A country-specific all-outcome approach to the Global Flourishing Study: The origin, aims, and process of the country-specific special issue

The Global Flourishing Study (GFS) is a unique longitudinal panel study investigating the distribution and determinants of human flourishing across 22 diverse countries. Given such a comprehensive dataset, there are many ways of approaching, analysing, and discussing the data. The core GFS team is conducting an extensive series of studies, each focusing on a specific flourishing outcome indicator across all GFS countries. Another valuable and complementary approach is to concentrate on specific countries across all outcomes, which is precisely the nature of this special issue, which features separate papers for each GFS country. The papers are all led by scholars in or from the different countries, in partnership with researchers on the core GFS team. Given the unique nature of this collaborative endeavour, this introductory paper sets out the process through which this special issue came into being. Besides highlighting the value of this kind of research partnership, this paper thus also offers a foundation and guide for similar initiatives in the future.