By Mike Zeidler

In 2009, Britain as a whole ranked 74th happiest country in the world according to the Happy Planet Index.  Luckily for Britain, the Happy City Initiative was already forming in Bristol’s thriving culture of creative innovation.  The people of Bristol are now poised to help the country out.

Happiness is one of those things we take hugely for granted - not necessarily being happy, but knowing what it is.  And yet there’s much more to happiness than meets the eye.  This article is the first of a series that will develop the theme of Bristol as a global leader in happiness, exploring the relationship between emotions, economics and society. 

First, a little history.  Happiness has been taken seriously for at least as long as people have been able to write.  The influence of Lao Tzu (600 b.c.) and Aristotle (300 b.c.) is alive today, and civilizations the world over have been shaped by this ancient debate as it applies to politics, economics, religion, and the meaning of life. Perhaps the most famously obvious example is the American Constitution of 1776, which still today enshrines ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ as an inalienable right.

Leap to the 20th century, and the tiny Kingdom of Bhutan began working with the idea of Gross National Happiness in 1972 because the king felt the ‘Western’ model of development would threaten spiritual values.  A year later, E.F. Schumacher published ‘Small is Beautiful - economics as if people mattered’ based on his experiences in nearby Burma. His ideas planted the seeds of much of the ‘sustainability’ movement of today.

Finally, we arrive back in the 21st century, when professor Richard Layard wrote ‘Happiness – lessons from a new science’ in 2006, the same year the New Economics Foundation launched the ‘Happy Planet Index’ I mentioned at the beginning.  The French government commissioned a study to see how best to measure growth taking into account social wellbeing and in 2009 the Stigliz Report got government ministers in Europe talking about ‘happiness’.  In Britain, we got ‘Big Society’, from government, and The Happy City Initiative from Bristol.

The Happy Bristol Initiative was created because we realised that the current system isn’t just rubbish at making us happier, it actually DEMANDS our unhappiness to fuel growth.  Unless we’re constantly a bit dissatisfied with what we’ve got, we don’t feel the need to go out and spend, and if consumption goes down, we’re failing.  So Happy City looks to build on the history of thinking about happiness to help replace the diseased model of economics wreaking havoc across the world, with something altogether healthier.

The Happy City Initiative has strong connections all over Bristol, and builds on our collective strength in leadership, organisational development, marketing, media (in all its forms), community engagement, conflict resolution, arts, New Economics, facilitation, research and much more.  We work with four key ideas, which are:

1) Happiness is the key to a prosperous society

2) City sized populations have the ideas & resources they need to solve their problems if they are joined up effectively

3) We need to adjust our mindsets, attitudes and principles in order to re-shape the systems, structures, actions and behaviours which currently govern society

4) A focus on solutions which builds on existing strengths and shares the detail of what works well is the most effective way of addressing problems.

These ideas are continuous themes in all of the work Happy City does, and we’ll refer to them throughout the following series of articles. 

The Happy City Initiative is a grassroots organisation with a big vision doing lots and lots of small things which together add up to big change.  Building on existing strengths and successes, Happy City projects are all created in partnership with local people. The current list of projects includes work with teachers, artists, film-makers, musicians, business folks, foodies, refugees, community workers and more.

We started with a five year, three step plan.  Step one is very local work, inspiring people and their communities to find greater happiness through what they do and how they are together. This begins to put the current emphasis on what ‘stuff’ people have into a healthier perspective. Step two looks at how these small, local changes add up for towns and cities. Step three is a natural progression from step two when the energy of the change carries the thinking around the world of its own accord.  Cities are the pulse points of a nation, so a new pattern of citywide initiatives that promote happiness rather than consumption will inevitably result in happier people, and that’s an infectious idea. Faced with a choice between destructive and competitive consumption or constructive collaborative creation, we reckon we know what people will do.

Can Bristol really be a Global Leader in Happiness? We’re already fending off approaches from other places around the UK (and abroad!) because we want to create an inclusive and achievable model that’s easy to replicate.  Like an iceberg, there’s a lot below the waterline of what we’re doing and we want to be well tested and prepared before we share.

Back in 2003, Comic Relief commissioned a survey which named people in Bristol thefriendliest in Britain which isn’t a bad start if you want to build strong communities.  In April this year, the Happy City Initiative took to the stage at the launch event of Action for Happiness because the director, Mark Williamson was so impressed by what we’re up to.  In the same month, we attracted a visit from Eldan Goldenberg, Director of Operations at Sustainable Seattle, the business leaders organisation that declared their intent to make Seattle the USA’s first ‘City of Gross National Happiness’.

The Happy City Initiative is here to reflect, celebrate and promote the great work that people all over the city are doing to increase happiness. We believe Bristol has almost perfect cultural conditions to create the kind of change required to break the shackles of 20th century economic thinking. We’re not yet global leaders in happiness, but looking at the talent and energy that surrounds us, you’d have to say we’re well on the way.

If you only click on one of the links in this article, choose this one here (it takes you to the Frequently Asked Questions page of the Happy City website) – you’ll hear more from us next week when we write a bit more about happiness itself, and how something that seems so hard to pin down can be measured for the common good.