S3 Ep. 12 Jon Alexander – The citizen story: stepping into a many-to-many society

Jon Alexander began his career in advertising, winning the prestigious Big Creative Idea of the Year, before making a dramatic change. Driven by a deep need to understand the impact on society of 3,000 commercial messages a day, he gathered three Masters degrees, exploring consumerism and its alternatives from every angle. In 2014, he co-founded the New Citizenship Project with Irenie Ekkeshi to bring the resulting ideas into contact with reality. Since then, they have been on a mission to figure out how to use our skills — not just to sell stuff — to Consumers, and involve people in the decisions that affect their lives as Citizens. In this engaging conversation, Jon shares some great insights from his latest book Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us. We also explore how we can move away from being a passive consumer to being an active agent, how collective power leads to exponential results, the responsibility we have to build our own systems, and what a Citizen democracy means for the government. A full transcript of the episode can be found on our website: https://boundaryless.io/podcast/jon-alexander/ Key Highlights Defining Citizenship The Subject and Consumer stories versus the Citizen story How leaders of organizations can help to empower people to be Citizens Becoming active agents of change and investing in the future To Find Out More About Jon's Work: Twitter: twitter.com/jonjalex Website: www.jonalexander.net New Citizenship Project: www.newcitizenship.org.uk Book: Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us Other References and Mentions: Ouishare Fest: www.ouishare.net/fest Arlie Hochschild, The Deep Stories of Our Time: onbeing.org/programs/arlie-hoch…tories-of-our-time Dark Matter Labs - #BeyondTheRules with Indy Johar and Annette Dhami: boundaryless.io/podcast/dark-matter-labs Gov0 in Taiwan: g0v.asia Rob Davies, Phasing out Russian Oil: How UK Consumers Can Help the War Effort, 2022: theguardian.com/environment/2022/…-the-war-effort Better Reykjavik: citizens.is/portfolio_page/better_reykjavik The Liège Food Belt: communitiesforfuture.org/get-inspired…elt-belgium Why Blockchain Should Be Plural: Cosmos and Inter-Blockchain Communication – with Ethan Buchman: boundaryless.io/podcast/ethan-buchman Rebecca Solnit, A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster, 2010: amazon.com/Paradise-Built-He…es/dp/0143118072 Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at boundaryless.io/resources/podcast Thanks for the ad-hoc music to Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: boundaryless.io/podcast-music Recorded on 13 March 2022.