WE BE Global is an expansion of WE BE: States of WEll-BEing and the Measurement of Healthy Lives, which received funding from the European University Institute's Widening Europe Programme in 2025. It has grown into a global research project studying how wellbeing is defined, measured, and practised at transnational and local levels.
The research continuing from WE BE includes a systematic review of academic literature on wellbeing, a dataset on the production and funding of transnational wellbeing indices, and a portfolio of context-grounded wellbeing case studies.
The systematic review investigates the disciplines and countries of authorship, and whether and how wellbeing is defined and measured.
The dataset analyses the contents of the indices and the geographies and political economy of the actors and contexts that seek to shape global narratives of wellbeing measurement through funding and producing global indices.
WE BE began with four core case studies of national understandings and governance of wellbeing. In WE BE Global this has expanded to include researchers from more than 20 countries across 5 continents developing country- or domain-specific analyses of wellbeing.
The case studies include:
The research continuing from WE BE includes a systematic review of academic literature on wellbeing, a dataset on the production and funding of transnational wellbeing indices, and a portfolio of context-grounded wellbeing case studies.
The systematic review investigates the disciplines and countries of authorship, and whether and how wellbeing is defined and measured.
The dataset analyses the contents of the indices and the geographies and political economy of the actors and contexts that seek to shape global narratives of wellbeing measurement through funding and producing global indices.
WE BE began with four core case studies of national understandings and governance of wellbeing. In WE BE Global this has expanded to include researchers from more than 20 countries across 5 continents developing country- or domain-specific analyses of wellbeing.
The case studies include:
- Terminologies used to denote wellbeing and affiliate concepts, including their nuances in practice, etymologies, understandings of individual/collective, and implicit contexts;
- The beliefs, practices, and tangible spaces or objects associated with wellbeing;
- The governance of wellbeing: formal/central entities responsible for measuring and/or promoting wellbeing; non-formal or community-based infrastructures; wellbeing as a priority or a means;
- The nature of actors measuring wellbeing and financing this work; the framing, definitions, indicators, and data used;
- Legal dimensions: wellbeing in the national constitution, case history, policies, and legislation.
- Wellbeing in public education, as well as informal knowledge about and for wellbeing outside of formal education.
The authors will collaborate to develop comparative and analytical work across contexts and domains.
We warmly invite researchers to join the WE BE Global network. Researchers receive our templates, guidance, and methodological resources as well as direct support from the coordinating team as needed to accompany their research process.
Please find the call for expressions of interest below. Interested researchers are invited to write to the contacts indicated in the call, specifying the context or domain on which they would like to focus.
We warmly invite researchers to join the WE BE Global network. Researchers receive our templates, guidance, and methodological resources as well as direct support from the coordinating team as needed to accompany their research process.
Please find the call for expressions of interest below. Interested researchers are invited to write to the contacts indicated in the call, specifying the context or domain on which they would like to focus.