Pådrivere, ikke forbrukere - seminar med Jon Alexander
4/4/2025 12:00
I boka Citizens lanserer Jon Alexander en idé: Hvordan kan vi tenke og handle som pådrivere for det samfunnet vi vil ha - heller enn som passive forbrukere?
Nå kommer endelig Jon til Norge, og Pådriv og SoCentral inviterer til et åpent arrangement for å utforske denne ideen og hva det kan bety.
Hold av tidspunktet - mer info kommer!
Les mer om boka og Jon Alexander her: www.jonalexander.net
The Idea
My aim in CITIZENS is to open up a new way of understanding ourselves and the intensely challenging time in which we live. I want to equip us to see and step into the possibility in this moment, not just the threat. I truly believe we can find a way for all of us to thrive - and seeing one another as the Citizens we are is the starting point.
Today, we are living deep inside the Consumer Story, a foundational story of humans as inherently self-interested and competitive. This story has shaped not just individual behaviour but organisational design, economic theory, the role of government, morality — all of culture and society. But this is not as inevitable and inescapable as it feels, for stories do change. Indeed, the Consumer Story has been in place for less than a century. Before this, we lived inside the Subject Story — as in “subjects of the king” — which lasted centuries, casting the majority of us as infant-like and dependent, with just a superior few capable of deciding and leading.
And now? Now the Consumer Story is failing. The Subject Story is resurgent. But at the same time, a new story — the Citizen Story — is taking shape across the world, and in every aspect of society. In the Citizen Story, we see ourselves as the creative, capable, caring creatures we are. We realise that all of us are smarter than any of us. We get involved.
Reclaiming the future
Seeing and stepping into the Citizen Story will reshape the way politics is practised. It will revitalise our communities. It will transform the way organisations across sectors are structured, and the way they engage on all sides—with employees, customers, suppliers, communities. When our institutions see people as citizens rather than consumers, and treat us as such, everything changes.
By embracing, enacting, and fortifying the Citizen Story, we will be able to face the challenges of economic insecurity, climate crisis, public health threats, and political polarisation, together. We will be able to build a future together.
And we might just be able to have a lot of fun doing it.
Foto: Signe Lysnegaard, Pudder