1: Celebrate public intellectuals
In previous eras we looked to public intellectuals to help us critique society in times of uncertainty. Nowadays they find it harder to connect with us in a culture that values the spontaneous tweet over the reflective tome.
The role of the public intellectual has come under pressure because of the advancement of technocratic and instrumental knowledge and through the popularisation of tropes such as “knowledge society” and “smart economy”. If we are to be a smart society we need to have a way to think about, understand and reimagine the kind of blueprints such a society might require.
The President, Michael D Higgins, has spoken of the need for a scholarship “centred on originality rather than imitation, one that, for example, restores the unity between the sciences and culture in their common human curiosity, discovery and celebration of the life of the mind.”
Original thinking, creative thinking and thinking outside of the box mean challenging the habitual and the routine.
Prof Mary P Corcoran, NUI Maynooth
2: Create new public spaces
A smart society creates opportunities for people to express themselves. Social engagement and sense of belonging are major elements of wellbeing and mental health.
Richard Sennett and others have argued about the significance of “the public realm”: spaces that are relatively open to all, with little or no cost of entry, where people can congregate and communicate. The UK-based analysts Hannah Lownsbrough and Joost Beunderman have identified new types of public spaces in cities and neighbourhoods. These “spaces of potential” range from productive spaces to virtual ones. They are often fashioned from below, emerging from human ingenuity and the need to engage with others.
Urban allotments and farmers' markets, for example, challenge the mass consumer model and reconnect people with nature, and activities such as the Liffey swim and the festivals countrywide constitute sites of interface that counter civil disaffiliation. More of these.
Prof Mary P Corcoran, NUI Maynooth
3: See and make art
It's an easy decision for an under-pressure Government to cut arts funding. Nobody will lose a hospital bed because a theatre has to close; nobody will go homeless because a film doesn't get made. This, though, is a false economy. Arts operations are lean machines; few organisations are more efficient than a local theatre, say. And arts centres and venues are vital community hubs.
These centres let people be creative; they encourage local involvement, so anyone can be part of something bigger than themselves. Creativity is a human impulse, and crucial to our self-expression.
But we have to get over our prejudices. In many other European countries, all culture is spoken of in the same breath. Trips to the cinema are no more unusual than evenings at the ballet. Crucial to this are the institutions themselves, which sell a portion of tickets at very low prices.
As consumers, we should demand better access to our culture. As creators, we shouldn't be afraid to be involved in the first place.
Laurence Mackin, Arts Editor
4: Measure wellbeing
Measuring the success of our society by its GDP alone has failed us, so we need to also measure our wellbeing. A growing list of organisations, including the OECD, say GDP has pushed quality of life to the margin, so public policy is defensive rather than visionary. Measuring our wellbeing from the perspective of each individual gives a truer picture of society's health.
Critical factors include individual competence, emotional stability, engagement, optimism, relationships, resilience, self-esteem and vitality. The OECD How's Life? report includes measures such as work-life balance, housing, education, social connections, environment and personal security; other studies add leisure and culture, transport and happiness to the list.
Communities in the US, Canada and France have already begun to measure wellbeing, as has the UK government. But "without leadership to drive through change we will be left with some good-quality data that are ultimately not influential because they are not acted upon," say Jennifer Wallace and Katie Schmuecker, authors of a Carnegie UK Trust report.
Kate Holmquist
5: Get scientific
The pursuit of new knowledge of any kind demands an ability to expand horizons and think in new ways. Nowhere is this truer than in the sciences and mathematics. The artificial barriers that separate "ordinary" folk from the white-coat brigade need to be broken down through education and outreach. People need to feel like participants in this culture.
This begins in schools. A creative approach to science would equip the society of tomorrow not only with more skills but also a greater appreciation of the sciences’ role in the world. More third-level funding would let Ireland translate these skills into ground-breaking scientific achievements.
But modern life almost demands that the public also take part in the culture of science. Smartphones, DNA analysis, genetically modified foods and cloning are not science fiction: we live with these technologies today. Each in its way affects how we live, so it is essential that the public understands this cultural milieu. This can happen only if we all, children and adults alike, begin to recognise science as a part of what we are.
Dick Ahlstrom, Science Editor
6: Listen to the diaspora
When we lament the loss of our youngest and brightest to emigration, we often console ourselves that many will one day return, bringing worldly experience and innovative ideas to reinvigorate the country.
But how can we capitalise on what the Irish abroad are learning overseas right now? How can we make them feel that Ireland hasn’t forgotten them? Political representation is the answer, in the view of 80 per cent of emigrants who favoured votes in national elections for Irish citizens abroad in a recent survey by UCC’s Emigre project.
The Convention on the Constitution voted last month in favour of granting emigrants a presidential vote, but many say that’s not enough. Although extending the Dáil franchise to the Irish abroad remains controversial, giving them a say in a reformed Seanad might be a good place to start.
This year's Gathering has included emigrants in a different way. It helped people in Ireland connect again with their communities and offered a richer experience to those members of the diaspora who visited home.
Ciara Kenny and Patsy McGarry
7: Live with older people
The question of what a real home is prompted Margharita Solan and a group of professionals in Naas, Co Kildare, to establish a new housing model for older people. The result is group of independent-living apartments in a bustling arts and community centre, where people of all ages participate in social and cultural events. The focus, says Solan, is on keeping older people at the heart of the community.
It’s part of a broader movement in which housing agencies such as Respond! are promoting in developments in Cork, Waterford, Kildare and elsewhere: building inclusive communities, rather than just social housing, where older people feel at home.
It involves easy access to shops and health services; support workers to assist and advocate on the part of older people; mixing with people of other ages; assistance to enable people live in their homes.
The results are impressive: studies by the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology at NUI Galway show residents are happier and healthier, both physically and mentally.
Carl O'Brien
8: Embrace digital
How do we ensure digital technology enhances our lives rather than distracting us from the real world, or becoming a medium for spiteful communication?
Life-assisting software, such as Hailo and other transport apps, already makes everyday life more convenient. But technology can have a more profound effect than that.
In areas such as mental health, organisations such as SpunOut, Turn2Me and ReachOut are offering a safe space for people to seek help, counselling and advice. Technology permits the sharing of information with those who might not access it by other means. This freer flow of information can help open up society, for example assisting communities to build ground-up initiatives.
But initiative can also come from the top. Increasing the corporate-responsibility funds of international tech companies that set up in Ireland could directly benefit marginalised groups. It could also fund training in programming, coding and languages. This would improve people's skills and help to develop a local workforce instead of importing one.
Una Mullally
9: Help immigrants to contribute
"There is huge denial that we are racist," says Denise Charleton of the Immigrant Council of Ireland. Bring racism into the light by measuring it: create a national recording system for incidents of racism and xenophobia. By knowing where and how it is occurring, we can change it. Update the law to European standards so we can punish racist attacks, physical, verbal or online.
Engage people at all levels in an exploration of what it means to be “Irish” today, and promote the message that a high-functioning society is one in which everyone not only feels engaged but also expects to be engaged on every level: business, education, arts, politics, leisure and community.
Reward voluntary organisations and businesses for promoting integration. Introduce quotas in the public service and in politics. Use positive discrimination: give Tidy Towns committees extra points for being inclusive; create scholarship programmes for children of "different" races in private schools; use quotas to place newcomers on State bodies and in taxpayer-funded media.
Kate Holmquist
10: Re-engage young voters
When Russell Brand flummoxed Jeremy Paxman this week with the revelation that he didn't vote, he spoke for a generation that feels disconnected from the democratic system. It's not that young people don't care; they just don't care for those in power. They feel disenfranchised and disengaged.
“Too often young people are told to vote but not given compelling reasons by political parties as to why they should,” says the deputy director of the National Youth Council of Ireland, James Doorley. “The political system needs to speak more to young people rather than at them.”
How? First the State needs to embrace digital technology and make registering to vote and voting itself more accessible. A Youth Council survey of young people in 2009 found that 75 per cent said online voting would increase voter participation.
That is only part of the solution. Young people need to be energised not by self-serving career politicians but by ones who they believe can bring about substantive change in the world, now and into the future.
Conor Pope
