What does Sleepy Old Quebec City have to Teach Us?
Below is an excerpt from a recent article about Quebec City. To be clear the article is focussed on economic productivity which, while important, is not my personal area of interest. What is VERY interesting to me is the vital role and social capital and social cohesion with the accompanying high income equality play in creating a healthy and vibrant community that can work together for a common goal and mutual benefit. Take a quick read. After that I will make some proposals as to why the example set by Quebec City matters to much to our goal of working to give birth to a social-economic system that is sustainable and Earth nurturing.
From 2001 to 2019, Quebec City registered the fastest growth of real GDP per work-age person among Canada’s 11 largest metropolitan areas. Quebec City’s impressive performance is the product of a combination of factors: strong social capital, sustained investments in education, openness to entrepreneurial flair, a strong local identity, and, not least, astute political leadership.
Social capital: building a safe and less unequal city
The Greater Quebec City Area has a population of 850,000 and is remarkably homogenous. Barely seven per cent of the population was born outside Canada. Ninety-seven per cent of the population has French as their language spoken at home. No major Canadian metropolis is as linguistically and ethnically homogeneous. Is this a good or a bad thing? The natural reflex in a society as diverse as Canada’s is to celebrate diversity, which is entirely fitting. One of the authors of this text is an immigrant. However, ample academic literature exists on the positive aspects of socially cohesive societies, not least trust and social capital, the latter concept made famous by the American political scientist Robert Putnam. Social capital is the shared rules and values that facilitate informal and contractual relationships. New ideas are adopted more readily in societies with strong social capital.
Social capital needs to be nourished. It’s difficult to sustain in societies with sharp inequalities. Quebec City is a prime beneficiary of Quebec’s welfare state, with taxation rates rising more rapidly with each income bracket than in other provinces. Arguably, the sincerest measure of social capital is the willingness (in this case, as expressed by the electorate) to share riches. Here again, the data speaks. Statistics Canada publishes two measures of income inequality: the Gini coefficient and the ratio of the 10-per-cent richest to 10-per-cent poorest.
Quebec City is the least unequal of the 11 listed metropolitan areas, to which one could add other redistributive measures such as low post-secondary cost (Quebec’s CEGEPs are tuition-free, and university fees are the lowest in the country) and subsidized childcare (early childhood centres have a $9.10 daily fee). At the local level, the most evident measure of social capital is low crime. Here again, Quebec City stands out with the lowest crime rate and lowest crime severity index among all 35 of Canada’s metropolitan areas. [1]
The message from the above excerpt is obvious: to create a “civil society” where people can trust each other and cooperate towards a common goal our old tribal past must be acknowledged: we work better when we understand each other not only at the level of shared language but also at the level of shared meaning, value and vision. Our tribal past is still with us today and is explored in many books. “Why we Hate” by Rush W. Dozier Jr. and “Tribe” by Sebastian Junger both make the case that our primal “self” is the individual but the tribe. This is hard for us “moderns” to accept but it is evolutionary reality. I, for example, can write an article like this because our “tribe” allows me to do so and even encourages me to be provocative about the challenges we as a group face. So while I am “an individual” who has “unique” opinions [I actually don’t think they are very unique] they can only be expressed if the “tribe” allows us. Furthermore, the way I express “myself” has been imprinted onto me by “mu tribe” in deeply unconscious ways that mean that I really only a particular variation on the theme of the Canadian culture.
Thus, if we wanted to unite and “fight climate change” or “reduce income inequality” or any of the current huge global issues that threaten to overwhelm us we must first recognize that unless we have high social cohesion we are doomed. In other words it is possible that our current focus on multiculturism and individual rights, while well intended, are actually undermining our ability to cooperate in a way where individual sacrifice allows the group to benefit. In other words, it seems that no pain at the individual level means no gain at the societal level. But is this trade off, this sense of loss real? I don’t think so if we see that “I” am imbedded is the “us”. Next is a way of seeing that “I” win when “we” win through the lens of mental health.
Rather than focusing on the ‘individual self’ a member of a cohesive group looks at the scenario from the group’s perspective. In simpler words, the decisions they make are based on collective opinions rather than individual ones. Working as a unit creates a symbiotic relationship between co-workers. They begin to depend and rely on one another for their unique skills. If every member does their bit, the end result fits together like a perfectly cut puzzle. In a cohesive environment, employees are more likely to be motivated to conquer their objectives. A lack of cohesion may lead to unnecessary conflict and a disorganized style of working. If employees can’t get along or collectively brainstorm, the resulting ideas maybe disjointed and haphazard! Cohesion is thus, the binding force that keeps an organization well-oiled and running. The common mental disorders (CMDs) of anxiety and depression are the most common form of poor mental health in the general population. Evidence from the small number of previous cohort studies on the role of neighbourhood factors in mental health is conclusive. High levels of neighbourhood social cohesion modify an adverse association between change in individual mental health and neighbourhood deprivation. Strengthening social cohesion can effectively reduce health burden of poor mental health. An inclusive society as well as one that promotes positivity helps generate positive outcomes in society as well as stable mentalities. [2]
So, although I admit as an “Allophone” born and married and educated in Quebec who finds the language laws there obnoxious and nasty, I can also admit to the reality that the social cohesion that has resulted has improved the quality of life for the society as a whole. Are there risks in our tribal heritage? Absolutely! Is there danger? Yes! But it is who we are if we want to accomplish great things. Our challenge going forward is how to hold the tension between our modern worship of individualism and the recognition that any real solution to our problems must focus on the long term health of the group called the “tribe of CDNs’ -and that “the CDN tribe” now includes all the other life forms we share this land with.
So what can you do? Focus on finding common ground with everybody you know. Focus on what we share and what we have in common rather than what is different about. Yes, the differences exist, but quite frankly, they are not that large as we make them out to be. Then, once we are on the same team and see that we sink or swim together, we will be willing to make the individual changes that seem to be a sacrifice [but are not really -at least in the longer term] so that we as the tribe called CDNs can make the changes needed so our grandchildren can live a high quality of life with all the other species in this fantastic home of ours called Planet Earth.
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