Jon AlexanderCitizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us

Jon Alexander's "Citizens" is an essential book for our times. Sharing with Jon as career in marketing and advertising I have watched with increasing revulsion the reduction of people to numbers and the conversion of human relationships to commercial transactions. In the economic sphere there is a clear understanding that we are more than consumers, we may be buyers but we are also believers in causes, we may be creators but more than anything else we are citizens. What Jon rightly does is remind us of our own agency and challenge us to act. With my lifelong interest in Marxist economics, I find Citizens is as a revolutionary as Simon Schama's history of the French Revolution of the same name.

Fantastic read. So much is common sense and probably many of us have considered many of these concepts in some form already. A book that inspires thoughtful consideration to grow into or more comprehensive set of “planet-mates”.Excellent context to understand where we’ve been, why, and what forced prior change.I believe equally important to consider for us all as societal changes are made is whatever comes next will also eventually “wear out to the needs of our future communities “ and such understanding and accepting future change and growth to continuously meet the needs of our dynamic humanity.

I thought this was a great book to start changing your thoughts about an old paradigm, that keeps us in a place most of us don't feel we belong or can thrive in. One thing I really did not enjoy is the brew dog example. Do we really want to hold up a company that calls its beer: 'Trashy blonde'... with some low self esteem for good measure? It has been in the news for years for terrible company policy towards women and Trans people. How can the author turn a blind eye to this? There surely must be companies that can serve as better examples. Otherwise: encouraging thoughts and ideas in this book that will make you look and think twice about the world we are in.

Jon's book is a really thoughtful exploration of life without the consumer story that we have now accepted as our only reality. The hard truth is that consumerism alone makes us increasingly more unhappy, unsustainable and channels resources and money to the few not the many. The solution lies in thinking of ourselves as citizens first, a way of thinking that is both obvious and innate in the ways that Jon outlines. There is evidence of it happening all around us, which the book pulls focus on. A manual that offers life outside the externalities and brutal side of capitalism, collectively contributing with more meaning and purpose.

Jon reminds us that there are alternatives to the dominating narratives which shape our identities and relationships to a world which feels impenetrable at best and exploitative at worst. Smart but not academic, it's thinking is transparent and accessible. This is an excellent piece of concise, practical political literature. It gave me a clear and applicable framework I take with me daily for questions whether my actions/outlook contribute to or prevent the problems in the world systems around me.Looking forward to seeing Jon and Ariane's work reach more people, and hopefully, me by means of another book!

This is a fabulous book that is easy to read. It helpfully brings some simple but powerful concepts to make sense of the big stories guiding how the world is working (and not working). Highly recommended for those interested in social change (the book has fresh ideas on strategy) as well as those who have doubts about the system as it is, and are looking for a way to make sense of the world.

Important book. People often think there’s little they can do as an individual to the multitude of crises we face but that’s not true.

Book is great the seller and delivery was very very bad

Jon Alexander's has written a great book that is both critical of some of our existing paradigms and profoundly hopeful. Moreover, Alexander's ability to put his vision into words in such a simple and compelling way is impressive and inviting. I haven't left a book feeling so hopeful in a very long time and I'm excited for the Citizen era and can't wait to help bring it to life.

A well-researched and cogently-put case for uncoupling ourselves from the toxic consumer environment in which we have allowed ourselves to be comfortably and conveniently trapped. Using practical examples, it shows how we can all take responsibility for our decisions, reconnect with our true values and with one another. We complain about surveillance capitalism yet do nothing about it - a strange thing to claim on a platform like this, but perhaps a more subtle use of the underlying algorithm! This book is a call to action and should be required reading for anyone interested in a collaborative future for us all.

This is an exploration of human behaviour from the perspective of us all and the ‘stories’ we are told every day. It has easy answers to the questions and challenges raised on its pages, though they will require effort, energy and commitment to realise – like exercising long forgotten muscles. It is however a hopeful, thoughtful and inspiring book to stimulate change and creative solutions by starting with ourselves.The book is simply laid out and well referenced throughout (the references themselves make for excellent additional reading), with an easy almost conversational style. What drives the narrative is Jon sharing both his lived experience and the stories of ‘citizen role-models’, individuals and companies, that serve as examples of how we can all engineer a different outcome for ourselves and others by joining together.Early in the book, Jon explains how we have first existed in the subject story – one of deference and dependence on others. This has led to our perceived liberation more recently in the consumer story – one where the illusion of power sits with us individually, but we are in fact being driven to consume. The consumer story pits individuals in competition with one another and as a result, new inequalities have arisen globally. As we now come to understand that our planetary resources are finite, we clearly need to emerge into a new paradigm and this is the citizen story.It is important to acknowledge the fundamental changes in the UK during the period in which this review has been written, with a new Constitutional Monarch and a new Prime Minister. This is framed by the outcome of EU-exit, the rise of populism in Europe and a war in Ukraine – itself having an extreme impact on the global food supply system. I spoke with Jon at an event, to ensure that my review would remain relevant. He told me ‘We must see the opportunity in the moment in time we are living in. Whilst it can be seen as a time of collapse, we are equally in an emerging story of collaboration, engagement and citizenship’.The book contains multiple and wildly different examples of exactly this approach:In Taiwan, political resistance from a group of computer hackers led to a shift in how the democratic process was understood by those in power.Crowd sourcing of public ideas was used to identify solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan (coordinated by one of the leaders of the hacking group, who later became a member of the Taiwanese Government),In the UK, Brewdog achieved engagement by creating passionate advocates of craft beer to help crowdfund its growth.Wherever you begin personally in terms of your belief in democracy or ‘people power’, this book can meet you there and take you further to the understanding of how citizens (or people, if you prefer) can fix everything.I recommend this book as a reading book or audiobook. It is a hopeful call to action. We have all been believing in the consumer story, perhaps even perpetuating it. However, the philosophy behind this book not only shows us that a better future is possible, but also opens a path to get us there.

This book is well written, with engaging and inspiring case studies.Layed out is a great framework for becoming part of the Citizen Story in our own best way.This book will go onto my top 21 recommended books to read for the reasons above and because it contains a truly great world changing idea.

When you're reading a book that you just can't put down…If, like me, you're grappling with the overwhelm of injustice and all that seems wrong in this world - I can't recommend this book enough. It's about our collective responsibility to shape the world around us for the better. Seeing how things could be, rather than how they are.Thank you Jon Alexander for helping to make sense of my thoughts, and for creating this masterpiece. Lightbulb moments in every chapter.I'm reading on intently, with every hope that this is our future...“This is who we are, as humans. Or at least who we are capable of being. If the conditions we create together allow it, and if we choose to be.”