Wellbeing and Social Sustainability

Research group

Wellbeing and Social Sustainability

About us

Girls holding hands running away from the photographer. Photo
Photo: Josue Michel/Unsplash

The purpose of the research group is to promote wellbeing for all, and support citizens to live dignified lives they have reason to value, in inclusive communities and across generations and social backgrounds. Through innovation and research, citizens, local governments, academia, NGO's, private sector and other relevant stakeholders we will work together to develop sustainable welfare solutions based on social justice and supportive relationships.

Creating wellbeing for all is basically about human rights and social justice and how welfare solutions can be made sustainable and fair. The core of the work of the research group on pursuing wellbeing for all is capacity building in people, between people, in local communities by bringing public, private and/or civil actors to collaborate in the creation of public welfare through processes of sharing knowledge and resources with each other. The research literature describes co-creation and relational welfare approaches as a form of governance and practice that can save a public welfare system under pressure in the face of scarce resources and increasingly complex challenges. These perspectives involve moving from looking at sustainability and welfare as a task only for Public Sector Organizations with defined missions separated info different sectors, to looking at it as a joint mission across sectors, organizations and actors in a whole-of-society approach.

The public sector needs to build capacity to systematically try, test, fail, succeed, learn and share practices and knowledge about relational welfare solutions and collaboration, and how such a development can be led. There is a great need for theory development and empirical exploration of collaboration and relational welfare. This constitutes the starting point for the research group Wellbeing and Social Sustainability.

Research activity

Research activity

  • Evaluation assistance in the implementation structure of the International Child Development Program (ICDP) in The Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufdir)
  • Citizens´ model in Trondheim Municipality: Study on well-being, social inclusion and co-creation
  • Preventing an Opioid Epidemic In Norway: Focusing on Treatment of Chronic pain (POINT). Coordinator: University of Oslo – SERAF; funded by Norwegian Research Council 2021-2024.
  • Future Lab: Empowering children and young people through research and giving them a voice (Erasmus+ ENHANCE-project)
  • PUBLIC VALUE: PUshing the Boundaries of Leadership In Co-creating VALUE together with citizens and stakeholders
  • Feeling valued, and adding value: Mattering in co-creating Well-being Communities
  • WELCOME: WELlbeing COMmunities in Europe – Experimenting with deliberative and participatory democratic processes towards wellbeing for all
  • Recovery and recovery-oriented services and practices within mental health and substance abuse care
  • Inter-professional collaboration for children and youth in schools who are in contact with child welfare services (a PhD-project in collaboration with the COIN-research group)
  • Relational Capacity
  • Asset Based Community Development (ABCD)
  • Democratic Innovation in deliberative and participatory democracy
  • Citizen assemblies in local communities
  • Public Health and strength based communities of learning
  • Think it out – dialogical reflection groups in prisons
  • Action research methods for transforming communities (Edited book)
  • It takes a village: Co-creation of social inclusion amongst families with children in preschools. PhD project at Nord University and Levanger Municipality, Norway.
  • Health promotion at the local level: From disease prevention to community development (Edited book)
  • A life in the community for people with severe mental health problems: An exploration of young people's views on processes of citizenship and recovery. Collaboration between Equality research collective, Ghent University, Belgium, University of Bergen and NTNU
  1. Special issue: «Breaking the Mental Health Stigma for People with Substance Use Disorders» in Frontiers in Psychiatry.
  2. Special Issue: «Promoting Well-Being, Health Equity, and Citizenship through Inclusive Democratic Innovation» in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
  3. Special Issue: «Promoting Recovery, Citizenship and Well-being in Substance Use Issues and Mental Health among Young Adults» in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
  4. Special Issue - Volume 1: «Co-production and co-creation: Perspectives, forms of practice, and contexts.» Academic Quarter
  5. Special Issue - Volume 2: «Co-production and co-creation: Examples from research and practice.» Academic Quarter
  6. Special Issue: Psychology for the Common Good: The Interdependence of Citizenship, Justice, and Well-being across the Globe. Frontiers in Psychology
  7. Special Issue: «Promoting Mental Health and Wellbeing in Children and Young People at Risk» in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Nordic Journal of Wellbeing and Sustainable Welfare Development is a scientific interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary journal that focuses on social conditions and services that promote wellbeing, participation and citizenship at multiple levels: locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.

Research centre

Research centre

Norwegian Research Centre for Wellbeing and Social Sustainability (WellFare)

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Leader

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Co-leader

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Members

External members

External members