Freedom debunked

'Freedom' is often held up as an unequivocal good in our modern individualistic society, and many people (and politicians) justify their actions or views on the basis of this. The short paper available I wrote for ChangeStar here explores the idea of freedom and our desire for it. It reaches what I hope is a reasonably common sense conclusion:

"Each person’s claim to freedom brings competing claims from others and we should be sure to weigh these up carefully before we jump to defend anyone’s claim for ‘freedom’."

Big Society can’t happen in a Consumer Society

Whatever you may think of the coalition government’s ‘Big Society’ idea (and I have my reservations), it needs a certain type of population to make it happen – one that is politically engaged, community-minded and willing to give up time for the greater good. I hate to say it, but this doesn’t sound like modern society – where isolation, materialism and the pursuit of self interest seem to be greater priorities than compassionate collectivism for many people.

One of the reasons for this excessively self-oriented mindset is our dominant culture of consumerism, which can have a significant influence on us and affect the way we engage with the world around us. For example, studies (such as Greenberg and Brand, 1993; Shrum et al., 2005) show that increased exposure to commercial marketing is associated with increased levels of materialism in people. This can lead people to build their identities around extrinsic values (such as money, fame, and popularity) and stifle their concern for external issues such as poverty, suffering, discrimination and environmental challenges.

So, before we can realistically seek a truly progressive vision of society – whether that is indeed the Big Society or something else entirely – we will need to examine, and address, the social influences that militate against people’s participation, and this includes our culture of consumerism.

For more thoughts on consumerism, download ‘The problem with consumerism’ from Life².

Not the end of consumerism

This article in the Business section of the New York Times is interesting, as it illustrates the difficulty that the mainstream media still have in coming to terms with the idea that living simply and buying less can make one happy.

There are glimmers of clarity in the article - for example, the opening paragraphs discuss a couple's journey of downsizing their income, consumption and debts, in order to get the life and jobs they want. It ends with the wise observation from one partner "I really believe that the acquisition of material goods doesn’t bring about happiness".

This is good stuff. At this point, there is a great opportunity to show how many people are realising that the rat race (including the search for ever greater income), is not for them, and that building a life around your priorities and the things that really matter to us rather than the pursuit of money can bring us greater happiness and fulfilment.

The article doesn't do this however. Far from being a timely challenge to consumerism and the rat race, it jumps from a call to 'buy fewer material goods' to a suggestion to 'buy more services and experiences'. This is not about downsizing at all - it is just shifting your spending.

Perhaps it is asking too much of the business section of a mainstream publication to question the pursuit of wealth and consumption, but it is a shame to see an article start so promisingly and then miss the point so spectacularly. It will also lead many readers to miss the point, at a time when we could all benefit from living off less.

A new focus for education

Geoff Mulgan of The Young Foundation puts it well:

"Over the last two decades a gulf has opened up between what education systems provide and what children need. Education systems rightly provide children with skills in numeracy and literacy and academic qualifications. But the emphasis on a set of core academic skills, and a culture of intensive testing, has too often squeezed out another set of skills – how to think creatively, how to collaborate, how to empathise – at the very time when they are needed more than ever"

The need to educate people - adults and children alike - in various aspects of 'the art of living' is a theme running through much of my work, and this report (called 'Grit: The skills for success and how they are grown') by The Young Foundation explores some of these skills in greater detail and makes a case for why they matter in our lives.

Although it perhaps focuses more on the benefits of these skills in people's careers than in life generally (understandable as it needs to be 'sold' to policy makers), it contains an interesting overview of topics such as the need for people to be taught to be reslient in facing the adversity and challenges of life.

Automatic behaviour change

Interesting report from the Institute for Govenment, pulling together some of the evidence for ‘automatic’ behaviour change techniques. Many behaviour change initiatives to date have involved a ‘reflective’ approach (the standard model used by economics), which assumes that people make decisions rationally and will analyse the various pieces of information from politicians, governments and markets, and then act in ways that reflect their best interests.

Evidence (and common sense) however suggests that this is not the whole story, and in fact people are sometimes seemingly irrational and inconsistent in their choices, often because they are influenced by surrounding factors. This alternative model of behaviour change therefore focuses on “changing behaviour without changing minds‟ - for example, trying to shift the context in which people act, in order to ‘nudge’ them into behaviour change. This theme has been the topic of several bestselling books in recent years (from ‘Nudge’ to ‘Blink’) and it seems that an effective and balanced behaviour change strategy should incorporate learning and tactics from both the ‘rational’ and ‘automatic’ sides of our behaviour.

This is useful stuff for people interested in changing behaviour – whether as politicians or campaigning groups.

Our hidden impacts

One of the important features of modern life that Life² helps people to deal with is the increased level of complexity within which people live. One example of this complexity is the chain of processes, people and impacts that sit behind even the most simple products or services we consume. As I noted in 'Modern life' - the ingredients of a typical BLT sandwich could have travelled 31,000 miles before the final product reaches the supermarket shelf.

So, our actions and purchasing decisions have a much more complex and wide range of impacts than we might think, and we all need to become much more aware of what these impacts are. Life² helps people to do this through its resources such as the knowledge base, and there are now other people and initiatives helping people to develop this area of knowledge. Bestselling author Daniel Goleman looks at this topic in his new book 'Ecological Intelligience', which although flawed in its loyalty towards free markets and economic growth, gives some interesting ideas on how 'eco labelling' schemes might be set up to help people understand the impacts behind their products and services.

Perhaps the most successful initiative to show these hidden impacts has been 'The Story of Stuff' - a free web-based video that has now been downloaded 10 million times. Although it has its own inherent biases that one should be aware of, the film provides some useful, accessible information. A book of the same name has now just been published by Annie Leonard.

Older people's well-being

At Life², we're researching the topic of older people's well-being, in preparation for a future project.

Although we’re living longer and in better physical health than ever, many people are still suffering in their later years from preventable causes like depression, loneliness and isolation. The well-being of the over-65's has been neglected to date, and we could do a great deal more, both as a state and in society generally, to understand the factors that prevent or promote flourishing in older people, and to take action to improve the quality of later life.

IPPR have done some interesting research on the well-being of older people as part of an ongoing programme. The findings are interesting and sometimes unexpected. For example, studies show that litter and traffic are more important concerns to older people than fear of crime and young people in public spaces. Click here and here to read a couple of their reports.

Stay tuned in the coming months to find about our project on flourishing for older peoople...