People and Lifestyles | Design Charrete

In the post-modern era the merits of many old ways of doing things and of viewing the world are being reaffirmed. Post-modernism fosters the view that the world would be a better place if we paid more respect to pre‐modern and traditional practices.

In this post-modern era, many antiquated actions and processes are being reaffirmed. We are being encouraged to approach activities in such a way our ancestors did; fostering the view that the world would be a better place if we were to revert back to traditional practices. Unfortunately this is what seems to be wrong with promoting sustainability; people are being told that in order to be sustainable we must sacrifice our current quality of life for the greater improvement on mankind. This is what is holding us back from approaching global sustainability.

We must endorse a paradigm of ecological transformation, encouraging us to prepare for success in the 21st‐century by combining the best of the old with the best of the new. We need to embrace technology and adapt it to this current model for societal/global betterment. Changes we must see include the movement from one model to another:

• Priority to nation – priority to planet
• Individualism – communitarianism
• Independence – interdependence
• Autocracy – democracy
• Humanity against nature – humanity a part of nature
• Patriarchy – gender equality
• Intolerance/hostile – tolerance/harmonious
• Confrontation/combat – cooperation/negotiation
• Safekeeping through defence – safekeeping through security

Our current global megatrends show promising movements towards this better approach to these humanitarian goals. Below is evidence of our changing systems:

• A more prosperous, integrated, interdependent, and pluralistic global society is being created through the combination of globalization, tribalisation and through technological interconnectedness that increase our interconnectedness, interdependence, and our awareness of the lives and views of other cultures, and of our shared fate.
• A massive expansion of education, both in terms of its geographic spread and the time devoted to education in individual lives, that is encouraging people to look beyond their cultural roots that emphasizes difference and to see themselves as part of a humanity that that seeks to simultaneously embrace cultural difference and human unity.
• The substantial growth of the educated middle class through a massive spreading of prosperity generated by globalization. This is resulting in the values of the educated middle‐class becoming the values that inform global public opinion. This has major implications for global paradigm shifts and the creation of a sustainably prosperous global society.
• A single integrated global market place for ideas, products and the emergence of a global public opinion informed by shared values
• The interdependent relationship with reciprocal rights and responsibilities is becoming the dominant model in personal, business, workplace and international relations.
• A growth in communitarianism and a relative decline in its opposite –individualism. A modified form of individualism is evolving.
•  Populations are ageing in many parts of the world as more people join the middle class and seek to have careers rather than jobs, families with fewer and better‐educated children, and as more women seek equality and democratic freedom. This is leading to a massive increase in automation to ensure that increasing productivity per working person offsets this decline in relative workforce numbers.
• There is an increasing support for religion and tribalism that respects difference, and an escalating pariah status for religion and tribalism that does not. Fundamentalist religion in all its forms‐ a religious perspective that is intolerant of difference ‐ is increasing challenged by its more tolerant alternatives supported by international public opinion. This is a 21st century intra‐religious battle that is equivalent to the political battles between autocracy and democracy.
• An integrated and interdependent global investment and financial system is evolving. It will operate under one set of rules, and will force international responsibility on all financial institutions. There has been a gradual demise of the influence of many national currencies. This will lead to the establishment of a world central bank and a single global currency
• Products and services that realize sustainable production, consumption, development and lifestyles are increasingly proliferating in global, markets. Many of these will be devoted to both adapting to, and abating global warming.

(Ellyard n.d.)

These trends show promise that we are approaching this lifestyle of 21^st century sustainable modernism.

Reference

Ellyard, P. (n.d). A Sustainable Frankston City 2050. Retrieved August 10, 2012, from http://bldgblog.blogspot.com.au/2007/04/architectural-weaponry-interview-with.html