H Cultural and Social Dimensions of Happiness

One reason for increasing depression and unhappiness in the contemporary society is the lacking of a correct theoretical understanding of happiness. To develop happiness in the society, a necessary step is obtaining a suitable theoretical approach about it. Therefore, my purpose, in this paper, is offering a cultural approach about happiness and achieving a theoretical conception of happiness to improve and develop it in the society. According to my theoretical approach, although happiness is the individuals’ conception of the good sense of life, this individual sense is a socio-cultural construction rather than a psychic, biological, emotional or individual one. That’s why, we need a socio-cultural theory or approach to analyze and realize happiness. This paper aims to explain happiness, as a kind of socio-cultural construction, and its features, reasons and categories, through an inter-disciplinary approach by using Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of “Habitus” and that of “culture of happiness”.