Social Imperative

I stumbled across an old paper written by Amitai Etzioni in which he draws upon a key concept in his characterization of a good society.

Community is a combination of two elements: a) a web of affect-laden relationships among a group of individuals, relationships that often crisscross and reinforce one another--rather than merely one-on-one or chainlike individual relationships; b) a measure of commitment to a set of shared values, norms and meanings, and a shared history and identity--in short to a particular culture.

What makes a community healthy? I think it is as simple as understanding how important it is to have and to be able to listen to multiple stories, how critical diversity is human well-being. All of the stories of a place contribute to more equitable human systems and emphasizes how much we have in common than how we differ. A question we must ask in our search for the good society is why humans are so bad at difference?

How do we develop systems of governance, education and health that connect, not disconnect us from what is important to our humanity, that bridge the divided selves we have become as a result of the solitudes, silos and stovepipes of our current institutions. The most critical solitude to blow away is the artificial separation between reason and emotion. This video, which talks about a new revolution in consciousness, discusses the new humanism based on three principles: 1.

We will be publishing a case story shortly on youth entrepreneurship and micro-credit. In that case, it talks about a lack in the school system about encouraging entreprenurial choices for young people. Equally, I wonder why business schools across Canada do not talk about co-operatives as a viable business model. A few facts.

Over the summer, while swimming and gardening taking a much needed vacation, I began to think about what I would like to discuss over this year, and I thought about the meaning of the good society (Bellah, 1991). Etzionni (2000) has written ". . .compatible with the vision of a good society is that the best way to change the direction of a society is to have "megalogues" about the substnace of members' values and the intensity of their commitments to the values they affirm.

My research team just spent three days at a three-day workshop in Kingsburgh, Nova Scotia, a beautiful piece of this country with both lakes and the ocean, staying with dear friends who rent small houses by the sea. We were working on the community vitality tool and the website, which we hope to launch in September.

This is a brilliant example of both technical and social innovation, using waste products turned into toys for children. It is also a wonderful demonstration of using those same toys to teach some basic science. John Robinson and I have argued since 1995 that we have enough science, we know enough, we have enough information to act now for sustainable development. Imagine if we could also design and redesign with such elegant simplicity as the toys in this video.

Convenient and affordable within the science and economics we have today and the power of the consumer up. Regardless of which technology you think is preferable for the personal automobile, this video has lessons for innovation, scaling up and creating new infrastructure.

The report from the Pardee Centre for International Futures, entitled Improving Global Health: Forecasting the Next 50 Years, is very interesting.  I am most grateful for the diverse and wide network of friends and colleagues that make such a meaningful contribution to my own work. This Executive Summary focuses on health, and I was particularly interested in their use of distal and proximal drivers. It makes me think that are we concentrating on the 'right' drivers in our research work, in policy development?

The Worldwatch Institute's website just talked about setting Millenium Consumption Goals, similar to the Millenium Development Goals. The author, Erik Assadourian, suggested 5 millenium goals, and asked people to come up with three others.

1. Halve obesity and overweight rates by 2020.
2. Halve the current work week from 40+ hours to 20 hours a week.