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This chapter considers the origins, development and key debates in multi-level governance (MLG). It argues that despite evolving as a core concept within and beyond academe MLG remains an under-developed concept. To some degree this reflects the increasingly fluid governance processes it seeks to acknowledge and interrogate, but also points to the need for greater precision and rigour in the different types of MLG that combine in complex webs of modern governance. In particular we raise questions about the suitability for the analysis of contemporary governance of a binary formulation that has arisen to conceptualize different types of MLG. We see much overlapping, interconnection and blurring of the lines dividing the two types. A finer grain is required within each of the two types and between and beyond them in order to conceptualize variety and interconnectedness.

This chapter sets out the theoretical framework for the book. In relation to the first question – how and why has the idea of wellbeing risen up the political agenda? – it outlines concepts that relate to the diffusion of ideas across boundaries before turning to Kingdon’s multiple streams approach to understanding agenda-setting. This approach identifies three separate processes or ‘streams’ of problems, policies and politics that develop largely in isolation from each other but which present the greatest opportunity for policy change when they are brought together. In relation to the second question – what are the policy implications of this rising interest in the idea of wellbeing? – the analytical framework turns to Hall’s conception of social learning and contributions that subsequently developed this approach.

Chapter 3 begins to address the first question of the book – how and why has the idea of wellbeing risen up the political agenda? – drawing on the analytical framework developed in Chapter 2. It identifies two ‘waves’ of interest in wellbeing since the end of the Second World War that a share a critique of GDP as the dominant indicator of societal progress: the first wave rising in the 1960s and falling in the 1970s, and the second beginning in the 1990s and continuing to the present. It explains the rise and fall of the social indicators movement in the first wave and the distinctive features of the current second wave, which is the main focus of the book. This second wave is characterised by increasing attention to environmental issues and greater confidence in the measurement of wellbeing, and particularly subjective wellbeing. In this chapter we limit our discussion of the second wave to developments that have placed the issue on the agenda of major international organisations, before turning to developments in specific political systems in Chapter 4.

Chapter 4 continues the focus on the second question of the book – how and why has the idea of wellbeing risen up the political agenda? It begins with an overview of developments across a number of political systems before turning to a detailed comparative analysis of the rise of wellbeing in the UK and EU systems. In doing so it both responds to the call for more comparative studies of agenda-setting and provides insights into the relationship between processes that connect different political systems within the context of multi-level governance. This comparative study allows not only for a more systematic exploration of the key variables in policymaking in different contexts (e.g., the institutional structures, decision-making processes and the role of interest groups) but also the potential for understanding the exclusion of ideas from the agenda or ‘non-decisions’. The discussion of each case study is structured according to Kingdon’s multiple streams approach, considering in turn policy, politics and problem streams. The comparative analysis reveals both institutional and ideational biases that shape the agenda-setting dynamics of the wellbeing issue in different contexts and produce different emphases in approaches to defining and measuring wellbeing.

Chapter 5 turns to the second main question of the book – what are the policy implications of the rising political interest in the idea of wellbeing for policy? In addressing this question the chapter focuses on developments at the UK level, where there is high-level political commitment to using wellbeing in policy and where policy developments are seen as among the most advanced in the world. We employ Hall’s framework of social learning to analyse UK policy developments, highlighting different policy variables and the prospect for different orders of change, specifically reflecting on the potential for fundamental realignment of most aspects of policy development or ‘paradigm change’.