Citizens (eBook)

Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us

Jon Alexander (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2022
320 Seiten
Canbury (Verlag)
978-1-912454-85-3 (ISBN)

Infos

MCKINSEY TOP 5 RECOMMENDED READ'An underground hit' - Best Politics Books, Financial Times'Jon has one of the few big ideas that's easily applied' -Sam Conniff, Be More Pirate'A wonderful guide tohow to be human in the 21st Century' -Ece Temelkuran, How to Lose a Country: the Seven Steps fromDemocracy to DictatorshipDescriptionCitizens opens up a new way of understanding ourselvesand shows us what we must do to survive and thrive asindividuals, organisations, and nations.Over the past decade, Jon Alexander's consultancy, the New Citizenship Project, hashelped revitalise some of Britain's biggest organisations including the Co-op, the Guardian and the National Trust. Here, withthe New York Times bestselling writer Ariane Conrad, he showshow history is about to enter age of the Citizen.Because when our institutions treat people as creative, empowered creatures ratherthan consumers, everything changes.Unleashing the powerof everyone equips us to face the challenges of economicinsecurity, climate crisis, public health threats, and polarisation.Citizens is an upbeat handbook, full of insights, clear examplesto follow, and inspiring case studies, from the slums of Kenyato the backstreets of Birmingham - and a foreword by Brian Eno.It is the perfect pick-me-up forleaders, founders, elected officials - and citizens everywhere. Organise and seize the future!Reviews'Society is like an out of control house party - eating, drinking andconsuming everything. Jon is the organiser of the campfire gatheringbehind the party. It's calm and welcoming and you won't want to leave.In Citizens, Jon and Ariane show how to leave the burning house of theConsumer Story and join the campfire that is the Citizen Story.'-Stephen Greene, CEO of RockCorps and founding Chair of NationalCitizen Service UK'The belief that every single one of us has both the potential and thedesire to make the world better drives me every day, in everything I do.In Citizens, Jon shows how taking that belief as a starting point reallycould transform our world. This is a truly powerful book, in everysense of the word.' - Josh Babarinde, Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur'Every great transformation requires a new story. A story that revealsnew possibilities and points toward an optimistic alternative to thecurrent situation. Citizens presents just such a story and if we respondto its challenge we may just manage to navigate our way out of themess we have created for ourselves.' -Tim Brown, Chair of IDEO and author of Change By Design'Jon is working with a set of ideas and tools that have the potential tochange politics forever. In fact, they could change everything forever.' -Ian Kearns, Founder and Trustee, European Leadership Network'Citizens is a powerful and intriguing contribution to the search for agenuinely sustainable future. I am particularly interested in how theCitizen Story might help businesses to engage more fully with theiremployees and customers to accelerate sustainability and might alsohelp businesses to become more transparent and accountable.' -David Grayson, Emeritus Professor of Corporate Responsibility atCranfield University School of Management and co-author of TheSustainable Business Handbook'The shift from consumer to citizen is a truly big idea. If you're in aposition of strategic influence, I strongly recommend you engage withthis and consciously explore what it might mean for your organisation.' -Dame Fiona Reynolds DBE, Former Director General, National Trust,and Trustee, BBC'There is such a thing as an idea whose time has come. This is that idea.' -James Perry, Board Member, B Lab Global, and Founding Partner,Snowball Investment ManagementAbout the AuthorsJON ALEXANDER began his career withsuccess in advertising, winning theprestigious Big Creative Idea of the Yearbefore making a dramatic change.Driven by a deep need to understand theimpact on society of 3,000 commercialmessages a day, he gathered three Mastersdegrees, exploring consumerism and itsalternatives from every angle.In 2014, he co-founded the New CitizenshipProject to bring the resulting ideas intocontact with reality. In Citizens, he is readyto share them with the world.ARIANE CONRAD has built a careerturning big ideas into books that changethe world. Known as the Book Doula, shehas co-written several New York Timesbestsellers.BRIAN ENO is an artist, philosopherand Citizen who has played a critical part inBritish culture since the early 1970s. He isa deep believer in the power of ideas and thepossibility of a better world, beliefs whichmanifest both in his audio and visual art, andin his deep engagement with social, politicaland environmental issues.

Inhalt

Foreword. Brian Eno sets out the value of Citizens in framing a new, optimistic cooperative story for our age, as opposed to the two other options: authoritarian states such as China and "Siliconia" - "a Consumer state with centralised power and deep surveillance". Mentions Citizen Story
1. Opening. Jon Alexander sets out the need to 'step into' the Citizen Story so that we can deal with the many challenges of our age: economic insecurity, ecological emergency, public health threats, political polarisation, and more. Mentions citizens, economic insecurity, ecological emergency
2. Citizens Everywhere. How humans are bound together through interdependence and reciprocity, and in turn have a deep bond with nature, which conventional big business cannot understand. Picks apart the self-dependence and utilitarian philosophy of tech billionaires Peter Thiel and Mark Zuckerberg
3. Citizens By Nature. Central to the Citizen Story is a belief in ourselves and in human nature as creative, capable, and caring, rather than lazy, self-interested, and competitive within a zero-sum framework. Any redesign of institutions will fail if we haven't embraced this fundamental belief
4. We're All Consumers Now. The launch of the consumer age, by way of Apple's advert for its new Macintosh at the US SuperBowl in 1984. Mentions Apple Macintosh, Ridley Scott, consumer demand, Consumer Story, George Orwell 1984, Virgin Atlantic, Richard Branson, IKEA, Walmart, Virgin Galactic
5. Once We Were Subjects. Before the Consumer, there was another story: the Subject, as in 'subjects of the king.' In this story, the Great Man – the Chief, Pope, King, Boss, Father – knows best. The rest of us are innocents, ignorant of important matters. Mentions King Sargon of Akkad and Mesopotamia
6. Citizen NGOs. The Consumer Story is falling apart, but the truth alone is not enough to ensure it passes to the Citizen Story. We must act too, to seize control of our futures, and to ensure that we actually have a future. Case studies include the National Trust in the UK
7. Citizen Business. How businesses can harness the power of the Citizen Story to make their workings more popular and inclusive, and to drive forward societal change. Case studies include the brewery BrewDog in Stonehaven, Scotland. Mentions Martin Dickie, Tesco, craft beer, Equity Punks
8. Citizen Government. Taiwan has pioneered the application of citizen government, in stark comparison to Communist China, which offers a vision of an alternative, authoritarian future. Mentions Taiwan, Taipei, Economic Power Up Plan, Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi, Arab Spring, Sunflower Revolution
9. Closing. A new Citizen movement is building. Examples include Paris approving a standing Citizens' Assembly and Chile's Citizen-driven Constitutional Convention. Mentions Delian Aspourhov, Restor, Founders Fund, Varda Space Industries, Francis Suarez, Elon Musk, Balaji Srinavasaran
Writing Citizens. The book has been a collaborative process involving several different sets of people and organisations, including not least the New Citizenship Project team
References. The author thanks, among others, Jo Hunter, Emma Ashru Jones, Tendai Chetse, Anna Maria Hosford, National Trust, Helen Meech, Fallon advertising agency, Iris Schönherr, Ariane Conrad, OuiShare Fest, Food Ethics Council, Chris Seeley
Index. A full index of terms used in the book, such as participatory democracy, Certified B Corporations, citizens assemblies, and sortition

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 17.3.2022
• Co-Autor: Ariane Conrad
• Vorwort: Brian Eno
• Verlagsort: London
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Systeme
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Staat / Verwaltung
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Planung / Organisation
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Unternehmensführung / Management
• Schlagworte: Activate Brand Purpose Scott Goodson • Active citizens • Be More Pirate • Better Reykjavik • Big Consumer Bang • Brewdog • Broken WIndows Theory • Citizen Business • Citizen Charities • citizen government • Citizenship • citizenship book • Citizen Story • Cobudget • collaborative decision-making • Consumerism • Consumer Story • Co-operative Group • Demokratie in Bewegung • Digital Transformation Multiplied • Individualism • National Trust • Parkinson’s UK • Participatory decisionmaking • Participatory Democracy • Radical Help Hilary Cottam • Regenesis • rhetoric of personal responsibility • Subject Story • Taiwain G0v • Taiwan • Transition Towns • Unilever
• ISBN-10: 1-912454-85-8 / 1912454858
• ISBN-13: 978-1-912454-85-3 / 9781912454853