Clustering of like-minded individuals is not a new idea, but new research based on the mapping of personality types reveals one very interesting trend about the group called “Open To Experience People”: they are far more distributed than any of the other groups.
In his post The Personality Map, Richard Florida presents these results in a timely manner to promote his most recent book “Who’s Your City?”. A much better explanation is given in his column on the Global and Mail:
We know that values, beliefs, and attitudes cluster geographically and are sustained over time through social interaction – that’s what defines culture. According to Sam Gosling, a psychologist at the University of Texas, and Jason Rentfrow, a psychologist at Cambridge University, these places (and their inhabitants) will also assume certain personality traits.
They refer to these as “social founder effects.” That is, people come to acquire personality traits that reflect their practices, lifestyles, and beliefs. Places that tolerate or encourage openness to experience will ultimately attract people who seek environments in which they can feel free to express themselves.
People seeking a place where they can express themselves is almost a perfect definition for the global citizen that will [...]
The latest book from Benjamin R. Barber, “Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Shallow Citizens Whole” presents a timely critic to capitalism, not as an economic theory, but as a flag to incite mass consumption where there are no real needs. Barber explains about capitalism:
…in the beginning of capitalism — in the 15th and 16th century — capitalism was focused on production, on hard work, on deferred gratification, on altruism. People investing and saving and capitalists acquiring wealth and keeping it in order to do further investments. All in the name of producing goods for people with very real needs and down the line making some profit from it as well. The problem is, today we have not a productivist economy but a consumer economy. And the emphasis today is not on production, but on consuming. And you’ve got a capitalism which is producing an awful lot of goods which are chasing very few needs, while real needs are going unmet around the world.
Very much in line with the previous post on the story of stuff, it seems that fixing the problem has nothing to do with a radical change of economic system but a fundamental [...]
The greatest documentary I’ve seen since “The Corporation” is delivered by Annie Leonard, an expert in sustainability, in a video.
The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns, with a special focus on the United States. All the stuff in our lives, beginning from the extraction of the resources to make it, through its production, sale, use and disposal, affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues and calls for all of us to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something. It’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.
Everyone should watch the full length video, but here is a quick teaser:
After watching the full video you’ll be itching to do something about it. Here is a quick summary of 10 things she suggests you can do: Power down, Waste less, Spread the word, DeTox your life, Unplug from media and Plug In the community, Drive less, [...]
Mexico City is such a big city that most inhabitants would have problems defining its boundaries. Most people could probably name 2 or 3 access routes, but defining its boundaries is an exercise better left to city planners. A couple of months ago, I had the opportunity to transit through a new highway connecting the East of the city with a point far to the North. This highway is so new that in most cases the view was occupied by farmed land on one side and a clear urbanized area on the other. For those who have been to Mexico City you’ll appreciate how strange this is, as the city always seems endless in all directions. In the map below, this highway is marked in red.
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The further North this highway goes, the less urbanized the region is, until it connects with the main highway heading to the North. Of course, the advance of urbanization is such that it will only be matter of time before the city has surpassed this new limits. In the same map I’ve indicated in blue what is known as “Anillo Periférico” and in green [...]
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