Category: Uncategorized
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Human Desire for Happiness Meets Market Economy: The Rise of the New Happiness Industry
By Vida Penezic Abstract Sciences that study happiness agree on the following: a. To be happy we need both positive emotions and a feeling that, overall, our life has a purpose; b. Different people find pleasure and purpose in different things; and c. Once the basic needs are met, most of us can learn how…
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Got Happiness? How the Dairy Industry Uses Happy People and Happy Cows to Sell Milk.
By Anthony Sloan Abstract: For centuries milk has been promoted as a “superfood” and associated with wellbeing and happiness. In the popular imagination (especially in advertising), milk appears in the context of family life, parental love, Santa Claus, good health, beauty, and “the simple life” on a farm close to nature. All these cultural tropes…
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Papers Presented at the 2024 Conference
Have Controller Will Travel: How Traveling to Share My Hobby Brings Happiness, by Ed Shorer Money, Friends, Community, and Culture: Transformation of a Kazakhstani Comedy Character into a Happy Person, by Natalya Vodopyanova Got Milk? How Dairy Industry Uses Happy People and Happy Cows to Sell Milk, by Antony Sloan Human Desire for Happiness Meets Market Economy:…
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Have Controller Will Travel: How Traveling to Share My Hobby Brings Happiness
By Ed Shorer Abstract One of the main claims of many contemporary happiness theories is that if you want to be happy, you must invest in experiences, not in possessions. In my presentation, I use my own example to illustrate how experiences contribute to subjective wellbeing. I travel to share my hobby, Slot Car Racing,…
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Money, Friends, Community, and Culture: Transformation of a Kazakhstani Comedy Character into a Happy Person
By Natalya Vodopyanova Abstract: The paper explores the change in perception of happiness by a female character in a popular Kazakhstani comedy. The character is depicted to move from an idea that only money makes one happy to an idea that serving community while being surrounded by true friends means being happy. With quite a…
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Engage, Exchange, Enjoy, Repeat: A New Formula for Happiness in the Digital Age
By Shannon Lodoen This paper explores how the concept of “happiness” is being redefined in the Digital Age, specifically within North American capitalist society. I argue that smartphones (and the social media platforms they support) have restructured daily life around processes of exchange and engagement, turning our interactions with others, whether onscreen or in person, into…
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A Lesson on Happiness from an Eccentric Raccoon Family
By Lianying Shan The Japanese anime TV series The Eccentric Family (2013) sheds light on how humans might achieve happiness by depicting a family of fictional racoon characters’ struggle to stay happy despite trials and tribulations that they face in life. Adapted from Morimi Tomihiko’s 2007 novel of the same name, the anime show transforms the present-day…
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Papers Presented at Previous Conferences
Papers Presented at the 2021 Conference Papers Presented at the 2022 Conference
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What Happens in the Absence of Happiness?
A Case Study: The Opposite of Happiness in Turkish Movies in the Second Half of 20th Century By Oguzhan Dursun ABSTRACT This presentation combines tools of history and film studies to examine the emotions of characters in 50 Turkish films released between 1950 and 2000. Focusing on the narrative structure and the basic dramatic premise…
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No Success Needed: The Danish Path to Happiness
by Vida Penezic According to the World Happiness Report, Denmark is one of the happiest countries in the world. The report regularly ranks it as one of the top two or three, and several times in the last ten years it was ranked number one. Not surprisingly, Copenhagen, the Danish capital, has a Museum of…
Happiness and Culture 