Well-being, and the role of community, civil society and local government in achieving it, has a considerable profile in contemporary public policy (Nussbaum and Sen, 1993; The Treasury, 2001; DEFRA, 2005; Manderson, 2005). Internationally, this emergence has been supported by developments in the new public health, community health and primary healthcare, especially focused on addressing health inequalities (often conceived in terms of inequality between locations) (Marmot and Wilkinson, 1999, 2001; Baum, 2002; Kawachi and Berkman, 2003; Anand et al, 2004). At the same time, in countries including New Zealand and the UK, attention to the well-being of citizens has emerged as a part of a broader policy agenda focused on social investment and human capability, and supporting the supply side of labour markets (The Treasury, 2001; Bevir, 2005). In such contexts, addressing well-being is presented politically as a turn away from previous conservative neoliberal reforms, and towards a more inclusive liberal or social democratic social policy, concerned with building the capability of individuals, and reconstructing community relations alongside retained market reforms (Porter and Craig, 2004; Larner and Craig, 2005). These changes are also commonly presented as a shift from a ‘welfare’ orientation (focused on income security and equity) to a ‘well-being’ orientation, focused on individual opportunity and enablement (Ministry of Social Development, 2001; Kendall and Harker, 2002).

In both rich and more particularly poor country settings, such concerns have commonly been joined to other supply-side concerns over strengthening institutions (especially market-related institutions), building trust and social capital, providing a more efficient and effective allocation and delivery of basic services, and decentralising governance (Bevir, 2005; Clark and Gough, 2005; Craig and Porter, 2006). This institutional focus has predominantly centred on the ‘hard’ institutional aspects emphasised by the New Institutional Economics (NIE) and New Public Management (NPM) (public finance reform, strengthening juridical and budget frameworks, market contractualism, decentralisation and disaggregation) (North, 1990; Boston et al, 1991; Coase, 1998). More recently, however, the institutional focus has dilated to include the potential of ‘soft’ institutions such as partnerships, civil society and other networks for enhancing both governance and well-being (Powell et al, 2002; Stoker, 2002; Bevir, 2005; Tenbensel, 2005).