communities and citizenship - Havas Worldwide Prosumer Reports

THE NEW “LOCAL”
There’s another shift we’re seeing, too: In autumn 2012,
Havas Worldwide surveyed its 11,000 + employees to find
out more about their thoughts regarding the future. In one
question, we asked them to choose which, among a list
of potential developments, they believe are most likely to
occur. The #1 response: “We will become true global citizens
rather than citizens divided by country.” It’s a sentiment
shared by respondents to our Communities and Citizenship
survey, two-thirds of whom agree that they are citizens
not just of their countries but also the world and, therefore,
are obligated to support global interests. Europeans
and North Americans were least likely to agree with that
statement, while Latin Americans and Prosumers showed
the strongest support.
The notion of global citizenship is nothing new.
Socrates declared himself “a citizen, not of Athens or
Greece, but of the world.” And yet what we’re seeing
now is somewhat different. Whereas one’s sense of the
“greater world” used to be mostly academic (except
for those privileged few with the means and inclination
to travel), now we have all sorts of ways to form
relationships with people outside our places of birth.
When we asked respondents to select with whom they feel
most closely connected, family and friends took the top
spots. But the people who used to constitute our primary
non-blood-related friendship circles—our neighbors and
members of our local communities—now have receded in
importance. Instead, we feel more connected to people
with whom we work and to our online social networks.
A separate question confirmed this shift, with 49 percent
of the total sample (including 59 percent of millennials
and 66 percent of Prosumers) saying they have more in
common with people in their social networks than they do
with their neighbors. And so our notion of “local” becomes
based less on geography or political ties than on friendship
and common interests.
PROSUMERS
MAINSTREAM
AGE 18–34
AGE 35–54
AGE 55+
“I have more in common with people in my
social networks than I do with my neighbors”
prosumers
66
mainstream
age 18–34
(Showing % agreeing strongly/somewhat)
45 59 45
26
“I’m not just a citizen of my country; I’m also a
citizen of the world—and I am obligated to support
global interests” (Showing % agreeing strongly/somewhat)
age 35–54
age 55+
africa
asia-pacific
europe
latin america
middle east
north america
How strongly connected do you feel to each of
the following? (Showing % feeling strongly/somewhat connected)
79 63 67 66 64 74
74
56
80
64
57
92
79
92
81
83
52
81
69
76
61
75
61
67
51
64
55
My friends
My immediate
family
My online
social network(s)
My extended
family
People at work
My country
My local
community
My immediate
neighborhood
neighbors
14 Prosumer Report, Vol. 15