Question in a Recession

Martin Bishop @ Landor raised an interesting point:

Back in the 1970s, during a previous recession, Jimmy Carter said: “We’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning.”  He was wrong. Do we really think things will be different this time after the fun of frugality wears off?

I think so and I certainly hope so.  My question is, what might make an entire market move in the direction to want more from less?  How can we achieve it?  

The media fuelling aspirational consumption certainly doesn’t help.  People are forced to feel like they have to consume, consume, consume to be content.  I feel it is time for a consumer backlash – we’re bored of buying to feel validated and bingeing on futile celebrity gossip.  So, what are you going to write about now? And how are you going to make us feel better about ourselves rather than feeling ever dissatisfied?

After all, people will only want more from less, when they acknowledge the real value of what they have… now, and right under their noses.

Nostalgic Future For Our Kids

I came across this a year ago or so and fell in love with the concept.  

Japanese architects Takaharu and Yui Tezuka joined forces with Kashiwa Sato, one of Toyko’s most respected creative directors, to build and brand, a novel kind of kindergarten in Tachikawa, a suburban area of Tokyo. 

Please have a watch of this (courtesy of Monocle) and let me know what you think.

I think the schools here could definitely do with this sort of makeover and believe the impact on children would be exceptional.

Think Big… Think Now.. Think How…

…we are going to make a difference.

Thanks to Nick Temple at The School for Social Entrepreneurs for this.  

 

In line with the first part, “Find something you love and you would do for no pay”, I used to use this as my motto for work experience.  If I looked forward to work the next day and woke up excited, without the prospect of being paid (bar expenses, on occasion), I saw it as a very good sign that I was in the right job.

The words that stood out for me especially -

Catch your entrepreneurial spirit… the thing that provides you passion, energy, flow, zeal, courage, daring, enthusiasm, vitality, commitment & focus.

Think big.  You are what you think about.

Define the problem (market), Come up with a solution (idea), Execute (team).

Leave a legacy.

I am Baffled…

…that you have to pay so much to go out and help people on so many of the volunteer abroad schemes.  Where does it all go???

Hear Hear

Hopes for 2009 with Tham Kai Meng, Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide (courtesy of Monocle).

Who would you like to see more of in 2009? Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank; Nicholas Negroponte, the man behind One Laptop per Child, which provides computers for children in the developing world; architect Arata Izosaki; Colin Powell and Warren Buffett.

And less of? Bad financial governance, and bad governments.

What themes will dominate headlines? The development of global economic rules. Open markets need multilateral governance.

Brighter Days All Round

I really like this from Starbucks, similar to Orange Rock Corps.  It was aired on CNN just after the inauguration speech from the wonderful Obama (don’t get me started!).  

When everyone’s left feeling all glowy, positive and inspired; wanting to revolutionise the world after the awe-inspiring words from Barack  - I can’t think of more apt timing to get maximum impact for a social change campaign.

And an excellent next step, after the free coffees they gave to everyone who voted.  

I’m sure some will be cynical (there are a lot of anti-Starbucks folk about), but I think this comes as a really positive move from them.  

Like I said in an earlier post – to trigger positive social movement, it is best not to demonise any particular sector, but to look at how we can make things better – together.

Nouveau Riche

I found this excerpt from an essay about the world in 2009 by Alain De Botton in the New Year edition of Monocle.  I thought it nicely framed how attitudes are changing towards the traditional notion of wealth, i.e. “making a real social difference” is the new wealthy.  But by calling it “the new wealthy”, I don’t want to play it down by any means or treat it like a fad because I feel that this is a far more fundamental shift in people’s attitudes globally – particularly the millennial generation who are so exposed to what is happening across the globe – good and bad. 

As re-iterated by an earlier post I wrote, “new studies are reinforcing the simple wisdom that beyond a certain very basic level of material wealth, the only thing that increases individual happiness over time is helping other people.”  Now over to Alain, who says it a lot better than I can…

Over all, we’ll become a lot richer, but not in a way we had planned.  Here’s where Jon Ruskin comes in.  He was interested in wealth – obsessed by it even.  However, it was wealth of an unusual kind that this great art critic had in mind, for he emphasised repeatedly that he wished to grow wealthy in kindness, curiosity, sensitivity , humility and intelligence – a set of virtues he referred to as “life”.

In his great text, Unto This Last, he entreated us to set aside our monetary conceptions of wealth in order to take up a life-based view, in which the wealthiest people would not be the bankowners and the landowners, but those who most keenly felt wonder beneath the stars at night or were best able to interpret and alleviate the suffering of others.  After the greatest stock market crash in living memory, there will be no end to questions about what being wealthy really means.

If you found this to be of interest – take a look at this http://www.therichestpeopleinamerica.com/ .

 

Creating Movement

So this NY-based collective caught my attention (via Flavorpill’s Daily Dose) because they have created a little arty film to draw attention the greatness of Berlin – a place I could plough on about forever.   They went from NY to Berlin to spread their gospel of non-commercial creativity, give and get inspiration, and make great art. The “This Is Berlin Not New York” documents the group’s adventures.

Anyway while I was checking out their site and some of their vids on Current TV, I found out more about the Antagonistic Art Movement itself.   They began in the East Village of New York City as a community of artists banding together to promote art, music and writing and to create a venue where underground artists could inspire and help each other while reaching a wider audience (sort of like the Koi Klub in Berlin). 

 

But what particularly grabbed me about their vision was that the way the steps they give on their site to creating an Art Movement. 

 

1. Come up with a name. Your name is important since it’s how the world will identify and brand you. (See #2)

2. The Idea. What will your movement be about? You should attempt to do something new. If it’s a hybrid of other movements, philosophies or theory’s that’s okay too. Most movements were inspired by others before them. (see Nick’s post on originality vs autheniticity) 

3. Set goals and meet them. You’re not a movement if you’re standing still. (Well, I guess you could be the Movement of stagnation, but who would care about that?)

4. When you think it’s time to give up that’s when you keep going.

5. Stop when you are no longer enjoying it.

 

I think the same principles can and should be applied to starting a Social Movement with a more specific cause, kind of like a Hoodies Aren’t All Bad Movement with a bit of guerilla (a la below).  Bam.

 

So what would you like to start a Movement about?

 

 

Project Grun

 

Love this Guerilla Gardening campaign from Adidas (with their eco-friendly range Grun) and Dazed.  

Swapping spraycans for seed-planters, tags for tulip bulbs, and murals for magnolias, they’ve been creeping in under cover of night, and changing the city’s more unsightly corners into artistic patches of flowers, plants and greenery. 

Some of the results below (greenfingers, adidas grun footwear and a floral skip – gorgeous.  The girl in me particularly loves the skip.

 

Have you managed to check out the Dazed & Confused Teenage Takeover for the latest issue?  Let me know what you think…

I found this article particularly hilarious  x

The Bicycle Project

Thanks to Ingene (the blog that covers youth trends emerging in India) for the heads up on this (and Ruby Pseudo for helping me find Ingene… this could go on) .  The Bicycle Project is an initiative designed by a few peeps to collect and repair old bicycles to give to children in villages so that they don’t have to walk such long distances to school.  Above all, it is to encourage them to stay in school, to help them secure a brighter future. 

 It’s really positive to see that new approaches to social welfare are picking up pace there.