THE APPLICATION OF WELLBEING RESEARCH TO REGIONAL LEVEL IN LITHUANIA

Abstract

In this article the significance of wellbeing research in the regional level in Lithuania has been analyzed, the advantages and disadvantages of the objective and subjective wellbeing research have been evaluated. The results of the analysis of wellbeing research reveal that the wellbeing research in the regional level is poorly amplified, the wellbeing research in the social sciences is not marked, the wellbeing is investigated in other fields not in social sciences or according to the aims of the researher and more often causes and outcomes of social economical inequality for regional development are emphasized. Scientific studies show that wellbeing research can have big influence for shaping the future of regions because it concerns local people, their choices and overall wellbeing of a particular region. Findings from foreign countries good practice disclose that wellbeing is currently widely used as a key factor and trend for the development policy evaluation. Accordingly in this article big attention is drawn to wellbeing research possible effect for policymakers. It can be concluded that wellbeing research should become an important discussion object in the regional development context because it reveals the situation about people overall wellbeing and particular life domains. The main aim of this article is to analyse the importance of wellbeing research to regional level in Lithuania. The research problem of this article is the fact that the poor experience of wellbeing research in Lithuania insufficiently reveals the wellbeing expression and use in the regional level. In the research common research methods like analysis and synthesis of the scientific literature, analysis of documents and comparative analysis have been employed.

Keywords: wellbeing, wellbeing research, region, regional development.

Article DOI: http://doi.org/10.15544/RD.2015.103