Not Just for Christmas

Advent Calendar Ann Thorpe

"There are many ways to have an ethical, green, or sustainable Christmas. If there was one thing you would want people to do every day as well, what would it be?"

"There are many ways to have an ethical, green, or sustainable Christmas. If there was one thing you would want people to do every day as well, what would it be?"

Ann Thorpe is a lecturer at the Open University, and also at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. Her research involves the study of cultural aspects of sustainable design, underpinned by theories of human needs, sustainable consumption and design process and practice. Her work grows out of research she conducted for her book The Designer’s Atlas of Sustainability and embraces economic and cultural elements of sustainability, along with ecological ones. She is particularly interested in the role of digital economies and information networks in sustainable design.	"I have trouble second guessing how people approach the holiday philosophically. My sense is that some food-mile-counting ecowarriors might actually let up a tiny bit for one special festive meal, whereas those who campaign ceaselessly on behalf of neglected groups all year long take time "off" to lavish attention on their own families and friends. What I've finally arrived at is this idea. It strikes me that christmas (and other holidays like Hallowe'en or Easter) are perhaps some of the few times during the year when we tend to get back to making things for ourselves and our friends (decorating eggs, making halloween costumes, x-mas ornaments or baking for friends). Similarly people who don't normally have time to cook meals from scratch might take time to do it for a holiday. So this, I think, is the one thing I would like people to carry forward into more routine practice (perhaps not daily). How is this sustainable, you might ask? Well, from a cultural perspective, we want to sustain human well-being indefinitely. There is evidence that, beyond basic food and shelter, humans achieve well-being primarily from internal mechanisms such as developing and applying skills, nurturing relationships and cultivating an authentic sense of self. One can argue that in the past century or so, we have turned more to external mechanisms (such as material goods and personal appearances) in an effort to attain well-being, and that this has failed not only in cultural terms (people are not made happier by material wealth and "perfect" appearances), but it has also failed in environmental terms (material costs of consumerism). Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s studies examine both happiness (well being) and the consumerism. His research suggests that we are happiest when our consciousness is “tuned,” a state he calls “flow,” that occurs from active engagement in something such as writing or playing a musical instrument, but not from passive activities such as watching TV. In terms of consumerism--making purchases--he notes that in contemporary life, "going shopping" is one of the main areas where many people experience a tuned consciousness, in the absence of other opportunities or skills. Soooo, we somehow need to move back toward those more internal mechanisms for finding well-being. Instead of just "having" (the passive nature of goods and appearances), we need also "being, doing, and interacting" and I think these gerunds emerge more out of the kind of making and communicating we tend to reserve for holiday time than they might do at many other times of the year." Back to the NJfC Advent Calendar

Ann Thorpe is a lecturer at the Open University, and also at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. Her research involves the study of cultural aspects of sustainable design, underpinned by theories of human needs, sustainable consumption and design process and practice. Her work grows out of research she conducted for her book The Designer’s Atlas of Sustainability and embraces economic and cultural elements of sustainability, along with ecological ones. She is particularly interested in the role of digital economies and information networks in sustainable design.

"I have trouble second guessing how people approach the holiday philosophically. My sense is that some food-mile-counting ecowarriors might actually let up a tiny bit for one special festive meal, whereas those who campaign ceaselessly on behalf of neglected groups all year long take time "off" to lavish attention on their own families and
friends.

What I've finally arrived at is this idea. It strikes me that christmas (and other holidays like Hallowe'en or Easter) are perhaps some of the few times during the year when we tend to get back to making things for ourselves and our friends (decorating eggs, making halloween costumes, x-mas ornaments or baking for friends). Similarly people who don't normally have time to cook
meals from scratch might take time to do it for a holiday. So this, I think, is the one thing I would like people to carry forward into more routine
practice (perhaps not daily).

How is this sustainable, you might ask? Well, from a cultural perspective, we want to sustain human well-being indefinitely. There is evidence that,
beyond basic food and shelter, humans achieve well-being primarily from internal mechanisms such as developing and applying skills, nurturing
relationships and cultivating an authentic sense of self. One can argue that in the past century or so, we have turned more to external mechanisms (such
as material goods and personal appearances) in an effort to attain well-being, and that this has failed not only in cultural terms (people are not made happier by material wealth and "perfect" appearances), but it has also failed in environmental terms (material costs of consumerism).

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s studies examine both happiness (well being) and the consumerism. His research suggests that we are happiest when our
consciousness is “tuned,” a state he calls “flow,” that occurs from active engagement in something such as writing or playing a musical instrument, but not from passive activities such as watching TV. In terms of consumerism--making purchases--he notes that in contemporary life, "going shopping" is one of the main areas where many people experience a tuned consciousness, in the absence of other opportunities or skills.

Soooo, we somehow need to move back toward those more internal mechanisms for finding well-being. Instead of just "having" (the passive nature of goods and appearances), we need also "being, doing, and interacting" and I think these gerunds emerge more out of the kind of making and communicating we tend to reserve for holiday time than they might do at many other times
of the year."

Back to the NJfC Advent
Calendar

DamianSutton	Latest page update: made by DamianSutton , Dec 17 2008, 5:33 PM EST (about this update About This Update Edited by DamianSutton 2 words added 2 words deleted view changes - complete history)
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