Wellness City by Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko

Author:Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Social and Cultural Wellness

Human well-being is not only a matter of narrowly defined personal health, but also the well-being of a human as a social creature, who determines his/her identity through social interaction, who needs other people in order to live a full life, and who creates, shares, applies, and transmits cultural values and practices. In short, we become human beings in the socio-cultural environment.

Holistic well-being has a social and cultural dimension, which relates to identity , belonging, and cultural experiences. Social wellness is about healthy social relations and identity, while cultural wellness is based on our experiences of a rich cultural environment. The cultural side of wellness has a connection to different forms of art—experiencing the magic of paintings or listening to music—and cultural amenities such as museums, art exhibitions, concerts, movies, local literature, dance, and cultural festivals. These two dimensions mingle in our positive feelings for a diversity of cultures and an ability to interact with all kinds of people, irrespective of their ethnicity, religion, language, class, gender, or age. From the point of view of locality development, such a socio-cultural dimension of wellness relies on locally rooted, authentic elements of local history and culture.

From the point of view of wellness, our experiences of people, places, and events affect our well-being. For instance, visiting Mozart’s Salzburg or Vienna can add an essential flavor to the well-being of a dedicated fan of classical music, and walking through the Brontës’ moors in Haworth, West Yorkshire, may be a delightful experience if the person in question happens to be fascinated by the literature and culture of nineteenth-century England. The same goes with visiting film locations, birth places of famous people, or natural and architectural wonders of the world, such as cultural heritage sites defined by UNESCO. Such features give cities special advantages, as evidenced by such European cultural and historical cities as, for example, Venice, Florence, Vienna, Athens, Rome, Paris, and London. A good example of a city that benefits local culture in its economic development policy is Kanazawa in Japan , a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art, which utilizes in its creative city policy its industrial history, old city districts, handcraft, cuisine, performing arts, literature, museums, and natural assets. A special challenge for culturally oriented location development is an inevitable tension between the authenticity of cultural amenities and pervasive commercialization (Kloosterman 2014).

Socio-cultural wellness manifests itself in various places and situations. Home as a permanent place of residence is vital for wellness, as it affects significantly the conditions of our lives. With respect to economic development, it forms a home-oriented leisure cluster, including household and kitchen appliances, cookware, home decoration, and gardening (Kotro et al. 2005). The other vital place is work, within which employers promote workplace wellness (Gatchel and Schultz 2012). In urban life, sociability , play , and adventure become particularly visible in “third places” of the city, that is, places where we spend time while not at home (first place) or at work (second place), referring to places like cafés, clubs, libraries , and parks.

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