Stephanié Rossouw

Stephanié Rossouw is an Associate Professor and Deputy Head of the School of Social Science and Public Policy. Her primary expertise lies in investigating well-being and happiness using Big Data. Stephanié is the co-creator of the Gross National Happiness.Today Project (GNH) which measures nations' happiness in real-time using social media platforms (the first of its kind).

Stephanie's research into the factors that impact countries' happiness and emotions provides a platform for investigating and providing policy advice on urgent topics such as COVID-19, vaccine hesitancy and the Ukrainian war.

Since 2012, Stephanié has fulfilled the role of editor of economics at the Journal of Happiness Studies and oversees a team of seven associate editors. She is also the Vice-President of Finance for the International Society for Quality of Life Studies (ISQOLS). She is a Research Fellow with the Global Labor Organization (GLO) and a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.

The pursuit of happiness. What does that mean? Perhaps a more prominent question to ask is, 'How does one know whether people have succeeded in their pursuit'? Survey data, thus far, has served us well in determining where people see themselves on their journey. However, in an ever-changing world, one needs high-frequency data instead of data released with significant time lags. High-frequency data, which stems from Big Data, allows policymakers access to virtually real-time information that can assist in effective decision-making to increase the quality of life for all. Additionally, Big Data collected from, for example, social media platforms give researchers unprecedented insight into human behaviour, allowing significant future predictive powers. This is increasingly important since we face a worsening geopolitical climate and uncertainty regarding when the world will face the next pandemic. Therefore, this talk provides the audience with information on Big Data and its applicability to happiness research. It also sets out future avenues for interested parties.