A R T I C L E

The economy in an evolving twenty-first century paradigm: societyat a crossroads

John C. Grech

Published online: 17 June 2012� Centre for European Studies 2012

Abstract The process of European integration, and the state of the eurozone inparticular, seem to be in crisis. However, it is not only the European dream thatappears to be challenged. Although there have been a number of success storiesin newly developed countries, the global system is facing the issues of poverty,corruption and global warming in addition to the recent financial meltdown andslowing of the world economy. One wonders if we are witnessing a major worldcrisis that suggests the need for major and fundamental change. There may wellbe a general misalignment between the technology that humanity has managedto create and the speed of innovation on the one hand, and the rate of socialand economic adjustment on the other. The developments in Information andCommunications Technology (ICT) are of particular relevance here. Thesedevelopments are creating a new reality and also leading to major steps forwardin personal awareness and empowerment. This is leading to the emergence ofthe ‘person’ as distinct from the ‘individual’. The person is more aware, moreconscious, more committed and more opinionated. The person’s creativity andcommunal role in society are central to the evolving twenty-first century para-digm, and this raises the question of how society should be organised and howthe economy should be structured. This leads to a number of issues related topolicy formation and regulation, organisational dynamics and the underlyingprinciples of economic theory. It also puts into perspective the need to take amore community approach to social organisation and political life, emphasisingethics and governance. The fundamental issue is closely tied to leadership thatneeds to be both inspired and inspirational. The twenty-first century paradigmoffers the potential to re-dimension democracy to make it more genuinely

J. C. Grech (&)EMCS Consulting Group, University Heights, Level 2 & 3, Msida, MSD 1751, Maltae-mail: john.grech@emcs.com.mt

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participative. Europe may have the potential to lead the way if the necessaryleadership is available. However, piecemeal solutions will not allow Europe toovercome the current impasse.

Keywords ICT � Twenty-first century paradigm � The person � Creativity �Empowerment � The individual � Enlightenment � Globalisation � Leadership �Common good � Community � Evolution � Ethics � Governance

Introduction: at a crossroads

Society today is at a crossroads; nothing seems to be working. The greatEuropean dream of creating a Union of continental dimensions appears to beunder considerable threat. The eurozone is under tremendous pressure and atrisk of breaking up. Nationalistic feelings are on the increase. Unemployment isat a record high. Several European states are facing severe sovereign debt crises,with Greece under pressure from a possible social implosion. Several EU andeurozone Member States have had their credit ratings slashed. The greatEuropean dream seems to be turning into a nightmare.

Yet Europe has never been so advanced; it has never been so free. The level ofeducation among Europeans has improved substantially, and the level ofinvestment in both hard and soft infrastructure has also been very high.Technologically, Europe is at the forefront, with major leadership in a number ofareas. The EU has evolved into a true union of diversity and the Europeanidentity has been enhanced. So what is wrong?

The changing reality in a global dimension

In seeking to understand the changing reality, one has to realise that we areliving in a very different world today from the one that existed when theEuropean Ideal was first conceived. We are now living in a globalised worldwhere newly developing states such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa arejoining the ranks of successful countries like Singapore, Australia, South Koreaand other rapidly evolving nations. The original group of 7 has now also beenenlarged to a group of 20. In addition, although the absolute number of thoseliving in poverty has increased, the worldwide proportion of people enjoyingprosperity has also risen.

The world’s population has topped seven billion, more than 50 % of theworld’s population now live in urban areas, and political borders have becomeless of an obstacle to trade and exchange than in the past. The world’s economyhas also grown; it may have become globalised, but the distribution of incomebetween the rich and the poor is still heavily skewed. Globalisation has notalleviated poverty, and corruption may be rifer today than it ever has been.

The Western world has just experienced a major financial meltdown and isnow facing major sovereign debt difficulties. It has been struggling with a

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prolonged recession, which is at risk of becoming a serious depression. The fast-growing economies in Asia have also seen their rate of economic growth slowsomewhat.

Asia has been emulating the Western model of development with itscontingent social dislocation and environmental pressures, while Africa facesvery severe poverty problems and a ‘general failure’ to escape from asubsistence economy.

In the meantime the world is facing the new threat of global warming, whichwill have an untold impact on agriculture and food production, as well as on theavailability of water. Therefore, I ask, is the world in a mess?

The technology factor

Humanity has developed ground-breaking technology in fields from robotics todigitalisation, from medicine to communications and from transportation totelephony, to mention just a few. Since the beginning of the IndustrialRevolution two centuries ago, the speed at which scientific discovery andtechnological development have taken place has been acceleratingcontinuously.

Technology has become a prime mover for change, and its application, interms of the wider implications of technology for society as a whole, haschanged life and society. However, such change has not been fundamental andgeneral enough. The time required for social, organisational and economicadjustment is greater than that required for technological change itself. Thisacceleration in technological change is effectively leading to a wider gapbetween research, development and innovation, on the one hand, and theapplication of this new knowledge on the other.

A networked world

There is no better example of this than the developments in Information andCommunications Technology (ICT) and their impact on society. Developments inICT have led to an effective networking of the globe in real time. This has led to atremendous change in the speed and quality of communications, as well as inthe dissemination of knowledge, exchange of ideas and expansion of commer-cial transactions and organisational structures. Developments in ICT have alsohad an impact on the media and therefore on the rate of dissemination ofinformation and the formation of opinion.

Through social media, ICT now allows people to network with many others inreal time, using both words and images. Networking is also changing the waypeople work and exchange information, how they engage in research and howthey undertake project development. In short, the developments in ICT haveunleashed the tremendous creativity of humanity.

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Increased awareness

This increased connectivity and real-time exchange has led to increasedawareness. This increased awareness is not only the result of greater exposureto the facts, wherever events may be unfolding, but it also implies an increasedawareness of the opinions, trends, knowledge, developments, research andpotential that others have, and with which one may network.

It is also leading to an increase in human consciousness. Until now, this hasbeen the direct result of scientific and technological advancements, but ICT isnow spreading this increased consciousness more generally throughout theworld, thus impacting very materially on human evolution and accelerating theevolutionary process as a result.

Empowerment

This increased consciousness from increased awareness is neither latent norpassive. ICT allows the better informed to be in a superior position to assess, toform opinions and to act. This proactive stance is influencing public opinion andthe political process, as well as political decision-making and the mobilisation ofpeople. We have an excellent example of the power of ICT to influence thepolitical process and mobilise people in the recent Arab Awakening that hasspread throughout North Africa and the Middle East since last year. The absenceof international journalists in Syria has, for instance, been replaced by footageand coverage made by those involved in the protests, who have then placed thefilm on YouTube for distribution via the Internet and the media.

This empowerment is not limited to any particular field. In business, ICT isproviding a vent for creativity and empowering start-ups to access the virtualmarket globally and inexpensively in the very early stages of a new business. Acreative website can attract substantial traffic and lead to business and a steadyflow of transactions internationally via the virtual space. Thus, in an ICT-drivenvirtual world, it is creativity, and not size or location, that provides the platformfor increased business.

The emergence of the person

This increased awareness, increased consciousness, and increased empower-ment is leading to very definite psychological and social development. We arewitnessing the emergence of the ‘person’ as distinct from the previous socio-political and economic concept of the ‘individual’. The person is more complete,better informed, highly networked, more knowledgeable, more opinionated andmore empowered. We can no longer make a distinction between the worker, theconsumer, the parent, the club member, the citizen and so on. The person iscomplete and indivisible, and acts as such.

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This emergence of the person is an evolutionary reality that will have anincreasing impact on society. This evolution will affect the way we have to viewpeople, society and relationships, and will lead to a rethink of all the dimensionsthat constitute society.

The emergence of the twenty-first century paradigm

This evolution implies not only a change of context but also a change in therules of the game. It must be clearly understood that we are not talking ofa change in backdrop or a transitory stage, but that we are addressing afundamental departure—an evolutionary change. Effectively we are looking at anew pattern which centres on the person and places his or her empowermentand creative capabilities at the core of the system and therefore at the centre ofthe twenty-first century paradigm.

The emergence of this paradigm will have a widespread impact on society, itsinstitutions and its existing theoretical foundations and policies. Just as theEnlightenment and its focus on the philosophical and political dimensions of the‘individual’ had an impact on society and the social sciences, such as economics,the concept of the ‘person’ within the twenty-first century paradigm will refinehumanity’s thinking, which will evolve accordingly.

The need to restructure organisations and institutions

Organisations cannot therefore continue to be structured as they have been inthe past. Rigid hierarchical structures are a thing of the past and will not workwithin the new paradigm. Organisations need to be flatter, more flexible, betternetworked and offer more space for creativity and self-regulation. Increasinglyorganisations have to come to represent an environment where all cancontribute actively to the generation of value, thus ensuring that the value chaintruly becomes a team effort.

Similarly, institutions need to be more accessible, more transparent, moreinformative and better networked in society. Institutions can no longer be seenas an extension of power but as facilitators for better governance and enhancersof the value-generating process.

The need to revisit policies and regulatory systems

For too long the focus on the individual, at least in the West, has led us to thinkin egocentric terms. Moral values have been based on the defence of theindividual as a separate entity, and society has been reduced to a collection ofindividuals. In an evolved society, where the person is more aware of reality andmore conscious of social responsibility, this can no longer be the case. Theperson must be seen in context and as an integral part of society. The person will

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care and will not be egocentric. The person cannot ignore the sufferingmembers of society and will be more spiritually encouraged to ensure moralcorrectness and ethical behaviour.

This has extensive implications for policymaking and regulation. The‘common good’ will need to effectively condition priorities. The overall welfareof society, not in its majority but in its totality, becomes the underlying value tobe promoted.

While keeping this in perspective, regulators need to realise that we are livingin a rapidly changing world and that they cannot rely on the past to regulate thepresent. They need to understand trends and regulate according to how theenvironment is evolving, thus taking a dynamic perspective rather than a staticperspective rooted in past experience.

The need to revisit economic theory

There is no doubt that the market has always driven the economy and alwayswill. But there are important aspects of the prevailing economic theory that needto be addressed in the context of the twenty-first century paradigm. We can nolonger assume that the consumer is out to maximise his or her satisfaction andthat the entrepreneur is all for maximising profit. Such a premise is powerful as amodel but simplistic in concept. It is fine to accept this when an individualistic,egocentric society with no understanding of social responsibility and anundeveloped level of consciousness is assumed. However, it is not acceptable inthe context of our evolved, caring person. The person who is empowered,opinionated, knowledgeable, conscious and an integral part of society (not onlythe local–domestic society but increasingly the global society) has a different setof priorities and values.

The person does care about his or her own well-being and improvement, butnot to the detriment of others in society. In this context the role of socialbusiness comes into play and may well be an important dimension in thecontinued development of the market economy.

In such a society there is no such thing as a ‘freebie’, everything has anopportunity cost and the environment is respected. Value generation does nothave to imply the destruction of value somewhere else in the system. Therefore,we would have to view the economy from a more basic perspective. Theeconomy exists to serve humanity, not the other way round.

The need to build a sense of community and adopt an ethical approachto governance

This requires that we become more conscious of the importance of buildingcommunities and is a fundamental departure from seeing society as a collectionof individuals. A community is not the sum total of its individuals but has adynamic of its own that benefits from the collective care and sense of mutual

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responsibility that determine the features of a community. This does not meanthat each person loses his or her own identity; far from it. The community isactually enriched by the diversity of identities from which it is formed. Nor is acommunity to be viewed as a fixed number of persons. On the contrary, acommunity is enriched by variations in its composition. The social and economicvalue of the community lies in the collective care of willing and responsiblepersons.

Such an approach would result in a zero-tolerance attitude to corruption,discourage crime and encourage the adoption of a more ethical approach togovernance. The impact of such a social change would not be purely local ordomestic but would become increasingly global as the twenty-first centuryparadigm is understood and adopted more widely.

The need for inspirational and shared leadership

There is no doubt that the changes envisaged here will require fundamentaladjustments to society. These changes are consistent with the evolving reality.Of course, they may not happen, and the current crisis that we are witnessing,with all its social and economic disruption, may be opted for as the softer, butworse option.

The view of this author is that the need for changes in policymaking isbecoming urgent, particularly in Europe. This is an opportunity for Europe to actas a global leader by embarking on the relevant changes. Continuing withoutchange is not an option unless Europeans want to risk the break-up of theEuropean dream. The current situation is unsustainable and its costs will becomeunaffordable. Making temporary repairs is not a substitute for real change.

However, such major changes require leadership that is both inspired andinspirational. Is this kind of leadership currently lacking? The EU does not seemto have a clear vision to which members of the Union can openly subscribe. Nordoes it appear that there are inspirational leaders who are able to take on thisresponsibility. However, this inspirational leadership is a pre-condition for thenecessary change.

However, leadership in the twenty-first century should not be seen as a soloact. The spark is likely to come from one person, but success will lie in thedevelopment of a participative leadership. In the context of the evolved person,leadership should be viewed as a shared concept. Space needs to be given tothose with the vision to participate actively in shared leadership.

A re-dimensioning of democracy within the twenty-first century paradigm

The argument in this paper leads to a logical reflection. The development of thetwenty-first century paradigm as viewed here leads to a realisation that theevolved person, operating in a community and acting creatively, proactively andresponsibly, will be able to participate more actively in an evolved democratic

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model. Rather than relying on elections and consultations, society will actuallyoperate on the basis of the ongoing participation of the person in the decision-making process.

Such a model is operationally possible where an accepted vision is guidingsociety, where leadership is inspirational and shared, and where the personsconstituting the community are networked through effective ICT.

‘We make the times!’

Saint Augustine is one of the pillars of Western civilisation. He lived in the fourthcentury AD, surviving the fall of Rome and the disappearance of the WesternRoman Empire and its civilisation. He once argued that we cannot blame the‘times’ for our woes: ‘You say the times are troublesome, the times areburdensome, the times are miserable. Live rightly and you will change the times.The times never hurt anyone. Those who are hurt are human beings; those bywhom they are hurt are human beings. So, change human beings and the timeswill be changed’ (Saint Augustine 2007, Sermon 311.8).

Humanity determines its own destiny. We are the source and the receivers ofour own actions. We cannot therefore blame the ‘times’, we can only blameourselves.

Humanity has shown itself capable of dealing with supreme challenges,building tremendous civilisations, creating unbelievable technology and under-standing our world and the human body through science. We have engaged inthe discovery of the universe and have actually travelled in space. Surely such anevolved race can re-dimension society to be more in line with the evolvedperson that humanity is coming to represent. The mess we are witnessing in theworld, and the frustration in Europe in particular, may well be the result of thisfundamental misalignment between the institutional set-up, the organisationalstructure, the policies being followed and the evolving realities of the twenty-first century. Adjusting to this evolving reality, rather than making temporaryrepairs, is likely to serve the European dream much better and, in any case, willbe more sustainable.

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Butterworth Heinemann.Bruni, L. (2004). L’Economia la Felicita e gli Altri: un’ indagine su beni e benessere. Rome: Citta Nuova.Delfgaauw, B. (1969). Evolution: The theory of Teilhard de Chardin. London: The Fontana Library.Friedman, T. L. (2006). The world is flat: The globalized world in the twenty-first century. London:

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Dr John C. Grech is the founder and chairman of EMCS Interna-tional Group, visiting professor at the University of Malta andlecturer in international economics and economic diplomacy atthe Mediterranean Academy for Diplomatic Studies.

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