BACKGROUND - The crucial importance of well-being at personal and societal levels is stressed by leading international institutions – cf. the 2018 Eurofound report on Social Cohesion and Well-being in Europe and the Sector Brief 'The Arts, Health and Well-being' of the Regional Office for Europe of the WHO (Sept. 2019); also, in Oct. 2019 the Council of the EU stated that “well-being is a principal aim of the EU”; in addition, well-being is at the heart of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
GOAL(S) - Within this context, and with reference to the 2.1-2.2 sections of the Italian PNR 2021-2027, the project (designated with the acronym WBE) aims to trace the roots of the concept of well-being in Late Modern times through a discussion of the discursive
means employed in English and Anglo-American texts for its definition and promotion. By analyzing the construction of well-being in a historical sociolinguistic perspective, it will be possible to trace when and how various dimensions of physical, mental and social well-being started creating a ‘discourse of well-being’ extending beyond basic needs. At the same time, greater awareness of the historical roots of discursive phenomena can help us understand and preserve the cultural and environmental heritage that is shared among different realities. By taking a hitherto neglected approach, this project will critically discuss the development of concepts Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca MUR - BANDO 2022
and attitudes to well-being that still inform contemporary attitudes and are all the more relevant in a moment of crisis like the present.
METHOD – The group’s approach will be informed by multi-, inter- and cross-disciplinarity and will combine genre and discourse analysis with the concepts and tools of historical sociolinguistics. As the “linguistic turn in history” has shown, language does not
simply reflect social reality, but it actually constitutes human consciousness and historical events; for this reason, the findings of historical sociolinguists and language or literary historians may supplement the research carried out in other domains.
RESEARCH UNITS - The WBE project will be carried out by 4 units that will work cohesively, as the concept of well-being will be discussed in relation to 4 mutually supportive elements which are indispensable to individuals and societies alike: 1) (self)education and ego documents; 2) leisure and entertainment; 3) news discourse; 4) health and the popularization of science. These research areas, largely corresponding to the participants’ expertise and interests, reflect the multidimensional reality of well-being, which ranges from individual quality of life – itself a multilayered concept – to social cohesion.
RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT – The main steps and products of the project will include: 1) compilation of a bibliographic database of relevant literature; 2) creation of a representative corpus of annotated digital texts; 3) critical output via OA publications; 4) webinar and teaching resources.