Pour une société fraternelle

If economic growth was capable of improving our well-being in the past, it is now the creator of numerous problems, particularly a deterioration of social ties. Caught in a society primarily driven by money, success and performance, we work more and more in order to be able to provide ourselves with what advertising sells us as “recipes for happiness”, at the expense of our family and social relationships. Inequality continues to increase, reinforcing self-reliance and undermining social interaction. We must react and create a society organised for the happiness of individuals and not for profit and profitability. This book offers concrete solutions which involve urban planning, education, advertising regulation, the world of work and health. It is now urgent to rebuild social bonds, the only means of attaining the well-being we vainly seek within economic growth, a relational society is possible if we alter awareness. This book was first published under the title: Manifesto for happiness. How to shift from a society of having to one of being. TABLE OF CONTENTS America, the example not to follow: Why are Americans more and more unhappy and spending more and more time working - Relational deterioration favours economic growth. What determines the quality of relationships? : Market, values, relationships - The production of desires: the media - Born to buy - Born to work? - What kind of animal are we? Policies for happiness: Urban policies: the relational city - Policies for childhood and youth - Policies for advertising - Changing democracy - How to change work? - Policies for health - Objections to relational policies. The current economic crisis: The relational society is possible - The elements of a possible reality - The 20th Century is over.