Why Universities Should Seek Happiness and Contentment

The totalising effect of consumerism, well-being and satisfaction is a discourse which may negate the value of struggle and mastery of complex subjects and a realization of personal potentiality. Why Universities Should Seek Happiness and Contentment considers the consequences of a hedonistic and well-being centred model of student education as one of the goals of higher education and proposes an alternative goal for higher education. In a globalised consumer society where the anxiety for an identity leads to the fear of not reaching the standard, Paul Gibbs shows how anxiety can be harnessed to secure contentment with one's own future without the fear of consumer-induced emptiness. He conceptualises higher education in a counter-valued way to the current dominant discourse of higher education institutions and educational policy while placing students at the centre of their own educational activity. In doing so, Gibbs proposes contentment as a guiding principle of higher education.The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Knowledge Unlatched.

Introduction Part I: Understanding Happiness and its Importance to Pedagogy1. A History of What Happiness Is and for Whose Benefit2. Why Hedonism and Well-being are Not Sufficient3. East Meets West in Harmony and Contentment4. Taking a Stance - Where Happiness and Being IntertwinePart II: Happiness and Higher Education - A Goal or a Process5. Higher Education and Happiness - How Do They Mix?6. The University as a Happy Place and Time7. Higher Education Students' Experience 8. Help in Finding a Place in the World Where One Can Become Content9. Replacing Fear with Anxiety in the University10. Higher Education, Policy and Managerial IssuesCoda - Reflection on the Book and its Key PointsReferencesIndex