Credit: Vovashevchuk.

The significance of well-being at personal and societal levels has recently been stressed by leading international institutions, such as the Council of the European Union, the United Nations, and the World Health Organisation.

This project aims to trace the roots of the concept of well-being in Late Modern times by discussing the discursive means employed in English and Anglo-American texts for its definition and promotion.

The historical sociolinguistic perspective adopted in this project will help uncover when and how various dimensions of physical, mental, and social well-being began to create a ‘discourse of well-being’ extending beyond basic needs.

Thanks to its novel approach, this project will critically discuss the development of attitudes to well-being that still shape current views and are all the more relevant in a moment of crisis like the present one.

Discourses and contexts of well-being in the history of English began in 2023 as a Progetto di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN), in the context of the Italian Recovery and Resilience Plan (2021-2027), with fundings of the European Union (NextGenerationEU). It involves research units from four universities: University “Statale” of Milan (Unit 1), University of Bergamo (Unit 2), University of Florence (Unit 3), and University of Insubria (Unit 4).