Julie\'s Nordic Island

Vitruvian man resurfaces in Stockholm

Yesterday at the kitchen table my son recounted what global warming is. He is thirteen and in that age where the mind reaches out thirstily for knowledge, experiences and impressions. Environmental Sustainability is a subject studied at his school. It occurred to me that when I was the same age back in 1980 there was just plain biology, chemistry, physics and social sciences. No one thought to look at issues/problems that linked these various subject matter together.

Since last week when I talked about the consciousness of one, I’ve been focusing on spotting signs that there is a growing awareness of the interrelationships in our world. My theory is that the increase and spread of this awareness or consciousness will facilitate solving problems that today seem insurmountable.

In general, the impression I’ve got from looking around this past week is that people are much more prepared to think across disciplines than before: Of course music facilitates architecture, and of course bankers need lessons from artists. These are arguments I’ve heard during the past couple of weeks, which seem to be premised on the idea that we need to reach out of the narrow parameters of our own disciplines in order to stimulate our creativity. Personally, I believe that we can stimulate so much more by doing this, but creativity seems to be the number one desirable thing in an age when we face problems that require a wholesale reworking of the way that we live.

In this wandering between disciplines, we are perhaps reworking the human ideal once again. Renaissance man – that unquenchably curious and feverishly imaginative being that Leonardo da Vinci idealized in his unforgettable sketch of “the Vitruvian Man” – is more suited to the needs of our times than the ideal of the Industrial Revolution, where people were supposed to be productive units operating in differentiated zones. As with all stereotypes, the reality is neither nor and always somewhere on a spectrum in between two extremes. My feeling, however, is that our ideal is shifting away from where it’s been during the past two hundred years or so to something else, something better equipped for meeting the challenges of today. 

Last week a friend of mine working at the Stockholm Resilience Center expressed some frustration when she thought I imagined that she sat around with her colleagues evolving technological solutions. “It’s mostly about human behavior, mental models, belief systems, processes of learning and how to handle uncertainties!” she exclaimed. In other words, yes, the technology, but so much more.

I’ve sometimes wondered whether this perception I have of a shift toward seeing greater interrelationships is the consequence of living in a post-industrial society, where we have the luxury to think of “toying” with other disciplines than the ones we work in. If that is the case, it’s a valuable contribution Sweden can make in the world. Working in an interdisciplinary way means stepping out of one’s comfort zone, and it is when we step out of our comfort zones that rapid learning happens.

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Learn more about Julie Lindahl’s prize-winning new book, “Rose in the Sand,” a memoir of a decade lived on a Swedish island. Order it now from amazon.com, amazon.co.uk , Author House, authorhouse.co.uk and many other online bookstores. Learn more about Julie’s other books and activities at www.julielindahl.com.

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