Transcript Presentation - McGregor Consulting Group

2015 Karpatkin Lecture ACCI
Clearwater Beach FL (May 20-22)
Reframing Perspectives
for Consumer Work
Sue L. T. McGregor PhD Professor Emerita MSVU
[email protected]
www.consultmcgregor.com
Marketplace is profoundly complex
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Need to shift
perspectives
and reframe
approaches to
our consumer
work
Collection of new perspectives
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Consumer justice
Transformative consumer research
Consumer acumen
Moral leadership
Non-violent consumerism
Integral thinking
Transdisciplinarity
Complexity theory
Consumer justice
• A new concept being used by Consumers
International and the Union des
consommateurs (Quebec), since 2011.
• Consumer protection and access to justice have
been historically linked but the term consumer
justice seems different somehow, a subtle
reframing of our work.
• New jargon- Tackling injustice in the consumer
marketplace so as to strengthen consumer
rights
• What does the noun justice mean when linked
with the adjective consumer?
Consumer justice con’t
• Is consumer justice different from consumer rights?
▫ Rights are something we are entitled to, something we deserve.
Justice pertains to morally right and fair actions. Justice is Latin ius
for “right.”
• Would our work look different if we strove for consumer justice,
not just access to justice?
• Is consumer injustice a more powerful perspective than
infringement or abuse of consumer rights?
▫ If people experience an injustice, they experience a violation of a
right against their reasonable will – a wrong against them,
another species, the earth, or a wrong against society or humanity.
If someone experiences injustice, they endure an outcome that
they did not deserve.
▫ To infringe means to encroach on something, to go beyond the
usual limit (people can feel violated, threatened, dismissed,
disrespected).
▫ Abuse of means maltreatment, misuse, exploitation, manipulation.
Consumer justice
fini
• Does an injustice have to occur before a
consumer right can be infringed upon or
abused?
• Justice scholars also maintain that a sense of
injustice leads to action while the notion of
justice inspires contemplation …
• Would our consumer work change if we shifted
to a concern for the sense of consumer injustice
instead of consumer justice or consumer rights?
Source of image:
http://www.acrwebsite.org/assets/images/tcr/tc
r-graphics.GIF
TRC is promoted by the Association for
Consumer Research (ACR), since 2006
• It is a movement within ACR that seeks to encourage,
support, and publicize research that benefits consumer
welfare and quality of life for all beings affected by
consumption across the world.
▫ It is a push back to the fallout of neoliberalism, capitalism,
top-down globalization, conservatism, fundamentalism,
consumerism, and materialism.
• TCR is focused on improving the well-being of
consumers while maximizing social justice and the fair
allocation of opportunities and resources.
• TCR assumes that the life world of the consumer
must be kept in clear focus so that research can
maximize its meaningfulness, relevance, and usefulness.
Nuances of TCR:
• deeply values the plurality of theories, world views,
methodologies, methods, levels of analysis, and
paradigm (it privileges none)
• seeks to work on those problems that are perceived
by consumers to be most pressing, to better ensure
that our research is meaningful and relevant
• is inherently focused on context
• intentionally shares research findings with
consumers, policy makers and others; TCR
researchers see themselves in the role of public
servant
• especially strives to make sure research results are
pertinent and intelligible to consumers
• is especially focused on a new concept called
practical consumer wisdom
TCR’s practical consumer wisdom
• Resisting the pursuit of empirical knowledge in the
absence of deliberation and dialogue about society’s
needs and pressures, TCR seeks practical wisdom,
which stems from Aristotle’s notion of phronesis
▫ Greek word for a type of wisdom or intelligence,
specifically the virtue of practical thought (think before
you act)
• Practical wisdom is defined as developing plans
and solutions that are well reasoned and capable of
action in regard to matters that are good or bad for
humanity (human and earthly welfare)
• Being a wise consumer is more than cost-benefit
analysis or knowing one’s preferences. It is about
perceptive, context-specific judgements with a
mission to maintaining and enhancing well-being
TCR holds dialogical conferences
• Deeply listen to and
engage with others on
shared concerns that
impact consumer wellbeing and quality of
life
• Create strong social
networks of consumer
researchers who
share practical
wisdom and seek to
translate research into
action for social
change
Acumen (mental sharpness, shrewdness) is
aligned with TCR’s practical wisdom
• Assumes that in times of complexity, consumer
literacy is insufficient – consumers need
acumen; that is, keen insight, good judgements
and ability to make quick decisions in very
complex situations.
• With acumen, people are able to penetrate deeply
into ideas, enabling them to discern the
dynamics of changing contexts.
• Acumen means sharp minds and intellectual wit
(i.e., the capacity for inventive thought and for
quick understandings)
• Penetrating intelligence better enables
consumers to ensure their well-being and
quality of life, while being aware of social justice,
ecological integrity, and the moral and ethical
dimensions of their behaviour.
New Assumptions:
• With sensitization and education, consumers can
become capable of recognizing the complexity of the
marketplace and of their life world.
• Consumers are able to penetrate this maze of
connections, discerning the power, privilege and
dynamics at play. The latter have the ability to
compromise their consumer interest, putting them
at a disadvantage.
• Their and our actions would be directed at the
complex nuances of the system as it plays out in
people’s daily lives, keenly seeking opportunities to
enhance the consumers’ interest in the context of
deep and emergent complexity.
Consumers have always been conceptualized as
managers – this could be reframed
Leaders
Managers
• provide direction for
transformation based on
principles
• adapt to situations, striving to
share power while
strengthening people.
• work on changing the system
and the infrastructures by
looking at the lens and saying
it is right for us.
• provide control of resources
used in transactions based on
methods and procedures
• react to situations, striving to
maintain power while
minimizing costs and
maximizing benefits.
• work within the system and
structures by looking through
the lens, directing the
producers to do the work.
Moral leadership
• In addition to the management
imperative of sustainability, ethics, and
environmental integrity, the field needs a
moral leadership imperative.
• Consumers can be viewed as moral
leaders in the marketplace as well as
efficient, ethical managers.
▫ When people 'think ethically,' they are
giving at least some thought to something
beyond themselves (ethics refers to the
goodness and badness of people and
what it means to live the good life).
Morality focuses on the right and wrong of
people’s actions (guided by a personal
compass derived from one’s conscience).
Dimensions of consumer moral
leadership
• I suggest that this concept
comprises 12 different
dimensions, including but
not limited to
▫ moral authority and
discipline
▫ moral self-transcendence
▫ moral courage
▫ moral authenticity, and
▫ moral intensity.
Consumer morality can be concerned with three
things, each determining our approach to
research:
• Character of the consumer (virtues)
▫ note that TCR’s phronesis (practical wisdom) is part of this
• Intentions and motives of the consumer
• Consequences to others of the consumer’s actions
• Consumer moral leadership involves self-transcendent
individuals acting from a stance of moral integrity and
courage as they engage with morally intense consumer
decisions (people could be harmed).
• This new concept helps us reframe consumers as moral
leaders in the complex global marketplace in concert
with ethical managers in their local and micro
contexts.
What would our consumer work look like if
we applied the principles of non-violence?
• Gandhian nonviolence is
understood to be a
positive force
generated by selfsacrifice in the
cause of the
Truth
• Need non-violence in order to
cope with the structural
violence inherent in the global
marketplace; that is,
• when people consume, they
often harm themselves,
others, other species, and the
earth, but this harm is
virtually unintentional. It
happens because of the way
the marketplace is structured.
Positive Force (Satyagraha)
• the positive force refers to an
inner force not a physical force.
• As people face and overcome inner
struggles and obstacles in life, they
gain an inner power and strength
that they can store up and draw
upon when they encounter conflict.
• As people learn to control their
knee-jerk, negative emotions and
internalize new insights about
themselves and others, they learn to
store the energy involved in this
process.
• This inner power is called
Satyagraha (satya means truth).
Source of image
Source
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_uISeCrSwfp0/TJNhC1xToZI/AAAAAAAAAFI/23dj4Fsx
mrk/s1600/junglewomanhologram3.jpg
Self-sacrifice
• means a willingness to always
engage in inner struggles to
learn more about oneself and to
harness the positive force this
self-reflection generates for
future constructive use.
• A reserve of positive energy, self
truth, the Satyagraha, builds
up.
• Self-sacrifice takes great courage
and many years to learn; it is a
life journey.
• Also, sacrifice of self is
infinitely superior to sacrifice of
others; the intent of sacrificing
oneself is to convert the hearts
of violent opponents.
The Truth
• Because everyone sees the world
differently, they observe a
different truth, meaning
Gandhian truth is incomplete.
• People listen to and observe
everyone, even those they do not
like, because that person or
situation may have the missing
piece of Truth.
• Satyagraha (truth) builds up as
people observe the world around
them while looking for the Truth.
Offering the Satyagraha
When people who embrace this
philosophy encounter a
conflict, they draw upon their
inner stockpile of positive
strength, and take non-violent
action (called offering the
Satyagraha).
While never compromising
the principles of nonviolence, people practicing
non-violence do remain open
to changing strategies.
Examples include strikes,
boycotts, picketing, marches,
sit-ins, and work-to-rule.
Examples of non-violent consumerism
• When observing others consuming in the violent
infrastructure, people could raise the issue of the
impact of their violent consuming actions, but
never judge the ethics or morals of the person.
• Northern consumers could try to see Majority
World labourers as their friends who need to be
liberated from oppression; rather than calling them
others, try calling them fellow citizens.
More examples of non-violent consumerism
• Try not to say the transnational corporation;
instead, say the people in the transnational
corporation, thereby humanizing the situation.
• Northern consumers could strive to work with the
people in trans-national corporations (rather than
calling them the enemy) so all can grow inside and
move ahead together - everyone has a piece of the
Truth and all are needed in order to find the Truth.
• People could take issue with the neo-liberal agenda
and not with the CEOs who live by its principlesstrive to reveal the truths behind the ideology, the
agenda. Try to see the CEO as a person in need of
liberation from oppression of the ideology.
Quadrant 1
Upper left
I
Inner self, consciousness,
morality and ethics
Mind
Quadrant 3
Lower left
WE
Culture, societies, values
and world view (inside
the collective)
Meaning
Quadrant 2
Upper right
IT
External physical body
and brain; biological
organism; behaviour;
empirical knowing
Matter
Quadrant 4
Lower right
ITS
External world's complex
systems, institutions and
environments (outside the
collective)
Web of Life
Integral thinking
• Consumer scholars need all
quadrants to solve the complex,
emergent problems manifesting in
the marketplace;
• otherwise, we miss too much.
• Bringing all four quadrants to
consumer research better ensures a
truer representation of existing
global marketplace complexities.
• This approach allows us to totally
reframe our consumer work; no
longer just focused on scientific,
materialistic, empirical research
(upper right quadrant).
• It enables us to include the
subjective and objective, interior
and exterior, individual and
collective, physical matter and
external systems
Source of image
http://www.barrypatterson.com/wpcontent/uploads/2011/12/AQALSust.jpg
Source of image
http://www.hent.org/transdiscipli
nary.htm
More complexity….
• The problems of the world are too
complex to be solved using just
knowledge from university disciplines.
We need to connect that knowledge
with other ways of seeing the world,
outside the academy.
Transdiscipline means across, to cross
over, through, on the other side of, to
go beyond.
• I propose that consumer researchers
can draw upon Basarab Nicolescu’s
transdisciplinary methodology,
with its three axioms (ontology, logic
and epistemology).
Epistemology
Ontology
Logic
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Lava Lamp
Metaphor
Consumer researchers could embrace
complexity thinking, which assumes:
• a system can comprise living parts (agents)
that are intelligent and capable of adapting
to their environment through interactions,
communication, and coordinated activities.
• The system within which these agents
interact is called an intelligent complex,
adaptive system (CAS).
• Agents in the system interact and connect
with each other in unpredictable and
unplanned ways.
Examples of complex adaptive systems
include:
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the ecosystem
the brain
the human immune system
the stock market
political parties
ant colonies
communities
economic systems
Complexity thinking assumes:
• The overall behaviour of the complex adaptive
system is the result of a huge number of
decisions made every moment by many loosely
coupled individual agents acting on local
information.
• From this mass of interactions (i.e., iterations),
regularities emerge and start to form a pattern,
which feeds back on “the system” and informs
the interactions of the agents.
• A period of flux occurs in all sectors in “the
system” until a new balance is established (via
adaptation and self (re)organization) .
Complexity theory gives us a whole new set
of principles to reframe our work:
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complexity
change and evolution
adaptation
self-organization
emergence
nonequilibrium
chaos and tensions
patterns and networks
holistic, synergistic interconnections and relations
between individual and aggregate agents
Collection of new perspectives
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Consumer justice
Transformative consumer research
Consumer acumen
Moral leadership
Non-violent consumerism
Integral thinking
And there
Transdisciplinarity
are more!
Complexity theory
Common threads for reframing our
consumer work:
• Complexity
• Multiple perspectives and
realities
• Multiple sectors and actors
• Multiple truths
• Transformation, transcendence
and dialogue
• Beyond disciplines and
fragmentation
• Inclusiveness
• Wisdom and discerning
judgements
• Non-violence
• Moral leadership
• Justice
• Integral (holistic) thinking
We would approach our consumer
work with
• a different set of assumptions,
• different principles and concepts,
• a different range of theories and
conceptual frameworks, and
• a deeper respect for
transdisciplinary and transectoral
collaboration.
• We would anticipate totally
different results and processes,
undertaken with a wider range of
actors and sectors.
Additional Resources
• McGregor Consulting Group website,
section on research about transdisciplinarity
http://www.consultmcgregor.com/research.php?cid=8