How to spend a downturn
From a blog at the intersection of anthropology and economics:
We have to move from a surging modality to a dwelling modality when the economy suddenly "softens" and "goes south." And there is no gear box. There is no single or simple way of gearing down from "in motion" to "in place." It's one of those deals where the consumer must perform his own "interrupt" (to steal a term from Information Processing), see that the world has changed, see that something new is called, identify what is called for, embrace it fast, and hold it tight.Read it here.It's weird that in our economy/culture we go through the surging-modality transition something like once a decade, and you would think this would be enough to prompt us to formalize the transition. I mean, shouldn't we have a ritual or something? But no. We leave to the individual to figure this out for him or herself. ....
But there is a culture form that works especially well as a set of instructions for how to dwell. It's called "homeyness." This is the set of instructions in an American's head, the one that helps show them how to turn houses into homes. As culture codes go, it is an amazingly detailed and helpful as a set of instructions.
