Mobilities for wellbeing: hedonism or eudaimonism?

This chapter contributes to emerging debates about how we can transform mobility systems without compromising city-dweller experiences of wellbeing. Existing studies underline the interlinkages between mobilities and wellbeing. However, quantitative approaches prevail, prioritising a focus on travel satisfaction. This paper proposes a more multifaceted analysis, which considers both hedonic/individual and eudaimonic/societal approaches to wellbeing: the first referring to a ‘good life’ achieved through the satisfaction of personal desires, and while the second to a ‘good life’ realised through a purposeful engagement in the society. For the EPSRC Liveable Cities programme, we asked participants to describe their mobility patterns that help them accomplish different social practices, associated with their perception of ‘good life’. In this paper, I provide an analysis that helps understand mobility practices not only as vehicle for social practices of wellbeing, but also as vehicle for wellbeing, or else as social practices of wellbeing. However, through this analysis, I also aim to help realise the more blurred and complex intersections between hedonic and eudaimonic, individual and social wellbeing. I suggest that only through a more holistic approach to wellbeing, we will be able to re-design mobility systems in ways that can contribute to wellbeing in cities.