From ‘I’ to ‘We’: Changing the narrative in Scotland’s relationship with consumption

Stephen Richard — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 08:25:51 +0000

Primary Author or Creator

Iain Black

Stephen Richard Tue, 09/14/2021 - 09:25

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Deirdre Shaw, Katherine Trebeck, Common Weal

Alternative Published Date

December 2015

Category

Economy

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

The narrative of ‘I’ has become increasingly dominant as part of wider economic changes in Britain, where there has been a decline in productive exports and a rise in wealth extraction through mass consumption.

Central to the narrative of ‘I’ has been the role of marketing as a manipulator, where social interactions are to a much greater extent imbued with spending, and status and group membership are defined by what, where, how and with whom we consume. It also helps create and support cycles of consumption by supporting a culture of continual change through product differentiation, regardless of social need or environmental sustainability.

A shift from the narrative of ‘I’ to ‘We’ is necessary to establish the precedence of collective experience and responsibility, of shared experience and society, of equality and fairness and sustainability.

The narrative of ‘We’ already exists in society – studies have shown that having a positive relationship with our families, friends and community, as well as having good health, are the things that matter most to us. The job of government is to re-establish the link between that narrative and our idea of what prosperity is.

More details

― Make participation more desirable and possible by for example making entry to council sports facilities free, including entry to local authority swimming pools, open up park facilities, encourage sharing equipment through creating ‘libraries’, exclude shared and community goods from VAT.

― Developing skills through more access to lifelong learning, including a ‘national skills database’ where experts put on workshops to teach people skills

- Fund participation through subsidising community participation rather than the car and pharmaceutical industry. Make community volunteering tax deductible.

― Reform the role of marketing so it is a facilitator rather than a manipulator. This will involve redefining how it is taught and understood and controlling how it is currently practiced by for example banning marketing and advertising to kids.

― Make the producer pay for the cost of commercial waste rather than local government and introduce a pollution price trading scheme so environmental harm is added on to cost.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/From-I-to-We.pdf

Keywords

Language English