Post-Materialists

Shoshana Zuboff, inspired by the research of Ronald Inglehart which shows a shift to post-material values, inquires as to the meaning of this trend for the new capitalism.

Citations

Shoshana Zuboff

The psychological Reformation of the postmaterialists, Shoshana Zuboff

These individuals are seeking new consumption choices that can redefine commerce. The new individuals want to make a difference, they want to be heard, and each wants to matter. Their new political choices begin with an apparent dilemma for leaders. The new individuals are educated (and increasingly more so) opinionated, rights claiming and keen to act. They have concepts, ideals, and information. All of these characteristics ought to make them avid participants in the political process, but despite these credentials, the political participation of the "postmaterialists" is, by conventional measures, lower than of the modern generation.

In contrast, the values surveys of Ronald Inglehart indicate that the new postmaterialists demand true voice. Theirs is a psychological reformation that suggests some interesting parallels to the religious reformation of the sixteenth century. Today's individual rejects organisational mediation seeking instead to have a direct impact upon matters that touch his or her life. They shun traditional organisations in favour of unmediated relationship to the things they care about. The new individuals thus demand a high quality of direct participation and influence. They have skills to lead, confer and discuss, and they are not content to be good foot soldiers. Young adults place a premium on the efficacy of small groups of people working together to effect change in tangible ways. And they showed strong preference for leadership "that emphasises the collective participation of many individuals over the strong leadership of the few." This rejection of mediated influence also helps explain the growing interest in the concept of "direct democracy" as a natural evolution of representative democracy.

The new individuals seek true voice; direct participation, unmediated influence and identity based community because they are comfortable using their own experience as a basis for making judgements.

Source: http://www.supporteconomy.com/ ; cited by http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2005/10/why_companies_a.html )

World Values Survey

Ronald Inglehart's study is at http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/washington_quarterly/v023/23.1inglehart.html

See also the World Values Surveys, at http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/statistics/index.html

On the transition to Postmaterial Values

“The second major dimension of cross-cultural variation is linked with the transition from industrial society to post-industrial societies-which brings a polarization between Survival and Self-expression values. The unprecedented wealth that has accumulated in advanced societies during the past generation means that an increasing share of the population has grown up taking survival for granted. Thus, priorities have shifted from an overwhelming emphasis on economic and physical security toward an increasing emphasis on subjective well-being, self-expression and quality of life. Inglehart and Baker (2000) find evidence that orientations have shifted from Traditional toward Secular-rational values, in almost all industrial societies. But modernization, is not linear-when a society has completed industrialization and starts becoming a knowledge society, it moves in a new direction, from Survival values toward increasing emphasis on Self-expression values.

A central component of this emerging dimension involves the polarization between Materialist and Postmaterialist values, reflecting a cultural shift that is emerging among generations who have grown up taking survival for granted. Self-expression values give high priority to environmental protection, tolerance of diversity and rising demands for participation in decision making in economic and political life. These values also reflect mass polarization over tolerance of outgroups, including foreigners, gays and lesbians and gender equality. The shift from survival values to self-expression values also includes a shift in child-rearing values, from emphasis on hard work toward emphasis on imagination and tolerance as important values to teach a child. And it goes with a rising sense of subjective well-being that is conducive to an atmosphere of tolerance, trust and political moderation. Finally, societies that rank high on self-expression values also tend to rank high on interpersonal trust. This produces a culture of trust and tolerance, in which people place a relatively high value on individual freedom and self-expression, and have activist political orientations. These are precisely the attributes that the political culture literature defines as crucial to democracy.� (from http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/statistics/index.html, cited at http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2006/03/children_benefi.html )