I know a book is good when I a: talk about it with anyone who will listen, and b: can’t help but apply the thinking to every situation I come across.

Jon Alexander and Ariane Conrad’s book “Citizens” is one of those. The book advocates for a shift in our societal narrative away from the prevailing “Consumer Story” towards the “Citizen Story”.

The Consumer Story, which emphasises individualism, competition and materialism, has been the dominant narrative for the past 100 years and is now leading to global crises such as economic insecurity, ecological emergencies and political polarisation.

To address these challenges, Alexander and Conrad propose instead embracing the Citizen Story, which focuses on active engagement and collective action to create positive societal change. Being an active citizen means moving beyond the passive role of being merely a consumer; consuming services, products or policies created by others. Instead, active citizens engage in participatory decision making and co-creation for the common good.

The book is an exciting and hopeful call to collective action in depressing Trumpian “drill baby, drill” times. It views humans as inherently creative, capable, and caring, something that is easy to lose sight of when the Musks of the world are trying to take over.  Alexander and Conrad stuff the book full of inspiring examples of people co-creating change from the ground up, pushing back against bureaucracy and “computer says no” systems of inertia.

Casting off the shackles of the Consumer Story might not be what Rachel Reeves is envisaging for her stubbornly retrospective vision of “Growth”, but being bolder with reframing our future story/narrative is precisely what we need right now. To challenge the status quo and believe change is possible we need to have a new story to coalesce around.

Entering the Citizen Story is an exciting prospect, and I see kernels of the story emerging all around us. People-power is the critical ingredient―creating empowered communities that can drive change. It’s not rocket science; no one gets anything really good done alone, all great organisations rely on great people working together, humans are inherently sociable animals, and solutions (which we really need right now) come from gathering.

So, it’s a bit of a problem that we find ourselves in a global loneliness epidemic. According to The Friendship Project nearly 60% of young people report experiencing loneliness as part of their daily lives. Loneliness is increasingly considered a public health issue.

The reasons for our escalating loneliness are complex; COVID, remote working, dwindling religious communities, fewer and more expensive gathering spaces, our increasingly mobile, online lives, where we tuck ourselves away, phone in hand, airpods in ears.

These days it’s considered pretty radical to know who your neighbour is, especially if you live in the UK’s loneliest city, London. When any of my mates move to a new location one of our first discussions is always “and how are you going to meet new people”. And it sometimes feels like a hard nut to crack.

But people are trying to break through the isolation. More and more people are springing into action to create communities of support, innovation, creativity and fun. Over the past few years there has been a proliferation of late Millennial/Gen Z running/supper/book/knitting/climbing/insert-niche-activity clubs, and they are really taking off. We’re remembering that we need to come together and create place-based communities IRL. Our online communities, although amazing for some things, can’t give us everything we need. A pint over Zoom just isn’t that great.

Even the dating world is having this epiphany, with an emerging backlash against the dating-app malaise of ghosting, endless swiping and overwhelming choice. People are instead organising events to meet in person, creating communities such as Bored Of Dating Apps.

Navigating the post-COVID world of connection five years on is still tricky. We’re realising that despite being technically more connected than humans have ever been, there are different levels and types of connection. Scrolling Instagram for 45 minutes just doesn’t leave you feeling as great as a belly laugh with friends over a meal. I’m not dismissing the incredible power of online connection―I think we need both.

So, to come back to the Citizen Story; to create Aleander and Conrad’s vision of people-powered solutions we need to connect with each other, more. Excitingly, I’m seeing new communities springing up and driving action in the farming/food/nature sector that I work in, such as farming clusters, nature volunteers, young wilders, local food partnerships, community growing businesses, farming enterprise stacks, the list goes on. It’s important. I think and hope we’re realising that gathering is important not just to feel happier, but also to collectively challenge problems and co-create answers.