Jon Alexander | Why the key to fixing everything is all of us
In my revisit interview with Jon Alexander, Co-founder, the Citizenship Project and now Author of ‘Citizens’, we dive deeper into his philosophy. Jon believes the story of us as consumers is broken. Practically, he gets organisations to ask themselves ‘what would it look like to bring the same creative energy into selling stuff, into involving people?’. He says that if you see people as consumers then you’re starting from the wrong place. This is then merely about ‘how can we sell people stuff’ whereas if you start from a place of seeing them as citizens then you can ask yourselves ‘what are you trying to do in the world?’, ‘what’s the point?’. Delving into purpose in this way and distributing power is central to Jon’s philosophy. It sounds radical, perhaps even communist to some. It isn’t. It’s down to earth stories from across business, government and wider third sector and community groups. We explore examples from The Bodyshop, the National Trust and explore the controversial role that Brewdog have had in the craft beer space. Jon is a deep yet practical voice on how we rethink society.