What I learned on my summer holiday (about learning, living, and the economy)
Heather Thomas, founder of Together Culture, reflects on a summer of economic epiphanies.
George Elgar Hicks, ‘Dividend Day at the Bank of England’, 1859, oil on canvas. On display as part of The Bigger Picture: Dividend Day at the Bank of England at the Bank of England Museum
Remember writing those "what I did on my summer holiday" essays when we started school back in the day? I assigned myself the same exercise this year and have come to see, there might be some great intention behind that old academic chestnut. It settled me into a rhythm of life that is easy to overlook when we've graduated from the routine of school. There’s something about the length of summer days, the heaviness of the heat (ooph), and, if I’m lucky, the time to pause, look at the clouds and just be that shifts my priorities. Summer lends itself to expansion and a deepening of roots. I learn, and then when autumn comes…it’s harvest time, time to put what I dreamt and felt into action!
This was how I summered in spades this year because I was (unexpectedly) physically slowed.
I celebrated midsummer by breaking my foot. Active plans: nixed. No skating camps. No tennis courts. No hiking weekends. My perspective shifting experiences this summer were more internal. I didn't do less. I did ‘summering’ differently.
At first I was pissed off, if truth be told. People kept telling me: there will be a reason for this. My beloved Auntie sent me a journal with a large sunflower on the cover and said, trust me. Write it out to figure it out. What did this break mean? What patterns do you need to disrupt? How are you going to see things differently and do things differently when you’re bipedal once again?
Thank you wise elder, you were right (Auntie is always bloody right).
Doing less externally opened up more inner world adventures. And when I started walking short distances again, just toddling around the block felt liberating. I saw a world of curiosities in 200 metres that I never noticed before.
The intention that I set.
I decided this summer to strengthen my curiosity muscles. I believe the economy could be a system built to enable us to live in communities (groups of people actively engaged in supporting one another's wellbeing.) Taking from Chilean economist Max-Neef, I consider those economic wellbeing needs to be: subsistence, protection, affection, understanding, creation, idleness, leisure, freedom, and identity. The economy hums when it is a human system that uses tools to address those needs regeneratively, not extractively. Because ‘regenerative’ means we nurture, we harvest, we replenish and accept just enough for all life to thrive.
I exercised my curiosity muscles by asking: where is there evidence of this? Not only in the present, but in the past. And how can I help to open more doors for people to see the economy this way so we realise it is ours to shape and nurture?
Here's what I discovered.
“Cooperators are their own masters.”
The work we're doing in Cambridge on the Kite Heritage project (which happens to be the neighbourhood in which I live) led me deep into the history of the cooperative movement in this country. That was their motto: “Cooperators are their own masters”; and they built a society to ensure this freedom. A neighbourhood economic system, driven by a culture founded on cooperation. I read that in the early nineteenth century you could tell which households were full of cooperators because their chimney was always going during cold weather. People cooperated so that excessive profits were not extracted and no one went without.
This was not just in Cambridge, it was all over the UK. Cooperative societies experimented with flexible working hours. They had secure pension funds, affordable lifelong education for members, halls for discussion and debate (not only about participating in decisions about how the cooperative was run, but about the issues of the day and how they wanted to shape their future.) Musical bands and theatre groups. Annual celebrations. A political party to extend the cooperative culture to all. Shops where local goods and craft were supported and prioritised. And, of course, economic dividends shared by every member, each year.
These neighbourhood economies existed all over the UK less than a hundred years ago. It’s a heritage I want to live.
Divvy Day extended to the Bank of England. What?!
I decided to fuse some seasonal festivity into my August bank holiday and visited the Bank of England Museum. There’s a sizeable exhibit celebrating Divvy Day! Check out how artist George Elgar Hicks captured the frenzied celebration in 1859. What struck me is that Divvy Day was not only a feature of neighbourhood economies, but of the entire country. People travelled from near and far to collect their annual annuities. Their jobs? My favourite is tripe seller. But also candle stick makers, bakers, butchers, the working classes of the nineteenth century. No doubt there is significant historical context to dive into further that reveals inequities. But, what I take from this is the attitude on display. The economy was clearly an us thing. We were in this together, there was a belief we were contributing to it and had a stake in it. It wasn’t just done to us.
Parisians are saying ‘non’ to spending their days working for a system, in favour of living richer lives.
On my travels to Paris this summer, I came across gobs of indications that change is coming. These posters particularly delighted me. I’m not great at French, but even I can surmise the message is “Replace capitalism with a good nap.” Meaning, productivity in the name of ‘growth for growth’s sake’ (and Silicon Valley’s sake) is not the purpose of our lives and therefore it cannot be the purpose of OUR economy. Brought me almost full circle back to Max-Neef. Parisians putting bills up across the city saying, sure, subsistence, but, yes and, we want the economy to enable us identity, freedom, creation, subsistence, understanding, affection, leisure, protection, and time to be idle to dream, to plan, to discover. Hey, to be fully human. Oui, oui!
What if we replaced the word ‘capital’ with ‘relationship’?
The ice cream sundae of my summer was participating in an Economic Collective Imagination community of practice organised by the remarkable Ali Norrish and Tim Frenneaux. In one exercise where we were exploring different types of capital (financial, natural, social, etc…) many of us felt triggered by the word capital itself, so tied as it is to extraction and growth for its own sake. So I tried replacing capital with the word relationship. What if we designed an economy and measured its effectiveness based on our relationship with finance, society, nature, creation?
It brings us back to the cooperative economic vision of a hundred years ago. Another time when wealth was consolidated by far too few and folks didn’t just take a nap (although I support this as an act of resistance big time!). They stepped up and created cooperative neighbourhood economies. And, no, they did not ask anyone permission to do this, they just did it.
Together Culture’s Digital Co-Learning Community
Towards the end of the summer, I was leading our digital workshop “Find the Story”. It’s a freebie designed to help people develop the tools to uncover the hidden narratives so deeply embedded in our culture (and our minds) that it makes change work difficult to accomplish unless we make the invisible visible and find ways to disrupt those thought patterns. People turned up from London, Cambridge, Hamburg, Brussels, and Moscow. Curious, open-hearted, cooperative changemakers. We are everywhere.
I don’t need any more evidence that a regenerative economy exists and there is a community of people all around the world that are willing to step forward, without asking permission to make living a fully human life a reality for all.
If this sounds good to you, I invite you with an open heart to take part in Together Culture’s Digital Co-Learning Community.
What we’ve designed is, effectively, a perpetual summer space to widen your perspective, build your skills, and meet some extraordinary people. Together, we’ll learn from one another and build an economy that helps us live in community.
Back to school time is here, this is what’s on the horizon. Turn up! Or reach out (heather@togetherculture.com) and I am happy to answer all your curious questions!
Find the Story — Free → Learn more
The thing blocking progress in regenerative work is often a cultural story that limits what's possible. Ready to learn how to find and then change that story?
Less is More — £37 → Learn more
Develop the relational skills for creating change that lasts, with the science to back it up. See what’s possible with Less is More.
Build it Together — £37 → Learn more
Design thinking and co-creation in practice. In 2 hours, discover what it feels like to start with a person rather than a solution.
Groundwork — £1,500 → Learn more
If you’re ready to go all the way in, Groundwork is a six-month programme to build the practical frameworks and the cultural change tools to move your regenerative work into lasting impact alongside a community of practise.
