How to live a good life in times of change
Comparative research project in Xinjiang and the Netherlands
Introduction
Every society has its specific value system on how people should live a good life, in the sense of a righteous and virtuous life. These values are translated into moral behaviour and can together be recognized as the culture of this society. On the other hand there is the reality of how people in their social circumstances and with their personal aspirations and possibilities live ‘good lives’.
Man is a social being, therefore living a good life has two different aspects: how to live a good life yourself, but also how to form a good community together.
Inspired by Professor Arthur Kleinman I want to use the concept of a triangle to describe the interaction between Culture, Society and the People. In a stable society the triangle –cultural rules – social reality – subjectivity (acting individuals) - is in equilibrium. Equilibrium is a relative concept, because societies are always changing and people are adapting their values and shaping everyday life into new rules. But when there are huge changes in politics, economy, natural environment, technical innovation etc. the everyday social reality may deviate considerably from what the established cultural values account for, beside which the cultural values may not timely have an adequate answer to the new circumstances. This leads to emotional stress within and overacting by the subjectivities: the people who both shape and are shaped by their culture and at the same time act and react in the social reality. This can lead to a moral (cultural) crisis or a societal crisis and require the emergence of a new consistent triangle for the good of all.
History shows us that people are tremendously adept at coping behaviour so in the end there will be a new balance (for the time being) but sometimes at enormous costs.
People from different cultures and societies have different ways of forming a good community together and thereby allow individuals to live a good life. The ways of people in Xinjiang are not the same as the ways of the people in the Netherlands, and so their adaptive strategies will differ. Still both societies face some of the same problems: aging population, perceived external threats to our way of living, a growing gap between rich and poor, climate change, excessive individualism and materialism and (youth) unemployment. People in both countries demonstrate emotional reactions like fear and anger and feelings of insecurity. And both have to exert themselves to ensure their societies of a means for the people to live a good life.
Of course we have our own policies of resolving our problems. But I think we can also learn from each other. To stay with this triangle comparison: there is a puzzle how to connect the different points of a trapezium without lifting your pen. If you keep to the boundaries of the trapezium it is impossible to solve this problem. If you extend the sides and form a new triangle; then it is possible.
Aim
This takes me to the objective of the research project: ‘How to live a good life in times of change?’ Can we gather new insights which will help us to extend the sides of our triangle and solve our problems by studying the adaptive strategies of both societies and peoples? A comparison between Xinjiang and the Netherlands may continue an age-old tradition. Because even as our countries now are positioned at the beginning and the end of the New Silk Road, there has for centuries been an exchange of commodities and ideas along the Ancient Silk Road.
At the moment the New Silk Road is opening up to facilitate transportation between our countries to stimulate the economies along the road. This proposed research may also stimulate the exchange of new ways of thinking on how to live a good life for the best of our societies.
But this research has a greater purpose than to compare the ways of Xinjiang and the Netherlands. The ultimate goal is to develop a scientific method or format by which we can compare different cultures from all over the world and their ways of solving the problems they face.
Central questions:
1) Which are the central values in Xinjiang and the Netherlands and how do those values translate into peoples intended behaviour for living a good life?
2) What are the threats to these values and to both societies?
3) How do people respond to these threats in their everyday behaviour?
4) How do they adapt and find opportunities and solutions?
5) Can we discern the different fases in de process of building a new consistent triangle (cultural values – social reality – morally acting individuals) a good community and society?
6) What are the differences and similarities between adaptive strategies in Xinjiang and the Netherlands
7) Is it possible to transplant positive adaptive behaviour by ‘extending de sides of the Triangle”
8) Can we formulate a theory that can be applied to compare different value systems and adaptive behaviour on a global scale?
This will be an sociological/anthropological research which means that the focus will be on how people live, act, adapt, relate etc. By interviewing people we may develop a clearer view of both cultural values and social reality. This study will neither contain psychological explanations of behaviour out of personality structure or political explanations in the sense that it compares different ideologies. The anthropologist’s interest lies in the human condition in culture and society; in how to live a good life together as human beings.
Research plan:
1) Description of the theoretical framework of this research. Explaining the concept of the Triangle (culture-society-subjectivity) and theories of societal development;
2) Description of the origins and evolution of different value systems and the influence on the habits and the everyday behaviour of people;
3) A short history of Xinjiang since 1949 and the developments on three sides of the Triangle;
4) A short history of the Netherlands since the second world war and the developments on the three sides of the Triangle;
5) Changes and problems in Xinjiang and Dutch society and their effect on the two other sides of the triangle (Cultural values and the Subjects);
6) Reaction and adaptation of the people to the changing circumstances;
7) Conclusions:
- Differences and similarities in adaptive strategies between Xinjiang and the Netherlands;
- Steps and actions needed to build a new consistent triangle in order to (know how to) live a good life in these countries;
- Tentative draft of a way to use this method of comparing adaptive strategies of forming consistent value systems and societies in different cultures on a broader scale.
The research will be partly executed by studying the available literature and mostly by interviewing people in Xinjiang and the Netherlands.
Procedure
The central thought of this research is to learn the ways by which the people from different cultures do their best to live a good life in a changing society. This research will at first be executed in Xinjiang and the Netherlands because of the Silk Road bonds and because they partly face the same problems. To successfully proceed with this project it is necessary to make this research a joint effort of scholars from Xinjiang and the Netherlands. We also need backing in finding respondents in Xinjiang and the Netherlands who are willing to be interviewed and in finding translators where needed to get the exact meaning of what the people interviewed have to tell.
Finally of course it would be very welcomed if Xinjiang University and the Dutch University could help to find financial support for this study. In the Netherlands we can apply for a grant from the KNAW (Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences) and the European Union, but only if the project is a joint undertaking of scientific institutions of both countries. In China there are funds available on Social Sciences from the Xinjiang and the Chinese government.
Amersfoort/Urumqi 2016
Pau Honig MA Cultural Anthropology
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