Special Issue

Title:   Shaping Wellbeing Futures: Systems, Policy and Innovation for Sustainable Flourishing

Professor John Ricketts                                                                    Professor Chris D. Beaumont
(Guest Editor)                                                                                    (Guest Editor)
Yamanashi Gakuen University,                                                          Visitor, The University of Tokyo,
Japan                                                                                                    Japan
E-mail: ricketts.john@c2c.ac.jp                                                           E-mail: beaumontsan@gmail.com

 

Proposal

Rationale and Central Proposition

This Special Issue examines wellbeing not only as an individual or social outcome, but as an emergent property of interacting institutional, economic, technological, cultural and ecological systems. It invites conceptual, empirical, methodological and practice-oriented research examining how policy and systems innovation can strengthen the conditions for equitable, resilient and sustainable flourishing.

Wellbeing research remains divided across psychology, population health, economics, public policy, sustainability and futures studies. This fragmentation limits understanding of how interventions in one domain create consequences elsewhere and how wellbeing can be sustained across time, populations and generations.

Three anchor papers will provide a shared conceptual foundation for the Special Issue. Additional contributions will be invited to test, extend, critique and apply that framework across diverse geographical, cultural and institutional contexts.

Objectives

The Special Issue will seek to:

1. Develop integrated frameworks for understanding wellbeing as a systemic and future-oriented phenomenon.
2. Examine how policy, technology, institutional design and social innovation shape equitable and sustainable wellbeing.
3. Advance rigorous approaches to measuring systemic wellbeing and evaluating transformative interventions.
4. Translate research into practical implications for policymakers, organisations, communities and professional practice.

Scope and Contribution Criteria

The Special Issue is deliberately interdisciplinary but thematically bounded. Contributions should explicitly connect wellbeing outcomes with the design, performance or transformation of wider social, institutional, technological, economic or ecological systems.

Papers may use quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, theoretical, comparative, participatory or practice-based approaches. Contributions may address local, national, regional or global contexts.

The issue will particularly welcome work that moves beyond narrow or short-term definitions of wellbeing and examines the conditions through which wellbeing can be created, distributed, sustained and governed over time.

Guiding Research Questions

The Special Issue will be organised around three broad questions:

• How do institutional, technological, economic, social and ecological systems interact to shape wellbeing over time?
• Which forms of policy and systems innovation build durable human and collective capabilities?
• How can transformative wellbeing outcomes be measured, governed and translated across different cultural and institutional contexts?

Indicative Themes

Potential areas of contribution include:

• Conceptual foundations: wellbeing futures, flourishing, systems thinking, complexity and transformative change.
• Policy and institutions: wellbeing-oriented governance, institutional innovation, public policy and cross-sector coordination.
• Technology and human capability: artificial intelligence, digital wellbeing, work, education, leadership and future capabilities.
• Health, community and resilience: preventive policy, social cohesion, community-led innovation and population wellbeing.
• Equity and planetary wellbeing: inequality, justice, culture, inclusion, sustainability and intergenerational wellbeing.
• Measurement and implementation: new indicators, comparative methods, impact evaluation, participatory research and the translation of evidence into policy and professional practice.

Significance and Journal Fit

Societies are confronting interconnected pressures arising from technological disruption, demographic change, economic uncertainty, inequality, environmental degradation, public-health risks and declining trust in institutions. These challenges cannot be understood or addressed adequately through isolated disciplinary or policy responses.

The Special Issue will establish a focused platform for internationally relevant scholarship at the intersection of wellbeing, systems transformation, policy innovation and implementation. By connecting theory with evidence and practice, it will support a more coherent understanding of how societies can design and govern the conditions for lasting, inclusive and measurable flourishing.

It will also strengthen the role of Wellbeing Futures: Innovation, Policy and Research as a forum for interdisciplinary research that links conceptual development with policy relevance, methodological innovation and practical application.