Karolina Dvorakova,
Jeffrey Ros,
Robert Akerboom
sustainability and well-being
Texel aims to achieve full self-sufficiency in 2065. In order to achieve an effective transition to a sustainable society, it is important that, next to having technological and policy developments, individuals change their behavioural patterns to reduce their environmental impact (Chiras, 2011). However, this is not so easily done, as people generally tend to think that acting pro-environmentally means that they have to give up certain pleasures and luxuries and thus that it lowers their quality of life. However, other views suggest that engaging in sustainable behavior should actually be a means that brings a better quality of life in the long run. For example, the World Happiness Report refers to sustainable development as achieving human well-being through environmental sustainability (Helliwell et al., 2012). Some empirical studies support this train of thought and suggest that behaving in a pro-environmental way may lead to an increase in well-being (Kasser and Sheldon, 2002; Brown and Kasser, 2005; Xiao and Li, 2011). In their literature review, Venhoeven et al., (2013) explain these opposing views on sustainable behavior by distinguishing two different views on well-being. These are Hedonic well-being and Eudaimonic well-being. We will shortly explain the difference between the two, keeping in mind sustainability is our desired goal.
Hedonic well-being
Hedonic well-being can be described as feeling positive emotions such as pleasure simply by acting sustainably. This is generally achieved by attaining (self-set) goals. However, “acting sustainably” is generally not a goal in itself, and this is why it is quite hard to feel pleasure in this way. Especially since one may feel that their own contributions are not enough to change the world in a positive way, thereby maybe even negatively affecting their hedonic well-being and thus making them stop acting in this way completely (this is also known as the “tragedy of the commons” effect.) (Hardin, 1968). Therefore, setting oneself a smaller, tangible aims would be a better way to achieve hedonic pleasure out of pro-environmental behavior.
Eudaimonic well-being
Eudaimonic well-being refers to deeper positive emotions such as feeling meaningful. With regards to acting pro-environmentally, it is actually the feeling of doing your part in making the world a better place that creates well-being. In other words, people receive eudaimonic well-being from acting pro-environmentally, because they feel that it is the right thing to do. However, whether one sees pro-environmental behaviour as good behaviour may depend on the norms and values upheld by the social groups one belongs to (Kahan, 2010).
presence design
Wellbeing is often also derived from interaction with people. This brings us to the term “presence”. Presence is a fuzzy concept. Simply spoken, it is the act of “being somewhere”. However it is not limited to being somewhere physically. It can also be online, for example on a forum or by messaging on Facebook. Online presence has made it much easier for people to connect and create large social networks. Nevejan and Brazier (2015) define presence as “steering towards well-being and survival” and see the designing of presence as a meta-design which creates the factors and context for a social communications network. Presence as a value for design, as a requirement, facilitates designs that make it possible for us to be able to have agency, accept responsibility, and be able to engage with others in meaningful interaction, making it possible for us to steer towards our own well-being and survival.
YUTPA diagram and value of presence
In the emerging network society as we are living now, there is a direct relation between design for presence and design for trust. Nevejan therefore introduces her YUTPA framework where the potential trust between different actors are defined by four dimensions: time, place, action, relation. YUTPA comes from an acronym of “to be with You in Unity of Time, Place and Action” (Nevejan & Brazier, 2015). Each of these dimensions is further divided into 4 sections, and in all these sections the trust is evaluated from the different perspectives, uncovering thus the design space for establishing more trust.
group interpretation on literature
|
Group member |
Literature interpretation |
Application to texel / general comments |
|
Jeffrey |
Venhoven et al. (2013): Hedonic wellbeing: wellbeing from achieving clear, self-set goals. Eudaeimonic wellbeing: wellbeing from deeper things such as feeling meaningful or doing nice things for others. Nevejan & Brazier (2015): Presence design: The article is quite large and the presence concept in terms of “steering towards well-being and survival” is still quite unclear to me. However, meta-design of presence is something that we see more and more because of the increasingly complex network-like characteristics of our everyday life. |
To achieve sustainable Texel, not only technology is important. A change of mindset is needed, one that incorporates sustainable behavior as behavior that results in well-being. Whether it is hedonic or eudaimonic does not really matter. Lifestyle is embedded in culture, therefore this part fits well in the cultural domain of our framework |
|
Karolina |
Venhoven et al. (2013): Opposed to the perception of many people, acting pro-environmentally is meant to bring better quality of life in the long term. Sustainable consumption does not necessarily mean consuming less, but differently. However, in order for the consumers to choose pro-environmental behaviour, pleasure aspects need to be engaged with this behavior to increase the hedonic well-being. Nevejan & Brazier (2015): I see this concept as a form of bottom-up approach towards strategy creation - starting with looking at the level of trust and the notion of presence of the main actors involved in the system from different perspectives shows the design possibilities for the strategy. The functionality is very important in the complex system design. |
People need to see pro-environmental behavior (and products and services) as right thing to do or purchase to be happy about it. This is currently not the case as many people still believe that pro-environmental behavior lower the standard and the quality of life. In our design we thus need to focus on a right promotion of sustainability in eyes of consumers, who will then prefer the “right” products, not only expect that with the right innovative products and enthusiastic entrepreneurs the market will change - people will consume, what they believe will bring them something more than just the product itself. |
|
Robert |
Venhoven et al. (2013): In order to change people’s behaviour, we must divide eudaimonic and hedonic well-being. Change behavior and live pro-environmental can create a lot of eudaimonic well-being, but this will only happen if people can still live in the luxury that they are used too, which reflects on hedonic well-being. So this change could happen for people if it means that this pro-environmental behavior only demands consuming differently and more aware, and not consuming less for example. Nevejan & Brazier (2015): This paper describes the importance of presence in design and the shift that the meaning of this word is making over time. Since extreme technological development has given a different dimension to the term presence. For personal well-being however, literature states that people need face to face interaction in order to stay happy. Therefore, they believe that by incorporating this “presence” factor as design criteria, we will maintain our oldschool need for face to face contact. |
I believe that on Texel, inhabitants are even more in need of face to face interaction than on the mainland, since their way of living is so extremely community-like. With all technological developments and social activities shifting more and more to an electric network, I think people will have less ‘accidental’ face to face interaction at the bakery for example. This face to face meeting won't disappear however, since our DNA demands it from us. Therefore, I think people are gonna be more in charge of deciding where and when they want to meet other people instead of the accidental behavior. |
reflection on the literature
First of all, as was already mentioned in the introduction, change towards sustainability is not simply done by introducing innovative green technologies. It also requires social acceptance and changes in lifestyle, both for consumers as well as industry and business. Furthermore, we realize that “acting sustainably” is not an attainable goal in itself. In order to make people achieve hedonic well-being from pro environmental behavior, it is important for them to set (or receive) small, attainable goals. We think sustainable entrepreneurs can jump into this gap and use this knowledge to promote their sustainable or pro-environmental services and/or products.
Presence design will be an important factor when we think about pathways towards a self-sufficient Texel. In order to create awareness for sustainable goals, people will need to be exposed to information about sustainability and its impact on their lives. Furthermore, people will need to be actively and progressively engaged. Meta-design means that people not only use platforms for interaction and presence, but they are also part of its design process. An example of this is Facebook. Not only is it a platform that is used by people to connect with other people all over the world, it can also be used to create specific groups. For example to discuss political views or to buy and sell second-hand things from people in the neighborhood. In the next parts we will find out what platforms for presence are already available.