Written by the sociologists at Kwansei Gakuin University who are engaged in 'Social Research for the Enhancement of Human Well-being', this study explores issues of happiness from a wide variety of sociological perspectives. It includes: a meta-analysis of suffering; an axiomatic approach to constructing an index for measuring social suffering from an utilitarian perspective; a proposal for a new qualitative methodology for social science research; a Nietzschean analysis of happiness; a proposal to codify linguistic rights drawing on notions of the universal right to pursue well-being; an analysis of the role of folklore in articulating a society's implicit understandings of happiness and suffering; a critical exploration of the impact of social surveillance on happiness; and a clinical sociological approach to happiness and unhappiness.

About Editors and Authors

KOSAKA Kenji is Former Dean of the Faculty of Sociology, Kwansei Gakuin University. He graduated from the Faculty of Sociology, Kwansei Gakuin University, with a major in sociology. After completing an MA at the University of Pittsburgh, he worked as Assistant Professor at Osaka University and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Sociology, Momoyama Gakuin University, before taking up the position of Professor in the Faculty of Sociology and Graduate School of Sociology at Kwansei Gakuin University. His research interests include social stratification.