• ARABINDA ROY

Abstract: Through extensive literature review, the present paper, attempts to understand the development of the idea of Social well-being. This paper traces how the understanding of Well-being has developed into as a multi-dimensional variable such as financial stability, self-expectations, social interaction, individualism, and community and so on from its sociological origins where well-being is associated with happiness, quality of life, and life satisfaction (Lou and Shih 1997; Oswald, 1997; Radcliff, 2001). This paper argues that Well-being is a dynamic process and it is dependent of the free will of people, although there are external circumstances that can impede this possibility or affect seriously the potential for this pursuit. This paper synthesize the works of various scholars from Amratya Sen’s “Capability Approach”, to Erik Allardt’s “Dimension of Needs” and finally to that of Baker and Linch’s approach of “Well-being as equality” to understand the theoretical development of the concept of well-being. Finally, this paper attempts to explain the significance of the idea of social well-being in Geographical literature by looking through various published and unpublished works of geographical research on the concept of social-wellbeing and explores how geographers have adopted this pioneering area to make one of its own.

Key Words: Social well-being, Individualism, Community, Dynamic Process.

"THE IDEA OF SOCIAL WELL-BEING AND ITS UTILITY IN GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 7, page no.1019-1026, July-2018, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1807883.pdf

"THE IDEA OF SOCIAL WELL-BEING AND ITS UTILITY IN GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 7, page no. pp1019-1026, July-2018, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1807883.pdf