World Scanning
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WELLBEING
Description
The question of what makes a well human being is complex and contentious. Humans have been investigating it for millennia, both in general terms and in the specifics of their own lives. One approach (from the school of Human Scale Development) is to characterise human beings as having a framework of fundamental needs that stem from the condition of being human. Rather than the idea of economic wants, which are infinite and insatiable, these fundamental needs are finite and constant through all human culture. What changes over time and between cultures are the strategies by which needs are satisfied.Human needs are hierarchical, interrelated and interactive and need to be understood as a system, where different needs are satisfied simultaneously and in ways which interact and reinforce to generate a sense of wellbeing. The nine needs identified by Max Neef for example are: subsistence, protection, affection, understanding, participation, recreation (in the sense of leisure, time to reflect, or idleness), creation, identity and freedom.
World Model