Social values and the limits to growth

Book · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1974

OSTI ID:7366607

Christensen, B L; Norgard, J S

A system dynamics method and the discipline of cultural sociology are applied to the argument for limiting growth by changing social values and life styles in order to balance human needs with finite materials and resources. Focus is on the U.S., where values and life styles, which have shaped technological development as well as capitalism, now threaten the basic needs they originally helped to meet. Basic needs considered are physical needs, security, human relations, and a balance between rest and activity. Values include rest and activity, achievement, rationalism, individualism, freedom, hierarchy, material comfort, work, and efficiency. Conflicts occur when one value is over-emphasized rather than balanced by trade-offs. Changes in attitude do not need to be from one extreme to another, e.g., from conspicuous consumption to deprivation, but compromises can be accomplished through education and information. Primary socialization of children, which in the U.S. is a period of anxiety, should be a stabilizing time of close relationship with parents and a few adults and will require a major change in the way we value the family and establish work patterns. (42 references) (DCK)

• Research Organization: Dartmouth College, Thayer School of Engineering, System Dynamics Group, Hanover, NH 03755
• OSTI ID: 7366607
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
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BEHAVIOR
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
EDUCATION
ENERGY CONSERVATION
ENERGY SHORTAGES
GROWTH
HUMAN POPULATIONS
INFORMATION
POPULATIONS
SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS
SOCIOLOGY