COVID-19 and Subjective Well-Being in Urban Pakistan in the Beginning of the Pandemic: A Socio-Economic Analysis

Neighborhood Governance and Happiness during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Empirical Analysis of Wuhan's Lockdown

The outbreak of COVID-19 posed a challenge to global governance, residents' happiness, and economic systems around the world. Since the crux of previous research centers on the reactions of both local and national governments, studies on how governance arrangement at the neighborhood level influences people's happiness during the crisis response remain insufficient. This paper aims to explore the relationship between neighborhood governance and residents' happiness based on first-hand data collected during Wuhan's first lockdown. This study highlights the significance of neighborhood governance in crisis response, which includes providing diverse public services, ensuring access to life's necessities, and offering prompt medical treatment. All of these factors are essential for maintaining overall satisfaction with governance and contributing to the happiness of individuals within the community. However, active governance actions do not always lead to favorable results. For example, increased group participation may lead to social conflicts among those involved, ultimately diminishing one's happiness. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has acted as a risk 'amplifier', exposing and exacerbating pre-existing hukou-based social inequalities in the governance process. The impact of the pandemic on citizen happiness is the cumulative effect of both the immediate social crisis brought on by the pandemic and long-standing structural inequalities. To improve people's happiness and establish inclusive policies, this paper advocates for a 'people-centered' urban governance that enhances public satisfaction and addresses the needs and priorities of migrant populations.

Cultural values and changes in happiness in 78 countries during the COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis of data from the World Happiness Reports

The concept of happiness is consistent across cultures to a significant extent, and encompasses both internal (subjective) and external (situational) aspects. Cultural values and norms shape emotions and behavior from an early age, and hence play a key role in influencing cross-national variations in happiness. Cross-national variations in culture can thus play a key role in influencing the relationship between adverse circumstances, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and happiness. The current study examines the relationship between the six dimensions of culture, defined by Hofstede and his colleagues, and subjective ratings of happiness in 78 countries, obtained before (2017-19) and during (2020-21) the COVID-19 pandemic, based on data from the most recent World Happiness reports. The key results were: (a) countries were as likely to experience an increase as a decrease in self-reported happiness during this period; (b) distinct domains of culture were significantly correlated with happiness at each time point, though there was a certain degree of overlap; (c) pre-pandemic levels of happiness were negatively associated with changes in happiness during the pandemic; and (d) among cultural dimensions, long-term orientation was positively associated with changes in subjective happiness, while indulgence was negatively associated with this variable. Certain cultural values may play an important part in fostering a path to well-being in the face of stressful or traumatic circumstances. This path may be similar to the concept of mature happiness, derived from existential philosophy, which is characterized by achieving a balance between the positive and negative aspects of one's life.