Please note: In order to keep Hive up to date and provide users with the best features, we are no longer able to fully support Internet Explorer. The site is still available to you, however some sections of the site may appear broken. We would encourage you to move to a more modern browser like Firefox, Edge or Chrome in order to experience the site fully.

Critical Perspectives in Happiness Research : The Birth of Modern Happiness, Paperback / softback Book

Critical Perspectives in Happiness Research : The Birth of Modern Happiness Paperback / softback

Paperback / softback

Description

This book presents an interdisciplinary exploration of the origins of happiness in the modern Western culture and makes the argument that happiness is not universal but is instead a culturally and historically specific experience, characteristic only to the Western world.

It begins with an overview of the main research approaches to happiness and then studies the important but elusive theme in the context of culture and relations of power.

The second part of the book analyses the social, religious, ethical and political processes that lead to the emergence of the experience of happiness, including consumer culture in contemporary societies.

It presents an analysis of the medieval Christian experience which concludes that the modern experience of happiness only emerged in the 17th and 18th century, when the ideal of human existence increasingly started to be pursued in the present life.

In its conclusion, this book explores the concept of modernization as the collective pursuit of happiness.  

Information

Other Formats

£89.99

 
Free Home Delivery

on all orders

 
Pick up orders

from local bookshops

Information