Creative accounts: Reimagining culture and wellbeing by tapping into the global movement to redefine progress

A citizen-based global progress measurement movement has emerged in the past decade, with the potential for realisation of a new paradigm for democracy, good governance and authentic cultural engagement. The benefits already resulting from this movement appear to be significant. These include new and more dynamic forms of democratic engagement; the demonstration of clearer linkages between strong democratic and human rights regimes, and broader individual and societal wellbeing; new ways to define and measure a 'healthy' democracy; and, perhaps most importantly, a re-examination of the nature of progress and democracy in the twenty-first century. The extent to which cultural indicators have, or have not, featured in the emergence of the global progress measurement movement and its democratising ambitions is the focus of this chapter, raising serious questions for proponents of both perspectives.