Reconceptualising Wellbeing: From Individual Flourishing to Collective Thriving

Abstract

This chapter examines wellbeing through an inclusion lens, tracing how historical, philosophical and disciplinary traditions have shaped contemporary understandings of flourishing and critically interrogating whose wellbeing has been centred in dominant accounts. It argues that wellbeing must be reconceptualised as relational, systemic and inherently political, inseparable from questions of justice, dignity and belonging. This chapter employs a critical, historically informed review of wellbeing scholarship across philosophy, psychology, education, public health and critical social theory. It foregrounds voices marginalised in dominant wellbeing discourse – including Indigenous knowledge systems, disability scholarship, feminist theory and critical race perspectives – to illuminate how power, privilege and structural inequity shape access to wellbeing. This chapter contributes to the discussion about wellbeing and inclusion and argues that they are mutually constitutive: exclusion directly undermines wellbeing by eroding belonging, identity and agency, while meaningful inclusion requires attending to psychological, social, cultural and environmental dimensions that enable full participation. Wellbeing emerges not as an individual attribute solely but as a dynamic condition co-created through relationships, environments, histories and structures. This chapter establishes a conceptual foundation for inclusive educational practices that recognise flourishing as a collective responsibility grounded in equity, reciprocity and care, challenging individualised wellbeing approaches that neglect structural determinants of thriving.