Connexity

Geoff Mulgan, founder of the think-tank Demos, published Connexity in 1997. He revived an old English word to describe the modern phenomena of connectedness and interdependence in the global economy. He outlines ways in which decisions made by individuals in one place, such as buying a particular brand of clothes, can affect workers on the other side of the world and how pollution can spread from one place to the rest of the world. (I first became aware of this when I read 'Interdependent Development' by Harold Brookfield in the 1970s: geographers have known about these things for a long time!). The Internet in particular has given us the ability to communicate with people all over the world, for good or ill.

Mulgan argues that we should respond to this new state of connexity as follows:

• reshape our institutions to cope with the implications and capabilities of the Internet
• reshape education to prepare people to make their own decisions
• persuade governments to share responsibility with citizens and to use new forms of democracy such as electronic referendums
• Rethink economics so companies are obliged to meet real goals and not just profits

Despite connexity, however, there is a paradox in that human beings have never been more separate, distanced or distracted. At the centre of the West's world view is an absolute faith in the freedom of the individual and in 'human rights' (this often produces tension with other parts of the world where a different view prevails). In economics the needs and desires of the consumer and shareholder come first. In politics the sovereignty of nations remains a fundamental concern. We are not naturally good at thin king globally, though someone else may be doing it for us.

Some people are more connected than others, only a small proportion of the world's population share in the benefits of technological change and the cultural opportunities that come with wealth. The poorest people, however, share the same climate and they have an equal right to freedom and fulfillment and many of them play a part on the margins of connexity and the global economy. 

Mulgan believes that freedom and connexity are on a collision course and he suggests that the only way out of this is to transcend our sense of ourselves as isolated units and to recognise the webs of mutual responsibility in which we live. Freedom is something to cherish but we cannot afford to ignore its consequences, such as environmental decay, social and economic division, dwindling commitment to home and workplace and the outdating of institutions.

Summary based on 'Writing The New Economy' by John Middleton (Capstone, 2000).

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