The Pre-conference workshops are free, but require advanced registration. Please visit isqols.org/Argentina-workshops/ to learn more and register. 

Los talleres previos a la conferencia son gratuitos, pero requieren inscripción previa. Por favor, visite isqols.org/Argentina-workshops/ para obtener más información e inscribirse.

The Pre-conference workshops are free, but require advanced registration. Please visit isqols.org/Argentina-workshops/ to learn more and register. 

Los talleres previos a la conferencia son gratuitos, pero requieren inscripción previa. Por favor, visite isqols.org/Argentina-workshops/ para obtener más información e inscribirse.

The Pre-conference workshops are free, but require advanced registration. Please visit isqols.org/Argentina-workshops/ to learn more and register. 

Los talleres previos a la conferencia son gratuitos, pero requieren inscripción previa. Por favor, visite isqols.org/Argentina-workshops/ para obtener más información e inscribirse.

Sustainable community well-being in Latin America

Latin America is a region with unique and sometimes difficult-to-understand characteristics. It is part of the Global South, exhibiting persistent economic, social, and political inequality but at the same time it is a region recognized for the importance of social relationships, friendship, and solidarity among its members, which over the years have become a way of coping with adversity through social support, reflected in their levels of well-being and happiness. The concept of community is fundamental in our region, but the original definition closely linked to geographic concentration, has evolved, and new models of community have emerged as well as the way people participate in community spaces. Community well-being is the combination of social, economic, environmental, cultural, and political conditions that communities identify as essential for meeting their human needs and developing their potential; therefore, any definition of well-being must be contextualized within communities. In this scenario, achieving sustainability requires promoting human security that supports a stable life for all and demonstrates each person's capacity to be a key-actor in the process of changing global dynamics.

El bienestar comunitario sostenible en América Latina

América Latina es una región con características únicas y, a veces, difíciles de comprender. Es parte del Sur Global, presentando una persistente desigualdad económica, social y política, pero al mismo tiempo es una región reconocida por la importancia de las relaciones sociales, la amistad y la solidaridad entre sus miembros, que con el paso de los años se han convertido en una forma de afrontar la adversidad mediante el apoyo social, lo que se refleja en sus niveles de bienestar y felicidad. El concepto de comunidad es fundamental en nuestra región, pero la definición original relacionada con la concentración geográfica ha evolucionado y han surgido nuevos modelos de comunidad, así como la forma en que las personas participan en los espacios comunitarios. El bienestar comunitario es la combinación de condiciones sociales, económicas, ambientales, culturales y políticas que las comunidades identifican como esenciales para satisfacer sus necesidades humanas y desarrollar su potencial; por lo tanto, cualquier definición de bienestar debe contextualizarse dentro de las comunidades. En este escenario, lograr la sostenibilidad requiere promover una seguridad humana que sustente una vida estable para todos y demuestre la capacidad de cada persona para ser un actor clave en el proceso de cambio de las dinámicas globales.

Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren Reloaded

Nearly one hundred years ago, John M. Keynes envisioned a future where material concerns would fade, allowing individuals to focus on leisure and well-being. Similar expectations were common in Keynes' days, when industrial progress promised to yield productivity gains, which would increase wages and lift workers out of poverty. Freed from material constraints, individuals would devote more attention to personal interests, relationships, and quality of life. One hundred years later, history proved that Keynes was right about economic growth, but individuals remain focused on material concerns at the expense of quality of life and of the environment. Why did economic activity deliver affluent, but socially and environmentally unsustainable societies?  What possibilities are there for our future, the one of our grandchildren? I first review the evidence on the unsustainability of the current economic model. I discuss the role of economic growth for well-being, providing new evidence on defensive consumption, and illustrating a new explanation of unsustainability. I then discuss Neo-humanism, an evidence-based narrative to promote sustainable quality of life, and to ensure thriving lives in socially and environmentally sustainable societies. A shift towards sustainable quality of life is possible thanks to the insights from decades of research in this field.

Urban Quality of Life: A Spatial and Mixed-Methods Approach

This talk presents a spatial, mixed-methods approach to urban quality of life that links cartographic evidence (“the map”) with lived experiences. I show how geographic information systems and quantitative indicators, combined with qualitative tools (especially go-along interviews and participatory mapping), can make intra-urban inequalities, and the links between the built environment and well-being, visible. I draw on examples from research papers (including work in collaboration with master’s and PhD students) and from projects in which I participate, such as WISER (Well-being in a Sustainable Economy Revisited), ULALABS (University Lab of Labs), and “Children and Citizen (Geo)science for Climate-Adaptive Cities”, where primary school pupils acted as co-researchers. The talk emphasises the importance of combining different forms of knowledge, fostering bidirectional flows between scientific and community knowledge, and using participatory, empathetic co-design and open science practices so that residents’ contributions guide research questions, methods, and results that can be translated into planning and/or design policies.

Human Needs, Interpersonal Relationships, and High Happiness in Latin America

The main objective of this presentation is to offer an explanation for the high levels of happiness reported by large segments of the Latin American population. To do so, the discussion first addresses the human needs whose fulfillment has the most significant impact on well-being. It then examines the factors that satisfy these needs, highlighting a specific type of interpersonal relationship that is abundant in many Latin American countries. Lastly, the presentation illustrates how person-based relationships contribute to explaining the high happiness in Latin America and concludes with final thoughts on its implications for development strategies.