Summer reading for Citizens
I’m in the process of writing a book called CITIZENS, due for release early 2022, and tapping into the insights of a growing mailing list as I do so. Several have requested some reading recommendations to help them get a bit more into the ideas I’m working with over the summer, so with a warning that it’s a pretty eclectic set, here goes…
(If you’d like to join the mailing list and help me make the book brilliant, you can do so here.)
First up, Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is the one book I reread and reread (and reread). It’s a philosophical exploration of life, the universe and everything, woven through the story of a semi-autobiographical motorcycle road trip across America in the 1970s. The core idea in it, that there is a critical notion of Quality of relationship that has been displaced from our cultural awareness and must be reclaimed, has deeply influenced my understanding of what it is to relate to the world as a Citizen not just a Consumer.
Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms’ New Power is my favourite “business book”, and not just because I and the New Citizenship Project team contributed to a lot of the research. Their conception of new power as a bottom-up current that must be channeled in contrast to old power as a top-down currency that is hoarded is one that stays with you — and is again closely related to the difference between Citizen and Subject/Consumer thinking.
The Ministry For The Future is the book you need to read right now if you’re hit with climate anxiety, as I know I am. Like all the best science fiction, it is a work of great imagination — but one that is rigorously researched, and entirely believable. Without being naive or idealistic, it is also deeply hopeful, rooted in a belief in the essential goodness of human nature that is right at the heart of Citizen thinking.
Getting a little more technical (and a little more self-promotional), Democracy In A Pandemic is a new collection of essays edited by Graham Smith, Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster, and Tim Hughes, outgoing CEO of Involve, the UK’s leading democratic participation. The essays explore all sorts of aspects of democratic responses to Covid, from the response of the Taiwanese government to an emerging culture shift in UK local authorities. And yes, I’ve got a piece in there, which you can also read here.
Sticking with the self-promotion for a moment, I make an appearance in J B Mackinnon’s The Day The World Stops Shopping too. It’s a very creative take, imagining a future where the act of consumption is a significantly smaller part of our lives, and asking what it would take to get there. Loads of great case studies, including some of the same inspirations that will show up in a slightly different light in CITIZENS…
Strangers In Their Own Land is, to my mind, the masterpiece of sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild. Realising in the early 2010s that she understood the lives and attitudes of many of her US compatriots US less than she did those of people much further afield, Hochschild took her academic sociology and ethnography training and went to get to know Louisiana. The book offers a powerful insight into the dynamics that have been pulling at the seams of American unity — and has given me the concept of “deep story” as an articulation of how underlying narratives influence the shared lives of communities, now critical to my use of the language of Subject, Consumer, and Citizen.
We Keep Us Safe is a manifesto for a complete paradigm shift in how we think about safety and security, from a Framework of Fear to a Culture of Care. Zach Norris’ insights into the role that community and participation have to play in creating genuine safety, as opposed to further criminalising the already marginalised, are incredibly powerful — and firmly in line with the shift from Consumer to Citizen. Written by an American about America, it couldn’t be more timely for a British audience in the context of the deeply repressive Policing Bill currently going through Parliament, which is why I’ve arranged with the Young Foundation to host an event with Zach in October. You can sign up for that here.
Out Of The Ordinary is my favourite book about British politics bar none. Marc Stears draws out the idea that the regeneration and renewal of our political life must come from reclaiming respect for the ordinary lives of ordinary people, by looking not just at the historical parallels between the times we are living in and the 1930s and 1940s but also the artistic— weaving through a beautiful landscape of Orwell, Dylan Thomas, J B Priestley, and more. The image that has stayed with me most is one of Priestley’s, who once argued that politics had become too much of a spectator sport, played only by a few, and that it needed to become much more like village cricket, with everyone on the pitch, “and if it’s a mess, at least it’s our mess.”
Turning towards the harder sciences, The Social Instinct is the first book from my old university friend Nichola Raihani, who now leads the Social Evolution and Behaviour Lab at University College, London. Her academic career has been fascinating, diving into cooperation in species of all shapes and sizes and now drawing out the insights for humanity. If you want to understand our potential for cooperation in the face of crisis, you need to read this.
Last but most certainly not least, Lily Cole’s Who Cares Wins is just a wonderful book. I’d characterise it as one woman’s search for hope in the face of climate and political crisis, as Cole dives into everything from food systems to fast fashion to indigenous wisdom, and comes out convinced that we can do it. I had only really been aware of Cole as a supermodel with a bit of a conscience until a friend tipped me off about this book; now I’m a fully signed up superfan.
Enjoy — I’m sure you will — and do let me know what you think!
