Introduction: Developing Qualitative Research into Happiness and Wellbeing

This introduction charts the emergence of happiness research and the growing interest amongst social scientists into the nature of wellbeing. It sets out different definitions of wellbeing, detailing the potential of qualitive and biographical research for happiness studies to capture the collaborative social processes that underpin wellbeing. It discusses some of the challenges facing happiness researchers such as those around structure-agency, macro-micro processes, the politically and culturally contested nature of happiness and the significance of biographical and life course events. The chapter concludes by summarising some of the distinctive challenges faced by contributors to this volume and their efforts they made to overcome these in their own projects.