Reorienting the Sustainable Development Goals: Lessons from Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implicitly prioritize economic growth over social and environmental sustainability, and idealize industrialized, consumerist societies. In delving into ways to rectify these stances, the article takes up Bhutan’s policy of Gross National Happiness (GNH), which seeks to harmonize material prosperity, social and environmental concerns, and spiritual and emotional contentment. Unlike the SDGs that fail to acknowledge culture’s role in sustainable development, GNH pursues a vernacular pathway founded on a Buddhism-inspired holistic view of well-being. In reality, GNH is yet to elicit a structural shift toward a fully-fledged sustainable society. Nonetheless, it is worth analyzing how the Bhutanese state demarcates the space within which GNH is promoted, with recourse to a locally defined vision of sustainable development.