Reply To: Values for transitioning to an eco-social world

[Qiancheng]

I find it hard to summarize my values in one word, but I have three words instead.
These are: Visible, Comprehensible, and Changeable

Visible
Social inequities are not confined to certain settings. Inequities can be seen across geographical regions, across demographic groups, across disciplines or fields of study, and across generations. There are underprivileged populations in the Global North, and there are overprivileged people who own a significant level of power in the Global South. These inequalities can not be changed without them being visible. The invisible populations, taking South-South migrant workers and people with borderline disabilities who I personally focus on for instance, may be neglected from assistance and attention, suffering from insufficient access to care.
On the other hand, changes and improvements should be acknowledged. Thanks to local and international collaborations, life expectancies, vaccination rates among newborns, and access to technology have been improved in almost every country in the world, especially during the past few decades. Even though the world is still full of problems, we, as humans, should be able to see the positive changes we have made, and be proud of ourselves in some ways.

Comprehensible
To understand the (emerging) social problems, we need to know what these problems exactly are, what are the root causes, and what/who plays a role in these situations. Most of the time, the problems may seem extremely complicated, and it takes forever to get the full picture. But same as in almost any other scientific field, we should keep learning and keep understanding.

Changeable
It can be quite common to be overly optimistic or overly pessimistic about certain situations, but the more we know about them, the more solutions we will have. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, we have had a new level of awareness of the importance of global coalitions and cross-national support. With our collective wisdom, group effort, and updated mindsets, positive changes can be made for the future generations on this planet.

I don’t know if I illustrated my points well enough, but these are my takes on the topic 🙂