Critical Perspectives in Happiness Research: The Birth of Modern Happiness (2014)

Zevnik, Luka, Critical Perspectives in Happiness Research: The Birth of Modern Happiness, Springer, 2014

Explores the concept of modernization as the collective pursuit of happiness
Places the concept of happiness into a historical and cultural context
Analyses the relationship of modern consumer culture with happiness in contemporary western societies

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.

Keywords »Anthropology of Well-Being – Art of Living – Basic Parameters of Happiness – Critical History of Happiness – Cultural Construction of Happiness – Cultural Neuroscience – Culture and Relations – Empirical Happiness Research – Ethnocentrism and Happiness – Eudaimonic Well-Being – Foucault and Happiness – Happiness Studies and Life Satisfaction – Happiness and Consumer Culture – Happiness and Culture – Happiness and Medieval Theology – Happiness and Pastoral Power – Interdisciplinary Approach to the Study of Happiness – Middle Ages and Happiness – Neoroscience of Happiness – Origins of Happiness in the Western Culture – Positive Timeless Universal Experience – Public and Communal Happiness – Pursuit of Happiness – Sin and Salvation – The Birth of Modern Happiness – Understanding of Happiness

Dr. Luka Zevnik is assistant professor at University of Ljubljana. He is interdisciplinary oriented and has presented conference papers and published on happiness and emotions, popular culture, consumer culture, experience, cultural studies and neuroscience.