Thanks to people called behavioural economists; happiness is now taken seriously and measured as if it were tangible instead of an abstract notion. Quite how you compare one person’s happiness apple with another’s orange beats me, but it’s an interesting step in the right direction.
Anyway, these academic chaps have now decided that happiness exists and psychologists now study the impact of our decisions on the rest of our lives. In tandem with this growing realisation comes the concept that cities are living entities and not just lumps of masonry.
Born-again cities
The latter half of the 20th century swallowed the idea that suburban bungalow bliss was the Holy Grail and joining the long commuters’ club meant you had made it. This is now being dissected. In his new book, “Happy City,” Canadian scribe Charles Montgomery links the idea of happiness with born-again urban living.
His premise is that if city planners and property developers rated the happiness factor more highly, cities could be designed to make the lives of their inhabitants more blissful. According to Montgomery, we are not terribly good at working out what makes us happy by ourselves, so we need help. This is a rather sweeping generalisation.
So what’s the elixir of urban bliss? To arrive at that conclusion, it helps to approach this backwards and observe what contributes to urban gloom. Commuting, especially long commutes are high up the list.