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Council of Europe. (2011). Involving citizens and communities in securing societal progress for the well-being of all. ISBN 978-92-871-6888-7

A largely predominant idea over the last sixty years has been that creating material affluence is essential to secure citizens’ well-being and fundamental rights.  Such an approach, based on an increase in quantitative wealth, comprises an implicit link between growth, individual well-being and collective well-being.  This prospect of constant improvement presupposes an undertaking by the state and the business sector to ensure that the benefits of growth are fairly redistributed.  In consequence, states, as guarantors of collective well-being, were committed to bringing about gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Today, globalisation has destroyed the ethical link between growth and national well-being.  A “negative” perception of GDP has taken hold as a result of problems of pollution, destruction of the environment, growing inequalities between social groups and, above all, the realisation that growth alone brings neither a democratisation of material well-being nor a “positive” vision of the future. In the midst of a crisis of confidence, when the traditional reference points are being called into question, this guide, published as a follow-up to the Methodological Guide for the concerted development of social cohesion indicators (2005), addresses the concept of societal progress for the well-being of all, based on the premise that it must be defined and developed with and by citizens and human communities.  It focuses on the shift from the idea of well-being to that of the well-being of all, and the interactions between personal and collective well-being, in order to create a shared vision of the future and a capacity to act together, based on deliberation, the development of measurement tools, dialogue and consultation, while bearing in mind both present and future generations. This guide prompts us to address the idea of progress in order to make it controllable and give it a more human dimension. In this way, the Council of Europe is contributing to the current debate on progress and well-being from its own perspective, which is to renew and reinforce democratic processes and citizens’ ability to play a part in decisions on the challenges facing society.