs) is inconsequential when compared with having good quality relationships, looking after our mental and physical health, and living meaningfully in line with our beliefs and values. Yet, sadly, these things often get sacrificed in pursuit of more. </p>
<p>These stories persist because they support an economic system that is designed to <a href="https://journeyforhappiness.co.uk/2021/06/03/does-money-buy-happiness-thats-a-question-of-ideological-belief-rather-than-science/">increase GDP</a> rather than improve the wellbeing of people and the planet.</p>
<h2>Allow others to give</h2>
<p>Warm and loving relationships are <a href="https://hms.harvard.edu/magazine/sleep/good-life">essential for living a happy life</a>. Yet that doesn’t mean these are easy to come by.</p>
<p>As an academic, I saw how important relationships were for happiness in the data. But like many, I had a difficult time realising them in my own life. We’re not taught that way and often think people will only love us when we meet certain criteria, rather than unconditionally for who we are.</p>
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<img alt="People dancing on rooftop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506098/original/file-20230124-25-zjsp4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506098/original/file-20230124-25-zjsp4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506098/original/file-20230124-25-zjsp4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506098/original/file-20230124-25-zjsp4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506098/original/file-20230124-25-zjsp4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506098/original/file-20230124-25-zjsp4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506098/original/file-20230124-25-zjsp4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Enjoy your time with others and let them be there for you.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/people-dancing-on-the-street-7502601/">Pexels/Rodnae Productions</a></span>
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<p>What shocked me most on my cycle journey was people’s kindness and generosity. People would invite me into their lives, offering me food or a place to stay, even when they owned little. When I set off, I was either suspicious of this generosity or racing too quickly onwards to consider stopping. But with time, I learned to let people in, and this led to deeper connections and more happiness.</p>
<h2>You can get through a crisis</h2>
<p>I wouldn’t have been able to reach Bhutan on a bicycle without facing a crisis or two. We will all face a crisis at some point. We might lick our wounds and get back in the saddle, but to find our way through a crisis psychologically, we need support from others. We also need to give ourselves time to make sense of what has happened and to ensure we move forward purposefully. These are all essential for resilience, and what helped me on my journey. </p>
<h2>You can’t beat the million-star hotel</h2>
<p>Nothing beats lying under the stars after a full day’s cycle through the mountains. Humans are of nature, yet we spend so much of our time indoors in built-up, often contrived, social spaces that do not meet fundamental needs. <a href="https://www.local.gov.uk/thriving-nature-people-and-planet">Nature is essential for our wellbeing</a> – not just to feel calm and peaceful in the moment, but to sustain human life for generations to come.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197580/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Boyce is affiliated with BiGGAR Economics, an independent economics consultancy, and Health in Mind, a mental health charity. </span></em></p>What I’ve learned on the journey to happiness.Christopher Boyce, Honorary Research Associate at the Behavioural Science Centre, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1778032022-05-11T12:05:24Z2022-05-11T12:05:24ZTrusting societies are overall happier – a happiness expert explains why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458931/original/file-20220420-14-zrcqrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Trust in other people and in public institutions is one key predictor of happiness.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/the-cowds-at-global-gathering-festival-long-marston-airfield-stoke-on-picture-id129369037?s=2048x2048">Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Human beings are <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-018-0389-1">social animals</a>. This means, almost as a matter of logical necessity, that humans’ quality of life is largely decided by the quality of their societies. </p>
<p>Trust is one key factor that helps shape societies – specifically, if individuals feel a basic level of trust in others, outside of their immediate friends and family, they are happier. </p>
<p>People lead better, happier and more satisfying lives when people in their communities share high levels of trust.</p>
<p>Finland is the the happiest country in the world, for the fifth year in a row, according to the latest annual United Nations <a href="https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2022/">World Happiness Report</a>, released in April 2022. The report uses data from Gallup world polls and measures the way people feel about their lives. It is not a coincidence that Finland also has one of the world’s highest levels of trust among people, known as interpersonal trust. </p>
<p>“Research has linked trust with economic growth, democracy, tolerance, charity, community, health, and happiness,” <a href="https://lanekenworthy.net/trust/">Lane Kenworthy</a>, a political scientist and sociologist, writes. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kmcQMRwAAAAJ&hl=en">scholar of happiness</a>, I have written extensively about the nature and causes of happiness. <a href="https://benjaminradcliff.com/">My work</a>, and <a href="https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2020/social-environments-for-world-happiness/#inequality-and-happiness">research by others</a>, confirms the general idea that greater levels of trust among people lead to more happiness. </p>
<p>There are specific reasons trust and happiness are so deeply connected. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458945/original/file-20220420-19-aicu3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Young girls play outside together, jumping rope, in Turku, Finland" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458945/original/file-20220420-19-aicu3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458945/original/file-20220420-19-aicu3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458945/original/file-20220420-19-aicu3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458945/original/file-20220420-19-aicu3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458945/original/file-20220420-19-aicu3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458945/original/file-20220420-19-aicu3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458945/original/file-20220420-19-aicu3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Finland has consistently ranked as the happiest country worldwide in the World Happiness Report.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/finland-turku-turku-waeinoe-aaltosen-koulu-children-playing-outdoors-picture-id545739915?s=2048x2048">Fishman/ullstein bild via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>How trust encourages happiness</h2>
<p>The first reason is that people’s quality of life improves when they can reasonably assume the goodwill of others in their day-to-day lives. This kind of generalized trust may also promote other, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0237934">more specific kinds of trust</a>, such as trust in government.</p>
<p>In Finland, trust in other people – and in public institutions – is exceptionally high. In 2019, Finnish people <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/83f2a08d-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/83f2a08d-en">reported high levels</a> of trust in police, the government and one another. </p>
<p>Only 2.8% of people reported that crime was a major worry, demonstrating a lack of concern about trusting other people. </p>
<p>Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland and the Netherlands followed Finland as the happiest countries in 2021, according to this analysis. Like Finland, these countries have extremely high levels of both trust and happiness. </p>
<p>In a high-trust environment, people go about their lives with the easy assurance that others around them are generally honest and even benevolent. These sorts <a href="http://ccare.stanford.edu/press_posts/good-social-relationships-are-the-most-consistent-predictor-of-a-happy-life/#:%7E:text=Heaps%20of%20research%20suggest%20that,feel%20happiness%2C%20contentment%20and%20calm.">of strong human connections</a> have been shown to promote happiness. </p>
<p>By comparison, in a low-trust environment, people are suspicious. They feel they must always be on guard, in case other people attempt to deceive, exploit or take advantage of them.</p>
<p>Afghanistan ranked as the least happy country in the 2022 World Happiness Report.</p>
<p>In 2019, two years before the Taliban overtook the country, Afghans reported feeling low satisfaction in public services like water quality, roads, health care and education. Most of those surveyed in Afghanistan also said <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/266252/inside-afghanistan-stability-institutions-remains-elusive.aspx">in a 2019 Gallup world poll</a> that corruption in government and business was endemic.</p>
<p>It takes no great insight to understand why high-trust societies tend to be happier than places where trust is low. People find it easier to build or strengthen connections to others when they generally trust everyone, from their acquaintances to their spouses.</p>
<h2>Emotional energy</h2>
<p>Trust also promotes happiness in more subtle ways.</p>
<p>Everyone has a limited amount of <a href="https://theconversation.com/emotions-how-humans-regulate-them-and-why-some-people-cant-104713">emotional energy</a>. The more trusting a society is, the fewer emotional resources we must devote to everyday interactions. The less someone has to worry about being pickpocketed, for example, the more emotional energy they have available to spend time nurturing relationships with family, friends, co-workers and neighbors. </p>
<p><a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/04/over-nearly-80-years-harvard-study-has-been-showing-how-to-live-a-healthy-and-happy-life/">Research has shown</a> that investment in community and these kinds of relationships is likely to pay off in the form of a happier life.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458933/original/file-20220420-16-5e6ale.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a bright yellow jacket and blue pants sits on a seesaw, smiling, and facing the camera behind a blurred b background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458933/original/file-20220420-16-5e6ale.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458933/original/file-20220420-16-5e6ale.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458933/original/file-20220420-16-5e6ale.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458933/original/file-20220420-16-5e6ale.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458933/original/file-20220420-16-5e6ale.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458933/original/file-20220420-16-5e6ale.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458933/original/file-20220420-16-5e6ale.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A person tries out an adult playground, designed to show how play brings happiness, in London in July 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/members-of-the-public-try-out-the-9nine-adult-playground-created-to-picture-id824015930?s=2048x2048">John Phillips/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Equality matters</h2>
<p>Finally, it is also important to consider how happiness is distributed among individuals across society. This is known as happiness equality. </p>
<p>Evidence strongly suggests that lower levels of happiness inequality within a society promote higher levels of average life satisfaction. The more equal a society’s distribution of happiness, the happier people tend to be.</p>
<p>So if more trust produces more happiness equality, and more happiness equality means higher levels of happiness itself, then trust should, once again, promote greater happiness. </p>
<p>A variety of factors are at work behind this connection. The most obvious one, perhaps, is that people generally care about the well-being of others.</p>
<p>Efforts to reduce inequality of happiness are <a href="https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2020/social-environments-for-world-happiness/#inequality-and-happiness">likely to raise happiness for all</a>.</p>
<p>This dynamic creates a cycle – the more we take the happiness of others into consideration, the more we appreciate life.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140K">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177803/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin Radcliff does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Finland was recently ranked, for the fifth year in a row, as the world’s happiest country. Trust in others in society plays a large role in what makes people there – and elsewhere – happy.Benjamin Radcliff, Professor of Political Science, University of Notre DameLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1777732022-02-24T16:57:08Z2022-02-24T16:57:08ZNuclear fusion record broken – what will it take to start generating electricity? Podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448145/original/file-20220223-25-sliogc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=137%2C41%2C3856%2C2616&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nuclear fusion is what generates the energy of the sun: scientists are getting closer to controlling a sustained fusion reaction on Earth. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/3d-render-fusion-reactor-nuclear-tokamak-1673334088">Marko Aliaksandr/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Scientists at a nuclear fusion lab in the UK just broke the world record for the amount of energy produced in a single fusion reaction. In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a>, we ask two experts what this means, and how long it’ll take before we can switch on the world’s first nuclear fusion power plant. </p>
<p>And we talk to a social psychologist about new research into the societal pressure some people feel to be happy. </p>
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<p>Scientists first demonstrated the ability to fuse two atoms in lab experiments <a href="https://www.euro-fusion.org/fusion/history-of-fusion/">in the 1930s</a>. Nuclear science has come a long way since then, but we still haven’t managed to harness the energy produced by nuclear fusion to generate electricity. </p>
<p>In early February, scientists at the Joint European Torus (JET) lab in Oxfordshire in the UK <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/fusion-energy-record-demonstrates-powerplant-future">announced they’d broken the world record</a> for the amount of energy produced in a nuclear fusion experiment. They produced 59 megajoules of heat energy in a single fusion “shot” that lasted for five seconds. This doubled the previous world record set by JET in 1997, but was still only enough to heat about 60 kettles of water. </p>
<p>So how excited should we be about the latest news? How much closer does this world record take us to getting electricity from fusion power – and what would success mean for the planet’s future energy mix? </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nuclear-fusion-how-excited-should-we-be-177161">Nuclear fusion: how excited should we be?</a>
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<p>The JET experiment is the world’s biggest nuclear fusion device. It uses an approach called magnetic confinement to fuse nuclei at very high speeds and temperatures inside a doughnut-shaped container called a tokomak. </p>
<p>Livia Casali, assistant professor in nuclear engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in the US, says the latest result from JET confirms some of the choices made for the fusion reactors of the future – particularly around the materials used to line the inside walls of the tokomak. “These results also confirm that we can achieve fusion energy using a deuterium and tritium fuel mix, which is the same fuel mix that we are planning to use for future fusion devices,” she says.</p>
<p>In particular, JET’s results are a proof of concept for <a href="https://www.iter.org/">ITER</a>, a huge fusion reactor under construction in southern France and due to be ready by 2026. </p>
<p>“To make a fusion reaction is very easy, but that doesn’t mean that we’re able to produce energy,” says Angel Ibarra Sanchez, a research professor in fusion technology at the Centre for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research in Madrid, Spain’s national fusion laboratory. </p>
<p>Like JET, ITER won’t produce electricity – that will only happen once a demonstration reactor is built. Ibarra says the hope is that the first demo fusion reactor in Europe will be available around 2050. If these demo reactors are shown to work, he predicts the first generation of fusion power reactors could arrive in the 2060s or 2070s. “It will probably not be much faster than this,” he says. </p>
<p>Once fusion power arrives, Ibarra believes the energy it will generate – which releases no carbon dioxide and is dubbed “clean energy” – will be transformational. But he warns us not to pin all our hopes on fusion. “To think that the energy production in the future will be based in a single type of energy sources is not feasible. It’s not realistic,” he says. Instead, Ibarra thinks the energy mix of the future should be “a mix of solar energy, wind energy, and hopefully fusion energy”.</p>
<p>In our second story in this episode, we find out that living in a country that scores highly on global happiness rankings might not be all that it’s cracked up to be. Brock Bastian, professor of psychological sciences at the University of Melbourne in Australia, just co-authored <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-04262-z">new research</a> showing increased social pressure to feel happy in countries that come top of these rankings. And for some people, this social pressure can be linked to poor mental health. “When a lot of people seem to be doing well and happy, it can exacerbate for some people those feeling of low mood,” says Bastian. (Listen from 27m)</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/research-finds-countries-that-focus-the-most-on-happiness-can-end-up-making-people-feel-worse-177323">Research finds countries that focus the most on happiness can end up making people feel worse</a>
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<p>And finally, Eric Smalley, science and technology editor at The Conversation in Boston, recommends some recent analysis on the technology dimensions of the unfolding Ukraine war. (Listen from 37m20)</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-false-flag-attacks-and-could-russia-make-one-work-in-the-information-age-177128">What are false flag attacks – and could Russia make one work in the information age?</a>
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<p>This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/?hl=en">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter?utm_campaign=PodcastTCWeekly&utm_content=newsletter&utm_source=podcast">free daily email here</a>. </p>
<p>Newsclips in this episode are from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fYiNVRmOA4">BBC News</a> and the <a href="https://ccfe.ukaea.uk/fusion-energy-record-demonstrates-powerplant-future/">UK Atomic Energy Agency/Culham Center for Fusion Energy</a>.</p>
<p><em>You can listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a>, or find out how else to <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">listen here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177773/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angel Ibarra Sanchez receives funds from EURATOM, MICINN and the Junta de Andalucía. He is Director of the IFMIF-DONES Consortium, a public body in charge of managing the Spanish contribution to IFMIF-DONES.
Livia Casali is the U.S. representative of the International Tokamak Activity in support of ITER for SOL and divertor. She is the core-edge Integration Area Leader for the DIII-D tokamak in San Diego, Vice Chair of the Edge Coordinating Committee, Executive member of the Transport Task Force and the U.S. Burning Plasma Organizational Council. Livia Casali is affiliated with the American Physical Society and the Italian Physical Society</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brock Bastian receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Plus, the social pressure some people feel to be happy in the world’s happiest countries. Listen to The Conversation Weekly.Daniel Merino, Assistant Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationGemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1122172019-05-27T04:35:46Z2019-05-27T04:35:46ZThe paradox of happiness: the more you chase it the more elusive it becomes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276022/original/file-20190523-187169-pgcdg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=261%2C0%2C7678%2C4892&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A suite of new well-being measures are at the centre of New Zealand's budget plan.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>New Zealand will release its first well-being budget this week, based on a suite of measures that track how New Zealanders are doing, including how happy they are. </p>
<p>The latest <a href="https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2019/">World Happiness Report</a>, issued by the <a href="http://unsdsn.org/">UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network</a>, ranks New Zealand eighth in the world, after the Nordic nations but two spots above Australia. </p>
<p>Critics may suggest that happiness is a meaningless political goal that can be propagandised both by turbo-capitalists and green socialists. Supporters of the politics of happiness see it as a concept that helps us to <a href="https://www.victoria.ac.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/1713626/Weijers_Morrison.pdf">rise above partisan politics</a>, emerging nationalism, and other ideological barriers to harmony and progress.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-vote-for-happiness-and-well-being-not-mere-economic-growth-heres-why-116061">It's time to vote for happiness and well-being, not mere economic growth. Here's why:</a>
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<h2>The paradox of happiness</h2>
<p>Since well before pants and shirts replaced togas, philosophers have been the main source of wisdom about happiness and the good life. A central tenet of this ancient wisdom is the “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iaaz7PNojVI">paradox of happiness</a>”. </p>
<p>In essence, the paradox of happiness states that if you strive for happiness by direct means, you end up less happy than if you forget about happiness and focus on other goals. Ancient wisdom advises us <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/valley-girl-brain/201805/why-you-shouldn-t-pursue-happiness">not to pursue happiness directly</a>.</p>
<p>But philosophers have a natural inclination for splitting hairs. As such, we would be failing our discipline if we did not point out that the paradox of happiness is not, in a strict sense, a paradox. It is an empirical irony. Normally valuable things are achieved by striving for them, but according to ancient wisdom, happiness bucks this trend.</p>
<p>Why does striving for happiness tend to result in unhappiness or disappointment? Many people frequently experience happiness, but both philosophers and psychologists note that we are <a href="https://www.mindful.org/stumbling-on-happiness/">so inept at pursuing it</a> that if we do strive for it we fail, sometimes catastrophically, and end up far less happy than if we had never tried. </p>
<h2>The political paradox of happiness</h2>
<p>What does the paradox of happiness mean for the new politics of well-being? </p>
<p>Happiness plays only a relatively small role in New Zealand’s new well-being approach to public policy. New Zealand’s policymakers, just like many philosophers and most psychologists working on happiness, distinguish between happiness and the much more holistic concept of well-being. </p>
<p>New Zealand’s <a href="https://treasury.govt.nz/information-and-services/nz-economy/living-standards">Living Standards Framework</a> is a well-being framework that lies at the heart of Treasury’s policy advice. It is composed of 12 domains: subjective well-being, civic engagement and governance, cultural identity, health, housing, income and consumption, knowledge and skills, safety, social connections, environment, time use, and jobs and earnings. If we understand happiness as feeling good (and not bad) and being satisfied with life, then it only directly features in one of the domains: subjective well-being. </p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-zealands-well-being-approach-to-budget-is-not-new-but-could-shift-major-issues-116296">New Zealand's well-being approach to budget is not new, but could shift major issues</a>
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<p>Another example is <a href="https://www.stats.govt.nz/indicators-and-snapshots/indicators-aotearoa-new-zealand-nga-tutohu-aotearoa/">Indicators Aotearoa</a>, developed by <a href="https://www.stats.govt.nz/">Stats New Zealand</a> to measure national progress in areas New Zealanders care about. Subjective well-being is one of 27 domains in this suite of indicators. So, even if the political paradox of happiness is true, it would be an overreaction to advise abandoning a well-being approach to public policy based on one problematic domain.</p>
<h2>Research to the rescue</h2>
<p>Critics might still argue that the political paradox of happiness poses an important problem for part of the well-being approach to public policy in New Zealand and other nations. Why include happiness as a goal at all if doing so will result in worse outcomes than if it had been left out entirely? Luckily for the nations that already include happiness as a policy goal, this worry can easily be dealt with.</p>
<p>As with the original paradox of happiness, the mechanism behind the political paradox of happiness is likely to be incompetence. Both paradoxes get their power from a contingent factor – being very bad at knowing how to pursue happiness effectively. </p>
<p>Fortunately, thousands of researchers and policymakers have been advancing global knowledge about the causes and effects of happiness and happiness-promoting activities for decades. We learn more every day about how best to measure and increase the happiness of individuals and groups with a variety of backgrounds and in a variety of contexts. </p>
<p>Scientific experts at the <a href="http://www.happinesscouncil.org/">Global Happiness Council</a> publish annual reports with research-based policy recommendations for promoting happiness. This year’s report includes a chapter on measuring well-being for central government (that mentions New Zealand 33 times) and a chapter outlining why and how to use a <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ghwbpr-2019/UAE/GH19_Ch3.pdf">happiness-based approach to guide policy on health care</a>. Such an approach would recommend putting more emphasis on mental health and end-of-life care. </p>
<p>Given this wealth of happiness research, politicians and policymakers can now make competent policies based on evidence. Assuming relevant data gathering and evidence-based policy making, nations like New Zealand will only get more competent at pursuing happiness over time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112217/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dan Weijers received funding from the New Zealand Treasury in 2016 to write a research paper on wellbeing frameworks for public policy. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lorenzo Buscicchi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For New Zealand’s first well-being budget, the government has moved away from traditional economic growth measures to focus on goals like cultural identity, social connection and happiness.Lorenzo Buscicchi, PhD Candidate, Teaching assistant, University of WaikatoDan Weijers, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Co-editor International Journal of Wellbeing, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/961862018-05-09T14:10:28Z2018-05-09T14:10:28ZLittering in South Africa is the expression of wider selfish – and costly – culture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217938/original/file-20180507-46332-ozxh3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dumped waste is a constant eyesore on the streets of Johannesburg, South Africa's economic hub. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">African News Agency Archives (ANA)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is common when municipal workers go on strike in South Africa to resort to upturning garbage cans and <a href="https://www.google.co.za/search?q=strikers+trash+streets&rlz=1C1NHXL_enZA711ZA711&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=mO-oCzCRotWjoM%253A%252CrZzuB2cX5nzD8M%252C_&usg=__A5B5Gilb7HvdtziRxRF5VRGcrZQ%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiEicvlkfPaAhWJCMAKHdQyBLkQ9QEILjAD#imgrc=tTkozv_oDABvHM:">strewing litter</a> around city centres. Their message is clear: we may be at the bottom of the social heap, and you may think we are human trash, but by God, society needs us, and if you don’t listen to us and give us a living wage, we’ll make you pay for it. </p>
<p>Trashing a city is more than a demand for a better wage. Often, it’s also an expression of rage against employer arrogance or unaccountability, and a demand for basic respect. Such tactics are manifestly expressions of class struggle and class power, workers resorting to their most effective weapon. While they are unlikely, in extremis, to be able to confront the armed might of the state, they may well be able to make city managers and the general population wilt in the face of the stink and mess of uncollected garbage. </p>
<p>Yet such actions are indicative of a discordant society, and a culture of littering can tell us a lot about a society’s ethos.</p>
<p>Littering is an act of individual or group disposal of waste at the public expense in terms, not only of the cost of public collection, but also at worst, of public health, and always in terms of public enjoyment of the environment. It prioritises the private interest over the public, and places the burden of collection or consequences of litter on the collective. </p>
<p>Doubtless too, it is expressive of class, income, status and power. It is no accident that in most – if not all countries – better-off residential areas are likely to be freer of litter than worse off localities. They have more public clout and more private resources.</p>
<p>Littering tells us a great deal about community spirit. It is surely no accident that the Scandinavian countries, which regularly top the <a href="http://worldhappiness.report/ed/2018/">World Happiness Index</a>, are relatively <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/237c63d4-0a54-406a-ae51-ad677a872456">litter free</a>. Their governments have long prioritised the collective interest and there is less social inequality than in similarly industrialised nations. </p>
<p>Industrialised countries such as Britain and the US are rich, but they’ve embraced austerity and encouraged rampant consumerism, making them sadly notorious for being far more publicly dirty, as captured by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2002/apr/06/socialsciences.highereducation">Kenneth Galbraith’s</a> (1958) critique of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/6/8/8742803/private-affluence-public-squalor">“Private Affluence and Public Squalor”</a>. South Africa has similarly developed a culture of externalising private costs onto the public, a culture of not caring about the environment which has been emblematic of the country’s mining industry for more than a century.</p>
<h2>Public interest</h2>
<p>South Africa is a country still deeply divided along lines of race, class, and geography in which there may be a public, but a limited sense of “public interest”. It’s a country where the needs of the better off were historically always prioritised over those of the poor.</p>
<p>For example, the expansion of the road system was accompanied by the massive expansion of white suburbia from the 1960s, where tellingly, pedestrians – many of them black domestic workers going to and from work – were denied pavements and left to walk in the road. Because the white inhabitants of suburbia were ratepayers, and because they employed domestic labour to tend to their verges, they enjoyed a generally litter free environment. The scholarship is not available to tell us about the state of litter and waste in the townships at that time, but we may guess it was distressingly different.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217939/original/file-20180507-46353-ju336c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217939/original/file-20180507-46353-ju336c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217939/original/file-20180507-46353-ju336c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217939/original/file-20180507-46353-ju336c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217939/original/file-20180507-46353-ju336c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217939/original/file-20180507-46353-ju336c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217939/original/file-20180507-46353-ju336c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba, second from left, joins the city’s Are Sebetseng (Let’s work) cleaning campaign.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Enoch Lehung</span></span>
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<p>Today, the South African environment is pockmarked by the detritus of mass consumption. The culture of takeaway culture is also the culture of throwaway, and if there is no litter bin available, or if it’s full, too bad. It’s just easier to dump. So, what if it adds to the mess? Does anyone really care about the one more bottle or can lying on the ground?</p>
<p>There are worries, as there should be, that the appalling littering along South Africa’s highways and the litter to be found even in many of South Africa’s beauty spots, is a threat to our tourist industry, and that in turn, means fewer jobs (let alone less general enjoyment). Yet the problems resulting from poor disposal of waste run far deeper. </p>
<p>Yes, the fast food industry and the supermarket chains, which have a fetish for unnecessary packaging, have much to answer for. But the externalisation of production costs onto to the public is hard-wired into South African industry. </p>
<p>South Africa is a country whose industrial origins lie in mining, and mining systematically produces massive waste and pollution which often has hugely detrimental effects on the environment <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-mine-dumps-in-south-africa-affect-the-health-of-communities-living-nearby-77113">and public health</a>. This culture continues today, sadly encouraged by lax governmental environmental supervision and excessive concern for profits, investment and private gain. </p>
<p>“Littering” by individuals is merely the expression of a far wider selfish – and publicly, costly - culture.</p>
<h2>Addressing the issue</h2>
<p>There are no great mysteries about how to address the issue of litter. What is needed first is the political will. This in turn requires the recognition of the importance of the problem. </p>
<p>There is more at stake than what many people might consider to be merely a middle class distaste for littering and general physical untidiness. Indeed, any presumption that middle class people have a greater dislike of litter than working class people or the poor needs itself to be questioned. After all, poor people bear the brunt of the problem. Where there is litter, there is filth, and where there is filth, there is disease.</p>
<p>Political will must be backed up by public resources, and all the paraphernalia of waste collection – from collection lorries, appropriate waste sites and disposal mechanisms, and litter bins. So much is obvious. Yet what is also required is far greater effort by government and ordinary citizens to curb the waste encouraged by excess packaging. </p>
<p>South Africa’s recycling industries – providers of thousands of jobs in the informal sector – need to be backed up by greater requirements imposed on retailers to provide collection points for plastic, cans, bottles and so on. The lack of effort by municipalities to encourage recycling by requiring householders to sort their waste into categories is scandalous, especially in middle class, high consumption areas where this would be easy to implement. </p>
<p>Legislation to curb use of plastic is spreading <a href="http://www.recyclingtoday.com/article/eu-commission-adopts-plastics-recycling-policy/">around the world</a>, and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229533184_The_economics_of_plastic_bag_legislation_in_South_Africa">South Africa </a>should not want to be left behind.</p>
<p>A cleaner environment, cleaner air, cleaner towns and cities, needs to be placed firmly on the public agenda.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96186/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger Southall receives funding from the National Research Foundation. </span></em></p>Littering in protest is indicative of a discordant society, and a culture of littering can tell us a lot about a society’s ethos.Roger Southall, Professor of Sociology, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.