Citizen Renaissance

Seismic Shifts, Consumerism & Citizenship

Our world is at a crossroads. The global ecosystem is being wrecked by the depredation of increasingly needless consumption and economic growth. World population is growing in volume and inequality, just as food becomes scarcer and more expensive due to a host of man-made ecological disasters. Addicted as we are to fossil fuels, we have now to confront the reality of peak oil. We have soiled and despoiled enough. Society needs to change fast or condemn those who come after us to a dying planet.

How do such catalysts change Consumerism, economics and the relationship between Citizens, brands, companies and politics? What are the wider implications for the way that they communicate with each other? And what does this mean for Communications as a discipline? We live now in a post-Inconvenient Truth world, and we increasingly accept that the traditional Corporate-Consumer model of Capitalism will no longer work within our needs and the means of our planet.

Climate Change, the Wellbeing Imperative and the emergence of a Digital Democracy have collided to generate a profound socio-cultural shift

We contend that three seismic shifts – The Perfect Storm surrounding Climate Change; the inevitable rise of lower-consumption economics and the Wellbeing Imperative; and the emergence of a truly global Digital Democracy – have now collided to generate a profound socio-cultural shift.

The reverberations from this shift are only just now beginning to be felt. We are sensing a return to Citizen, rather than Consumer, values – proof positive that it is Citizenship, not Consumerism, that is the more enduring ethos. In short, we are sensing a Citizen Renaissance.

This new generation of Citizens will demand that we all live within our means if we are to save our planet and ourselves. They will be not only accepting of the principles of lower consumption economics, they will most likely be passionate advocates. Fuelled by the power, accessibility and immediacy of the web, they will insist on new levels of transparency and authenticity and will hold Governments, Corporations and Brands (and each other) to account. This has profound implications for us all. The Socratic Method of Enquiry – borne in the ancient City States – reaches new heights in today’s world. The questions come more rapidly. The conversation is bigger, more compelling – and more urgent.

http://thestuffingtons.net James Kemp

My first point and overall suggestion is that you should state upfront, repeat and develop throughout the book that fact that what you’re recommending is realistic. It is not idealistic, far from it: if our aim is to maintain and nurture civilisation then the only realistic way to do so is a sustainable approach to our economy, security and environment. Such sustainability requires the cultural and perceptual changes you discuss, but first, I think we need more and more people to believe sustainable bahaviours are ‘common sense’, and that unsustainable behaviours are absurd. This is the message that, in my humble opinion, we need to repeat everywhere.
Michael Fay

The term digital democracy like “(the) People’s democracy” sounds and appears to be a catch-all-phrase that has an inflated meaning. We in the comsumerist West live the world of representative government ["Republic" form] no matter how imperfect the sytem works in The United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Citizens of these nations do not come together in a public forum that is either digital [virtual?] or real time market-place halls to legislate or govern. Citizens vote to or by the choice of not voting select others to represent them in the areas of civil policy making. “Democracy” is nice sounding audio-video sound-bit borrowed from the intellectual discussion on utopian philosophy results that one enjoys doing when debating the issues of the day. Yes, it is correct to encourage additional citizen participation in the public forum in real time or digital [virtual?]. It must be recognized the term “democracy” with whatever prefix adjective is affixed that a politcal brand is being sold to the public.

Michael Fay, College Station, Texas, USA
Yoho

Expanding on remarks above, you are describing the experiences of educated, affluent, urbane, and receptive Western Europeans. Indeed, most people do not have access to this sort of “digital democracy” – they do not even have access to the internet. Is it right to speak of a revolution in citizenship when apathy is endemic, when voluntary organisations are collapsing? When, most importantly, the social democratic state remains the most potent guarantor of rights and welfare?

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Seismic Shifts, Consumerism & Citizenship

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