Values

Description

Values drive beliefs which drive our attitudes which drive our behaviors. Our intelligence, needs, and personality have an influence on our attitudes. We have discovered from the Limit to Growth study that we must practice sustainability. To do that we need to change our behaviors. We are going to concentrate on the root of our behaviors, our values.

Enablers:

Earth Charter : an international declaration of fundamental values and principles considered useful by its supporters for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century. The Earth Charter's ethical vision proposes that environmental protection, human rights, equitable human development, and peace are interdependent and indivisible. 1987

Communication, Information Sharing, Government

Paradigms:

Dahl says: To achieve sustainability, several types of values need to be considered:
- values with respect to fellow human beings;
- the value attached to material things and consumption;
- the importance given to the environment;
- the purpose of life.
If the purpose of life is defined as the fulfilment of individual material needs and drives and the denial of any other goal in life, the resulting value set will be very different from one that sets higher humanistic goals, or one that defines the real purpose of life as the acquisition of spiritual qualities, with participation in society seen as a means to that end.

Experts:

Hofstede

Timing:

1973 "Small is Beautiful" by E. F. Schumacher and "The Limits to Growth by the Club of Rome in 1975

Web Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_(personal_and_cultural)

Earth Charter

Values as a foundation for sustainable behavior
http://www.bcca.org/ief/ddahl01b.htm

Ratner, B.D. (2004). "Sustainability as a Dialogue of Values: Challenges to the Sociology of Development." Sociological Inquiry 74(1): 50–69.