ULAB Conducts Forum on Gross National Happiness in Bangladesh.

The Media Studies and Journalism Department of ULAB is holding a forum entitled “Gross National Happiness as a Development Concept” on October 14, 10:00 to 12:00, at the ULAB Auditorium, Campus A.  During the activity, ULAB Assistant Professor Hillol Sobhan and Senior Lecturer Marium Akther will discuss will tackle the evolving concepts of development, including Gross National Happiness and its nine dimensions.

The forum takes off from the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH) put forward by the Centre for Bhutan Studies (CBS) as an alternative to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).  To quote the CBS:  “Across the world, indicators focus largely on market transactions, covering trade, monetary exchange rates, stock market, growth, etc.  These dominant, conventional indicators, generally related to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reflect quantity of physical output of a society. GDP is heavily biased towards increased production and consumption, regardless of the necessity or desirability of such outputs, at the expense of other more holistic criterion. It is biased against conservation since it does not register conservation or stocks.”  

  The GNH, on the other hand, aims at a deeper representation of well-being than conventional indicators. What exists in a fundamental way is relationality (as opposed to subject and object) at all levels, which can only  be assessed by a broad range of social, economic, cultural, and environmental indicators.  Seen in this way, happiness and well-being is ultimately a way of being that is affected by and affects relational quality, which changes in meaning over time with deepening sensitivities to the world around us and with our understanding of what is important or valuable for us and for all sentient beings.  The nine GNH dimensions are (1) Psychological Well-being, (2) Time Use, (3) Community Vitality, (4) Culture, (5) Health, (6) Education, (7) Environmental Diversity, (8) Living Standard and (9)Governance.

The activity is part of the MSJ Department’s Curriculum Integration Program for Fall 2010. There are ten courses under the Curriculum Integration Program – “Advertising” (Imtiaz Ahmed Chowdhury), “Multimedia Production” (Imtiaz Ahmed Chowdhury), “Introduction to Photography” (Razibul Hossain), “Video Communication 1” (Razibul Hossain), Documentary Production (Razibul Hossain), “Visual Communication” (Marium Akther), “Development Communication” (Marium Akther), “Scriptwriting” (Hillol Sobhan), “Reading Media Texts” (Anis Pervez) and “Research Methodology” (Anis Pervez). The program will culminate with an exhibit from December 22 to January 21.