An international symposium in October 2024 will bring Harvard and Oxford researchers together to explore the topic of “Solidarity, Economics and Flourishing: Building Comprehensive Measures for Human Flourishing.” The researchers will convene to consider alignment between the first wave of data from the TWCF-funded Global Flourishing Study (GFS) at Harvard and Baylor, with a complementary but distinct range of data sets collected by Oxford University through the SAGE Dashboard.

The SAGE Dashboard is an empirical framework that embraces both the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of prosperity. It consists of four main indexes: Solidarity (S) which captures the human need for social belonging and embeddedness; Agency (A), that is the ability to influence one’s fate through one’s own efforts; Material Gain (G), measured by GDP per capita; and Environmental Sustainability (E) which may be quantified by metrics such as the Environmental Performance Index (EPI).

The SAGE Dashboard compliments the GFS data, covering within-group social cohesion and outward solidarity, and capturing citizens’ willingness to cooperate with strangers across cultural and national boundaries. It aligns prosperity measurement with people’s social needs and purposes as well as individual empowerment against societal boundaries. It draws on several major ethical foundations including communitarianism (encompassing citizens’ social needs and purposes, such as solidarity), classical liberalism (centering on individual agency), utilitarian consequentialism as the foundation of traditional economics, and environmental ethics. Like the GFS, the SAGE framework is built upon moral values and indicators of wellbeing.

The symposium aims to share research outputs and impact global policy on human flourishing; present initial findings and theoretical frameworks to policy and think tank audiences; create policy briefings summarizing key findings and recommendations for dissemination to G20 members and policymakers; and utilize the team’s access to journals and media opportunities to communicate messages key to influence and impact.