Images of the future in identity building

Images of the Futures in Identity Buiding

Anita RubineDelphoi workshop, Otava

February 20-21, 2009

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However,our human capacity to receive and digest information and to live through experiences has not changed. Our fate is to try to cope with a brain of a stone-age human in the information society.

Living in the time of extreme alternatives

The intensity of events expands the limits of our social reality.

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• A view on some state of the future;

• A mental construction.

Composed of

• general knowledge and the

understanding of the present and the

past;

• perceptions and interpretations;

• beliefs, traditions, habits, norms,

attitudes and values;

• expectations, fears and hopes.

Characteristics of Images of the Future (IOF)

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– Traditions;– general

beliefs;– under-

standingof howthings areusuallymade, etc.

– Society'sethical andmoralideas;

– under-standingof howthingsshould bemade;

– under-standingof what isdesirable,etc.

Society'sgeneralideas ofwhatabilities,skills andcopingrequire-ments areneeded inthe future.

Hopes, fears, threats

Personal experiencegained from familyrelations, education,school, friends, etc.

Personal features:– Gender;– level of

comprehension– imagination;– creativity;– values, etc.

– Information gained from social andphysical environment;

– logical understanding of how thingshappen, what is needed and necessary ingeneral in the future;

– understanding of what is possible and whatis probable.

Information, knowledge

Expectations, anticipations

Ideas of one’s possibilities

Emotions towards the future

Cognitions about the future

Time perspective

Social knowledge

Personality

General knowledge

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The IOF are closely connected with decision-making

• directly by influencing the decisions and choices to be made at present;

• indirectly by having influence on the quality and nature of the future to become true.

If the idea of the future is frightening, oppressive, vague or blurred, the motivation to make choices weakens thus complicating decision-making.

Images of the Future and Decision-making

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Contradictions:• discontinuities in or between the IOF of an individual;• conflicting elements between the IOF of individual and organisation / community / society• conflicts between the IOF of different actor groups.

What specific IOF:s are the ones which affec/motivate behind the decision which is to be made? Which reference group’s IOF is predominant in society?Whose values direct or lead decision-making?Whose values should be chosen on the individual level?

Challenges of Images of the Future

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can be understood as

• the ability of an individual to successfully cope in different life situations;

• the ability to build personal goals on a realistic level and then to mould strategies in order to reach them.

External life management unfolds in behaviour visible to the others.

Internal life management unfolds in individual abilities and readiness to face difficulties in life now and in the future.

Life Management

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Perceptual ability, life management and everyday coping become more difficult as the impact of real-time information, constantly inflowing. This complex process produces

• parallel and simultaneous worldviews,

• several coexistent images of the future,

• competing values, appreciations, attitudes,

• intermittent norms and ideas.

Challenges in the information society 1

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Traditional norms, values, language, models of action and the learned ways of doing things are not enough for coping in our present reality which is completely new in so many aspects.

Therefore, in order to cope we have to

• invent new words, concepts and metaphors to tell the story of our life and future.

• create new tools – institutions, models of action, traditions, etc.

Challenges in the information society 2

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With the blurring logic of ”the whole”, perseverance and foresight become more and more difficult.

For the sake of effectivity, decisions have to be made in a growing haste short-sightedness.

The expanding and swelling present gains more and more space at the cost of the past and the future.

The future does not exist yet, and the past is already meaningless history. The only possibility is to live in a constant present.

Challenges in the information society 3

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The need and ability to understand the logic of cause and effect and horizontal time diminishes, producing a tendency towards

• instant experiences and satisfaction,

• carpe diem –thinking,

• stories of the ”dream society”.

Some consequences

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Alongside the Western culture(s), solidarity and human responsibility on the well-being of one’s neighbours have also developed.

A tension between the individual and the idea of the community/society where this responsibility is to be carried out.

Throughout the centuries the borders of community /society have expanded from our immediate family, tribe and nation further and further.

Western ethics and the concept of social justice

About Responsibility

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Identity is a representation, a product which is born through the determination of differences and exclusion. Therefore it presumes constant interaction with the others.

Identity building 1

This interaction draws the lines on what we are, who we are and where we belong.

It also is the plaster in the construction work of society on which we can reflect our hopes, expectations and personal nature and see them as meaningful.

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• Always dependent on a certain space, time and/or situation;

• is composed of and develops in a constant dialogue with the other people.

Human beings can only self-actualize through their relationship with the others.

Identity building 2

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Interaction helps us to clarify what in our dissimilarity with the others is truly relevant – what it really is that makes me me.

Therefore the stability of identity is dependent on how stable and long-lasting the differences between people are.

Identity building 3

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The individuals of our time are developing hybrid identities, which feel flexible and changeable in front of the demands of each new situation or person.

While a person has a strong need to belong, at the same time morals and sociability are dependent on his/her own value choices and other preferences.

Identity building 4

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The emphasis on individualism is due to increasing pluralism, the Western ideals of the Enlightenment, such as democracy and equality and it is typical to the rich countries.

Individualism has become the most important source of meaning in our time.

Individualism 1.

The projects of the Self are the only field over which an individual has a total control.

The Self -- one’s own body and mind -- becomes the playground and experimental area of new lifestyles.

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At the same time, the responsibility of- economic success

- coping and life management - popularity among friends and

colleaguesis piling up a still heavier

load on the shoulders of especially young people.

When the claim of individuality is taken into its extremes, it leads to hedonism and selfishness, but also the feelings of loneliness and insecurity increase.

Individualism 2

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A human being faces a danger to change from an active subject into an object of his/her own life.

We and the information society

He/she becomes a part of the event, a character in the playof experiences wherenobody knows the author,there is no director, thescene is world-wide,the thread is blurred,and theme unclear. (Ulrich Beck)