Subjective Experience in the New Economy Working Group

= "interested in the relevance, for the New Economy, of the ways our ‘inner’ or subjective life grounds and directs our ‘outer’ or objective action and experience".

URL = https://neweconomy.org.au/about/working-groups/subj-experience/

Description

Patricia Morgan:

"The Subjective Experience in the New Economy Working Group is interested in the relevance, for the New Economy, of the ways our ‘inner’ or subjective life grounds and directs our ‘outer’ or objective action and experience. We understand that the inner and outer interweave each other as we cycle through: subjective experience, its impacts on the outer, which in turn impacts the subjective. The inner and outer directly impact each other though our ability to trace back and feel or change our inner prompts has been atrophied by the accelerating pace of life and increasing use of ICT. The resulting fragmentation of our ability to focus, reflect and be present to the subjective foundations of our actions has paralleled the rise of neoliberalism and hypermaterality. There is urgent need for a reversal of external focus with its constant drive for action and a return to more reflective engagement. This starts, we suggest, with our inner lives, then awareness to its impact on ourselves and others, and finally attention to the impact of our subjectivities in the processes that enable our activities. This is particularly important for NENA as it works to rectify the negative impacts of Cartesianism that drew the mind out of the body, the spirit out of Nature, and that exiled our subjectivies.

To better understand the subjective it can be helpful to start with a definition, though searching dictionaries shows there are multiple and at times conflicting understandings of subjective experience. Nonetheless, it is often portrayed in definitions that emphasise one or other end of a continuum bounded by unconscious drives and a field of metacognitive awareness. Whichever it is – mute primal urges or a ground of clear “internal” wakefulness, the subjective landscape is common to us all, significant (if unrecognised) in everything we do, and the deep wellspring of our being. In our working group we draw from the “fountainhead” understanding of the subjective. Leading with this we suggest that acknowledging and engaging subjective experience is pivotal in all of NENA’s endeavours. For deep change, a central aim of the New Economy, can only happen if we have deep engagement with the subjective fundaments of that change.

Acknowledging the existence and importance of subjective experience in our own lives has led us to consider the value of directly engaging it in NENA. This starts, we believe by recognising its impact in all that we do, both in the daily lives and activities of NENA members and the lives of all those we aim to positively impact. At this point we suggest flipping our usual point of focus when working to effect change, moving from product to process, so that our attention is equally focused on the “how” as much as the “what” of our efforts in NENA. This for example might happen by paying attention to communication in group activities. In a recent blog post on Enspiral Tales Sam Rye, a social designer from LifeHack, suggests that strong communities are one of the best responses to complex challenges (https://medium.com/enspiral-tales/the-relational-field-7ef5c710bcb4). However he has found that when working to intervene for positive change, the most important aspect – attending to the quality of relationships between all individuals involved – is frequently ignored. Focus on the “products” of change dominates, while the “process” grounded in healthy communication is frequently overlooked. As Peter Block in his Community: The Structure of Belonging says:

I discovered that resolution of conflict comes from people being able to express their own feelings and their own needs in the face of another. Making agreements and setting goals without building upon the feelings of the parties involved is empty, because it does not consider the vulnerabilities of our own humanity — Peter Block

Fundamental to refocusing in this way is heightening our awareness of the patterns deeply embedded in our internal landscape. These are the patterns laid down in early life by family, culture and experience that we are constantly acting through us in our communication with others. Subjective or inner space contains these patterns and is continually entrained through daily experiences. It is an aspect of us the media, politicians, film makers, advertisers and others frequently attempt to engage or manipulate. It can also be entrained in the ‘opposite direction’ by reflective and contemplative practices, so that our self-awareness is enhanced. In other words subjective experience can be both mute and manipulated sometimes described as the “unconscious” and it can be a ground of heightened meta-awareness in which we are attuned to the foundational ground of our modes of being, their impact on us, and all that we engage as we act in the world."

More Information

Please contact Patricia the convenor of this group on p.morgan@unsw.edu.au if you would like to join or work with our group.