ABSTRACT
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is now being contested across the globe. Although the "world's most powerful number" was only intended to measure the monetary value of economic output, GDP has come to be seen as a gauge of social progress and well-being. One study found that global GDP has more than tripled since 1950, but a more comprehensive well-being measure, the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), has fallen since 1978, while the global ecological footprint has grown beyond sustainable levels. This chapter examines the cases of Canada, a leader in academic and nongovernmental organization (NGO) work on alternative indicators, and the United Kingdom, where the beyond-GDP debate has resulted in a new Measuring National Well-being program. It conducts semi-structured interviews in 2014 and 2015 with elite respondents political leaders, senior public servants, academics, researchers from NGOs, and activists involved in developing and applying new indicators or advocating their use.
