Main Argument

1. A Comparative Analysis of Wellbeing Perceptions and Aspirations in Egypt and the UKSolava IbrahimLecturer in International DevelopmentInstitute for Development Policy and ManagementThe University of Manchester solava.ibrahim@manchester.ac.uk

2. It is possible to develop agrounded value-basedTheory of Wellbeing which is derived from people’s voices and which accounts for what people ‘value and have reason to value’. Main Argument 2

3. What do People Value?

4. Aims • Conduct a Comparative Analysis of Wellbeing Perceptions in deprived communities in Egypt and the UK • Identify common drivers of deprivation and wellbeing in the Global North and the Global South • Explore the Role of Human Values and Human Agency in achieving Wellbeing • Present a new Standardized Methodology to articulate these valued capabilities • Presenting preliminary results comparing: • Levels and Reasons for Life satisfaction/dissatisfaction • Elements of a Good Life • Problems and Areas of Deprivation • Unfulfilled Aspirations

5. Why Wellbeing Analyses?

6. Why Wellbeing Analyses? • Move away from studying poverty to studying poverty and wellbeing as two complementary and closely related areas of inquiry • Differentiating poverty reduction- from wellbeing-enhancing policies? • Growing interest among policymakers to articulate wellbeing perceptions to get a more comprehensive picture of how a country is progressing (ONS, 2011). • Existing gap in national statistical systems on subjective wellbeing (Stiglitz, Sen and Fitoussi commission report, 2009)

7. Developing a Grounded Value-based Theory of Wellbeing Why?

8. Why Grounded Value-based Theory of Wellbeing? • Drawing on People’s voices rather than Aristotelian ethics, Philosophical abstract accounts or Economists’ indices • Identifying what is important for people not what we think is important for them! • Applying a new form of Empirical Action Philosophy that bridges disciplinary boundaries • Departing from happiness, life satisfaction and subjective wellbeing studies to ‘value-based’ accounts of wellbeing: • Sen (1999): ‘What people value and have reason to value’ • Raibley (2011): ‘Wellbeing as Agential Flourishing’

9. Why Grounded Value-based Theory of Wellbeing? • Bringing Agency back in by asking people four aspects of their wellbeing: (1) what they value; (2) why they value them; (3) whether they have achieved them or not; and (4) why. • Rendering Wellbeing assessment a crucial guide for policymakers by developing a new normative framework for wellbeing policy (Haybron and Tiberius, 2012). • Standardising the methodology for articulating people’s valued capabilities in different socio-cultural, political and economic contexts to allow for its application in the Global North and the Global South

10. But! Wellbeing is a complex and multidimensional concept – Give up its assessment? No!

11. Adopting a ‘suitable’ Conceptual Framework for Wellbeing Analyses The Capability Approach?

12. Conceptualising Human Wellbeing: Adopting the Capability Approach – Why? • Emphasizes the importance of democratic processes and public deliberation in identifying which capabilities matter • Accounts for ‘what people value and have reason to value’ – not what they own, feel or are simply happy about. • Focuses on Process-freedom and is Agency-oriented : not only about achieving wellbeing, but also asks: HOW? • Acknowledges inter- and intra-cultural and intra-personal variations in accounting for ‘what wellbeing is’. • Broadening the Informational Space for assessing wellbeing – capabilities as potential choices and functionings as the actual achievements

13. Developing a New Methodology to Articulate Wellbeing Perceptions Why?

14. Why a New Methodology for Wellbeing Assessment? • Existing methods focus on happiness or life satisfaction • Existing studies on capabilities usually measure functionings • Need to ask the ‘why’ question to identify the reasons behind the valuations and the achievements of valued capabilities (or the lack thereof) • Generate a list of valued capabilities that is based on people’s voices– thus reducing the gap between what people value and what policymakers prioritise.

15. Capability Functioning Conversion Factors Grounded Methodological Approach to Exploring Valued Capabilities • Do you value……… • Why do you value…….. • 3. Have you succeeded in achieving ………..? • 4. Why have/haven’t you succeeded in achieving.?

16. General Well-being: Life Satisfaction, Elements of a Good Life, Problems, Aspirations Material Well-being: Income Generation, Education, Employment, Health, Safety, (Housing, Transportation,) Special Section added in UK: social spending cuts and their impact on wellbeing; relationship with local and national organisations (e.g. Local council and charity organisations and NGOs) Social Well-being: Social respect and Fair Treatment, Family and Friends, Communal trust, Relationship with formal institutions (the state, NGOs and religious organizations), Political freedom Mental Well-being: Leisure and Free Time, Life Planning, Fears and Worries. Missing Dimensions: Completing any missing Dimensions of Well-being through the Voices of the Poor The Questionnaire 16

17. Life Satisfaction Are you generally satisfied with your life? Why? Elements of a Good Life: What do you think are the three most important aspects of a good life that you value? Which of these three is the most important? which is the second most important? Problems affecting Wellbeing: What do you think are the three main problems you are facing in your life? Which of these problems of those three is the most important? Unfulfilled Aspirations Are there any things that you aspired to achieve in life but could not? What are the three most important things that you wished to achieve in life but couldn’t?/Are there things that you wished to achieve in life but couldn't? Preliminary Results on the following Questions 17

18. Fieldwork • Each Questionnaire with ~ 92 open-ended questions: • 80 conducted in Egypt • 62 conducted in Salford • Two Fieldwork Sites in Egypt : • Manshiet Nasser: one of the Poorest Urban Slums in Cairo • Menia: Rural Villages in Upper Egypt • Two Fieldwork Sites in Salford : • Weaste • Claremont • Challenges of applying the Questionnaire in the ‘North’ • Sampling: • Stratified Random Sampling: Age and Gender in Egypt • Snowballing and Purposive Sampling in Egypt and the UK

19. Caveat! This is not a representative sample, nevertheless, the rich qualitative data and the random selection, could allow for careful international comparisons and (generalisations). Can it all be coincidence? Unlikely!

20. Sample Characteristics

21. Sample Characteristics • Equally Divided between men and women in both countries • In the UK, biased towards Weaste (65%) due to higher levels of deprivation than Claremont, but in Egypt equally divided between both locations to allow for rural-urban comparisons. • In Egypt, biased towards younger (18-40 years) (67.5%)age group, due to national dependency ratio of 70%; while in UK equally divided between ‘younger’ and ‘older’ age groups. • Egypt Salford

22. Life Satisfaction

23. Life Satisfaction • In Egypt - 52.5% of the respondents were satisfied with their lives, 42.5% dissatisfied and only 5% indifferent. • In the UK – 72.6% indicated they were satisfied compared to 25.8% who said No and 1.6% were indifferent • What Does this Mean? • The reported high levels of life satisfaction in both countries can be either due to adaptation or to a true assessment of ‘valuables’ in life • The higher reported satisfaction in the UK could be a reflection of the lower level of relative deprivation in Salford compared to the Egyptian fieldwork areas.

24. But ! Adaptive Preferences • Adaptive preferences refer to the “adjustment of people’s aspirations to feasible possibilities” (Elster, 1982, 219). • Comments Indicating ‘Adaptive Preferences’ in Egypt – in the UK less cases

25. But! Adaptation is NOT Everything! People HAD reasons for Dis/Satisfaction!

26. Reasons for Life Satisfaction in Egypt and UK

27. Life Satisfaction – What Matters? • In Salford, social wellbeing dimensions, such as happy family, loyal friends and having a social life were important drivers for life satisfaction compared to material dimensions, such as income, in Egypt • In the UK, jobs are more important for life satisfaction than Egypt, probably due to the nature of insecure jobs in Egypt • Surprisingly, health and education do not rank highly in Egypt • The precedence of ‘psychological/mental’ wellbeing aspects in Salford, such as self-fulfilment, compared to the dominance of the ‘spiritual’ in Egypt, e.g. Relationship with God • In Sum: in Salford social and mental wellbeing dimensions are more important compared to spiritual and material dimensions in Egypt

28. Reasons for Life Dissatisfaction in Egypt and UK

29. Life Dissatisfaction – Why? • Same reasons for life dissatisfaction but different rankings: lack of jobs, lack of financial security, family-related problems, social exclusion and inadequate social and physical surroundings • In both contexts, family problems e.g. failed marriages, broken family relations etc.., are important causes for life dissatisfaction • Yet again, in Egypt, material factors, such as lack of income and inadequate physical surrounding take precedence compared to more social and mental wellbeing dimensions, such as lack of self-fulfilment and social exclusion in Salford • Surprise! Lack of education and health problems did not rank highly as reasons for life dissatisfaction in both countries • The drivers of life dissatisfaction can be different from the drivers of life satisfaction?

30. Elements of a Good Life ‘Valued Capabilities’

31. Elements of a Good Life – Priorities list (most important elements only)

32. Elements of a Good Life – Priorities list (most important elements only) • Contrary to ‘conventional wisdom’ about the ‘materialistic’ North and the ‘social’ South, exactly the opposite! – income came only last in Salford but 2nd in Egypt! • Social wellbeing dimensions, such as having a family, friends and good health as main priorities in Salford – notice a pattern here? • A combination of materialistic and spiritual dimensions took precedence in Egypt as belief in God, income and housing • Contrast between the rural and the urban sites in Egypt, the former valuing family, children and peace of mind, while the latter emphasizing the importance of housing and jobs. Both value income and religion the most.

33. Elements of a Good Life – Priorities list (most important elements only) • Contrast between Egypt and the UK, the former values ‘religion’, while in the latter it ranked last – explaining rise of political Islam? • Another area of contrast is income and housing which are valued more in Egypt (2nd and 3rd), compared to UK (only ranked 7th and unranked) – relativity of deprivation? • Health was valued the most in the UK compared to 8th place in Egypt - the importance of the NHS and implications of spending cuts? • Education was not identified as a priority in either of the two countries – is the valuation of Education becoming mainly instrumental? • Safety valued more in the UK – maybe as a result of the riots? Has this valuation of safety in Egypt changed after the revolution?

34. Elements of a Good Life – General list (all stated elements of a good life)

35. Elements of a Good Life – General list • Confirming our hypothesis – it IS possible to develop a grounded theory of wellbeing based on people’s valued capabilities • Income, family and jobs are the most valued elements of a good life in both countries – despite their diverse contexts - move from clash of civilisations to common humanity? Context matters – but how? • Another pattern – similar to life satisfaction results – in Egypt, more materialistic and spiritual elements (income, belief in God, jobs) take precedence while in the UK more social and psychological elements (family, friends, self-fulfillment) are important. • Health ranked first in the UK but only last in Egypt – adaptation? • Education ranked last in Egypt compared to 6th in UK – again confirming the instrumental importance of ‘returns from education’, e.g. job market and self-esteem

36. Can We really argue for a Grounded Value-based Theory of Wellbeing? Yes!!! Why?

37. Add South Africa to the results… Clark (2002)

38. Elements of a Good Life – Egypt, UK and SA

39. Elements of a Good Life – Grounded Theory of Wellbeing? • SAME elements in ALL three countries – but different rankings • In all three – AGAIN – jobs, family and income ranked the highest • Commonalities between Egypt and the UK: • Self-fulfilment, friends, valuing children, living in a safe environment • Interestingly, safety was missing from the SA list! • Commonalities between Egypt and SA: • Religious life, housing and food • Housing and food did not even appear on the UK list! • Commonalities between SA and the UK: • Health and education valued – but came last in Egypt!

40. Dare to Generate a List of ‘Valued Capabilities’? Scoring each element according to its importance and frequency

41. List of Valued Capabilities

42. Problems – Areas of Deprivation?

43. Main Problems in Egypt and the UK

44. Main Problems – different contexts, similar problems? • Ill-health as primary concern in the UK – despite the existence of NHS – but ignored in Egypt (triangulation and confirmation of previous results) • In both countries, financial insecurity and lack of job/job satisfaction are primary problems – the importance of employment generating policies • Social factors, especially family-related problems, play a crucial role in affecting human wellbeing in both countries • Interestingly, global concerns, e.g. environmental degradation, poverty and world peace, appeared in the ‘British list’! • Confirming previous results, • In the UK: mental and social wellbeing dimensions, such as worry, social exclusion, lack of social support are important • In Egypt: material problems, for example related to social services, such as housing, health and education are more important than others.

45. Aspirations – Unfulfilled Capabilities

46. What did People wish to achieve but couldn’t? How Different were their unfulfilled Aspired Capabilities?

47. Failed Aspirations – Unfulfilled Capabilities?

48. Failed Aspirations – Unfulfilled Capabilities • Could not have IMAGINED a better MATCH! • Identical list of unfulfilled aspired capabilities: • Lack of Jobs  Lack of Education  Inability to get married/settle down • Similar to Previous results: • In Egypt: • more materialistic aspects such as income, housing and living in safe surrounding • Spiritual aspects, such as fulfilling religious duties appear again • In the UK: • ‘softer’ non-basic aspects, such as practicing one’s hobbies, travelling and driving appear • primacy of psychological and mental wellbeing dimensions appear again, such as lack of social acceptance and lack of self-esteem

49. Why is this Important?

50. What are the Implications of These Results?