8.1.09 The Age of Meaning?
A recent Sunday Oregonian had a nice piece on Portland based design firm Ziba Design and the firm’s evolution over the past twenty five years. What felt intriguing and relevant was the idea from Ziba founder Sohrab Vossoughi saying (consumer) culture has entered the ‘Age of Meaning’ with consumers craving a connection to the things they buy, that the mass economy is over. I would extend this to people longing for a deeper connection to themselves and life around us.
I notice in people I work with in city agencies or small businesses or local developers the challenge to be unique and express real character. There is so much pressure to conform to what is known in today’s tight economy and shrinking budgets and staff. And yet, it will be those who express uniqueness and even eccentricity that can stand out with a grounded integrity to what they most value that seems to be rewarded over time.
The Division Street Green Street meets Main Street revitalization project has been an ongoing learning laboratory for the tension between unique visionary plans and the pressures of stretched city staff and not enough money that can dilute the possibilities that exist. This is not just another example of aspirations meeting reality, to me it gets at the more fundamental issue of what really has ‘meaning’ for us in our local neighborhoods and how do we support this.
Despite civic goals of city agencies, they are also very large and complicated human organizations that struggle to create meaning in their programs with we citizens as customers. One of the biggest challenges we have faces in our seven year efforts on the Division Street project is to clarify who is responsible for what? What seems to have worked on projects is to have a very robust shared understanding of core values and framework for a project. And then allow a great degree of openness in what forms these values can take.
Reflection: Notice some place you may feel frustrated and see if there are ways that you may be compromising your own values and beliefs to conform to some others expectations. Imagine small ways that you can begin to start to stand up more for the values you care about .