New Work Regenerates Cities and Citizens
Consider that innovation is simply new work, and the constant regeneration of new work is how we adapt to our changing world. If our work stayed the same, our species would not have travelled and settled across the planet. New work--innovation--allows us to evolve. The habitats we build for ourselves have evolved with us, for they are the result of our work.
“New work—innovation—allows us to evolve.”
In cities we learn and grow; we continue our quest to improve life. First and foremost, the work we do as individuals, and as a species, is about survival. We work to house, feed and clothe our families, and to meet recreational and material interests. But work, when we generate new ways of thinking, making and doing, offers something larger: opportunities for self, family, neighbourhood, city, nation, and species to adapt to the changing world.
Before cities, I imagine these kinds of work: find and prepare food; provide and maintain shelter; look after children; look after the physical and spiritual well-being of children; look after the physical and spiritual well-being of th people; and provide wisdom and leadership. Work in today's cities includes the and many other kinds of work, from cashiering to nanotechnology research. All iterations of new work in cities come about when our basic needs are met--when we have time to explore, invent and pursue our passions. Or when our basic needs are not met--when we are compelled to explore, invent and pursue our passions for tangible improvement. Both versions are work in service to the community around us, as love in action.
Work is ubiquitous: we work all day, every day. Paid or unpaid, work is simply what we do to make our way through life. It may be hard: a drudgery, or a grind. When something succeeds or functions well, we say it "works." To get the results we seek, we need to be willing to put in effort and "work at it." We have a desire to "work things through" so they "work better," perhaps more easily. The truth is, work is a "work out."
“Our work is what we offer the world,
whether to make ends meet or
because we love doing what we do. ”
Our work is what we offer the world, whether to make ends meet or because we love doing what we do. We each offer knowledge and skills to others, who in turn offer us both the goods and services we need and opportunities to do our work. Wen we search for new work, it becomes a learning impulse, a desire to find new and better ways of doing things that are of interest and offer improvement. If we choose, we develop newness in our cities. Write and activist Jane Jacobs termed this relationship between our work and the world "our economic life."
Our economic life informs and influences everything about us. It is an exciting exchange that involves much more than money. it can be a simple exchange between me and other or more complex sets of transactions between me and the wider economy, others like me. The full complexity of these exchanges, whether paid or unpaid, informs and influences everything we do. As I write, my paid work includes chairing a series of meetings where city employees and stakeholders are writing up design guidelines for new neighbourhoods. My full work life also includes writing, shovelling my neighbour's sidewalk, taking my turn to get my son and his friends to soccer practice and doing my share of housework. While not paid for some work, I do get something in return: I have a good relationship with my neighbour who keeps an eye on our home; my son's teammates' families take turns driving to practices; and my whole family contributes to the physical well-being of our home so we are all able to participate fully in life. This dance between self and other, and what we offer to each other, is our economic life.
“This dance between self and other,
and what we offer to each other,
is our economic life. ”
“It is easy to spot new work.
Just pick up a magazine, flip through your
favourite newspaper or news site. ”
It is easy to spot new work. Just pick up a magazine, flip through your favourite newspaper or news site: the London Waste and Recycling Board is establishing a circular economy to keep products circulating at their highest value for as long as possible; research is underway to find economically viable ways to use the paper mill sludge that has polluted a Finnish lake; leaders of the Siksika First Nation and the town of Strathmore are confronting racial tensions after the killing of a young Indigenous man. This is work that explicitly responds to the physical and ecological world around us.
Cities are engines of innovation; innovation is the engine of cities. New work offers something far greater than we imagined: we create the conditions for more people to create new work and follow their passion. Our evolutionary journey hinges on new work--the ideas and implementation--in response to changing life conditions. New work generates, and regenerates, cities and the capacities we need to adapt to our changing world. People are growing cities and cities are growing people.
“Our evolutionary journey hinges on
new work—the ideas and implementation—in response
to changing life conditions. ”
What new work are you doing? What new work do you see around you?
This is the third in the Cities are a Survival Skill Series of posts, about the new work we are generating in our cities to resolve our health, economic and climate crises.
Collapse or Hardship. About the example of healthy feedback loops we are experiencing with the coronavirus pandemic, and how healthy feedback loops enable us to wisely reallocate resources.
2 Stark Truths and 4 Collective Actions. We will not all survive and life is not going back to how it was. There are four needed courses of action: address immediate healthcare needs, address immediate economic needs, acknowledge grief and trauma, and reach for new possibilities.
New Work Regenerates Cities and Citizens. Consider that innovation is simply new work, and that the constant regeneration of new work is how we adapt to our changing world. New work allows us to adapt and evolve.
In the next post, A Third Stark Truth, I will identify what we need to understand when our economic world is upside down.