La Trobe University's video: A wellbeing worthy of COVID times: The need for a relational approach

COVID-19 has made us aware of our interconnections as never before. The spread of the virus makes manifest our links with distant others. We are suddenly conscious of the unsought intimacies of touchscreens, supermarket trolleys, door handles. As lockdown deprived us of those we ordinarily see, it also brought an unaccustomed upsurge of neighbourliness, and new awareness of how being together matters. Wellbeing, already a focus of concern, became a primary preoccupation, with growing calls that it be made the centre of our politics, that we should seek not simply a return to ‘normal’, but to ‘build back better’ to a kinder and more socially responsible world. In this webinar, Professor Sarah White and Dr Shreya Jha from the Relational Wellbeing Collaborative argue that the COVID crisis demands a new, relational approach to wellbeing, that reflects what people in practice can do and be, as well as how they think and feel. Putting relationships at the centre means recognising that people are in relationship with others, and this critically affects the opportunities they face and the choices they make. Relationships are also pivotal for livelihood strategies, especially in contexts where the state and formal sector are limited or weak. But relationships should not just be objects of analysis. Going further, the challenge is to think relationally, to look for the connections between different parts of life, such as how interactions within and between persons are shaped by social, political, economic and ecological structures and processes, and how these in turn contribute to shaping one another. We discuss the challenge such an approach poses to our policy and institutions, and how it might be advanced in practice. This webinar was broadcast on 29 October 2020. It was chaired by Dr Dan Bendrups and sponsored by the ‘Wellbeing: Critical Social Perspectives’ Research Cluster, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University.