The happiness turn? Mapping the Emergence of “Happiness Studies” Using Cited References.

The study analyzes “happiness studies” as an emerging field of inquiry throughout various scientific disciplines and research areas. Utilizing four operationalized search terms in the Web of Science; “happiness”, “subjective well-being”, “life satisfaction” and “positive affect”, a dataset was created for empirical citation analysis. Combined with qualitative interpretations of the publications, the results show how happiness studies have developed over time, in what journals the citing papers have been published, and which authors and researchers are the most productive within this set. The conclusion is that “happiness studies” have emerged in many different disciplinary contexts and progressively been integrated and standardized. Moreover, beginning at the turn of the millennium, happiness studies have even begun to shape an autonomous field of inquiry, in which happiness becomes a key research problem for itself, and we may even speak of a “happiness turn”. Purpose: The study aims at drawing a more precise map of the scientific research contexts in which happiness studies have become a core activity, an integrated part of research, or a peripheral side-activity to normal science within a pre-existing discipline. The aim is to show how a new research field - ‘‘happiness studies’’ - has emerged, consolidated and become integrated into practices of research.