“Beyond Economic Survival – 97 Ways Small Communities Can Thrive – A Guide to Community Vitality” Released

More Needed to Survive in a Post-Recession Economy - Economist

ALSO ATTACHED – MINI COMMUNITY VITALITY INDEX – How Does Your Community Rate?

Nelson, BC - Does your community believe in itself? Do women consider it safe to walk alone downtown at night? Do young adults 25-34 consider your community a desirable place to live?

“If you’re not asking yourself these things you are not likely to have a viable community in the long run” says economist Mike Stolte, co-author of a just-published free guide to community vitality.

“Beyond Economic Survival – 97 Ways Small Communities Can Thrive – A Guide to Community Vitality” was released on the web this week by the Centre for Innovative & Entrepreneurial Leadership (CIEL – pronounced ‘see – elle’ meaning sky in French –www.theCIEL.com), a Nelson, BC-based organization that has worked with communities in Canada, the US, Australia & New Zealand.

The guide comes about after four years of development. “We looked at more than 60 studies from around the world, had a blue ribbon national advisory committee, and have now worked closely with 50 communities in four countries to produce this guide,” says Bill Metcalfe, the report’s other co-author.

Stolte, CIEL’s Executive Director, says that most of the 97 indicators rely on perceptions - things like newcomers being welcome in the community or the community having a festival that generates a feeling of magic and excitement. “These important perceptions are often ignored in communities because they are hard to measure,” states Stolte.

To read full article click here.

Disagreeing with Canada's National Newspaper - Should happiness be measured by economists? Can it?

Q: Should happiness be measured by economists? Can it?

A: Yes. Yes.

In response to the Globe & Mail's July 4th editorial ‘Comparing incomparables – forget the elusive ‘gross domestic happiness – economists should stick to facts and figures’, I strongly disagree. Fundamentally, we need to find better ways of measuring individual and societal well-being (NOTE: not to be confused with momentary hedonistic pleasure). Economists originally struck out to measure and maximize well-being in society. Gross domestic product (GDP) became a proxy for measuring this. It worked for a while as a world growing richer (at least in the West) lifted many beyond the chronic illness, premature death and subsistence living that plagued the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Unfortunately, GDP has not served us well for the last 50 years with self-reported measures of happiness declining slightly and rates of suicide, depression, stress, anxiety, all increasing. If our best indicator of well-being is broken, should we not endeavour to find other(s) as the French government is doing?

Can we actually measure happiness or well-being? Many countries, communities and individuals are already trying to do this. There have been great strides in recent years to find alternative indicators – Genuine Progress Indicators (GPI), CIEL’s Community Vitality Initiative (CVI) for small Canadian communities, Happy Planet Index (HPI) in the UK, the Atkinson Foundation’s Canadian Index of Well-Being, Gross National Happiness (GNH) in Bhutan and the New Economics Foundation’s National Accounts of Well-being where you can compare your relative happiness to those like you in many European countries.

Like the stockmarkets, however, be prepared for a rollercoaster ride.

Mike Stolte - The Happy Economist

http://happy-economist.blogspot.com/

Executive Director, Centre for Innovative & Entrepreneurial Leadership (CIEL – www.theCIEL.com), co-developer of CVI