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Chapters from the paperback
- Introduction
- Ecocriticism
- Optimisation
- Grounded Economic Awareness
- Advertising Awareness
- Transition Skills
- Commons Thinking
- Effortless Action
- Permaculture Design
- Community Gardening
- Ecological Intelligence
- Systems Thinking
- Gaia Awareness
- Futures Thinking
- Values Reflection and the Earth Charter
- Social Conscience
- New Media Literacy
- Cultural Literacy
- Carbon Capability
- Greening Business
- Materials Awareness
- Appropriate Technology and Appropriate Design
- Technology Appraisal
- Complexity, Systems Thinking and Practice
- Coping with Complexity
- Emotional Wellbeing
- Finding Meaning Without Consuming
- Being in the World
- Beauty as a Way of Knowing
- Citizen Engagement
- Re-Educating the Person
- Institutional Transformation
- A Learning Society
- Additional chapters
- Interviews
Home » The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy » Chapters from the paperback » Finding Meaning Without Consuming
Finding Meaning Without Consuming
Finding Meaning Without Consuming: the ability to discover meaning, purpose and satisfaction through non-material wealth. Paul Maiteny, Education for Sustainability Programme, London South Bank University
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Since the 1960s, a wave of anxiety has welled up every 15-20 years about looming ecological breakdown. Each time, anxiety intensifies with a growing sense that pressures on physical life-support systems are coming closer to tipping point. Yet, there is still resistance to accepting that the causes of apparently ‘outer’ problems are rooted in our ‘inner’ selves. Twenty years ago, systems thinker, Ervin Laszlo (1989), recognised this when observing that:
We cast about for innovative ways to satisfy obsolete values... We contemplate changing almost anything on this earth but ourselves…
We know that obesity, heart disease, chronic fatigue, depression, cancer and other health problems are often symptomatic of lifestyles and associated desires and priorities. The same is true of our ecological malaise. But beliefs and feelings have a far tighter hold over behaviour than mere knowledge of facts.
