Article for December Honors Program Newsletter

On Quality of Life: A University of Utah Honors Think Tank


By Professors George Cheney and Sally Planalp, with 11 Honors Students

The Honors Think Tank on Quality of Life is spending the academic year exploring basic assumptions about contemporary life(style), inviting everyone to consider deeply their own paths and projects. Along the way, we are examining the meanings of happiness, productivity, success, and other key ideals that guide our lives. On a broader level, we are looking at indicators of well being, making cross-national comparisons, and analyzing the design of neighborhoods and communities. The course is designed to open thought and discussion about multiple paths for and within contemporary society.

Our readings, reflections, discussions, and projects range across fields such as history, philosophy, literature, psychology, sociology, economics, political science, anthropology, art, architecture, communi-cation, and technology. This fall we have read a variety of academic and popular books. We visited Wasatch Commons co-housing in September and will go to the new Daybreak Community in the spring. Visitors to our class this fall included representatives of the International Rescue Committee to talk about their experiences as recent immigrants to Utah; Ed Diener, from the University of Illinois, a leader in the positive psychology movement; Jane Blackwell and Mark Owens, local clinical psychologists who are engaged in the Psychologically Healthy Workplace project; and several professors at the U: Kevin Rathunde from Family and Consumer Studies, who discussed the concept and experience of “flow”; Russ Belk, from Marketing, who discussed his innovative research on sharing; political scientists Luke Garrott and Claudio Holzner who discussed citizen participation on levels from local to national, and Nick White, a visiting professor in Philosophy to discuss philosophical perspectives on happiness.

While the instructors designed the first semester of the course, the students are assuming primary responsibility for constructing the second semester. With the instructors’ assistance, the students will design a group project with lasting significance. After investigating the issue of pace of life in contemporary society, the Think Tank will produce a “Pace of Life” fair at the Salt Lake City Library on April 14, 2007.

Representatives from relevant area organizations will have booths dedicated to addressing the important practical implications of the topic, including its historical, philosophical, and cultural aspects. For example, what are the main contributors to an increased pace of life today? What roles do transportation and commuting play? How do changing values, expectations, and habits figure into this? What about economic pressures? What are the effects of pace of life on relationships? On home life? On participation in the community? On ethics? In addition, we may consider the ways in which we “teach” pace of life in our schools? The highlight of the fair will be a keynote address by John de Graaf, editor of “Affluenza” and “Take Back Your Time.”