Social values and the limits to growth
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
- Resource Relation:
- Related Information: Report No. DSD-17
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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POLICY AND ECONOMY
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ENERGY CONSERVATION
SOCIOLOGY
ENERGY SHORTAGES
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GROWTH
HUMAN POPULATIONS
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290200* - Energy Planning & Policy- Economics & Sociology
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