Introduction
im4u.world launched its Global Survey on April 22, 2021 (Earth Day). The survey asks what people globally believe are humanity's most urgent issues. It follows up by asking how those issues affect our lives and communities, the opportunities and constraints to finding resolution, and our willingness to participate in the solution.
The im4u.world Global Survey Report 2022 is the first annual report of the results. The report is presented here as a series of Learn-Engage-Empower blog chapters. The series will follow the 15 questions of the survey over two months (July and August).
The report represents the results of one year of data collection and analysis. We hope you find the results thought-provoking and inspiring. The results will be the basis of engaging in productive discussion to find solutions to some of our most pressing problems facing humanity. We hope this inspires you and your communities of interest to take action and make a meaningful difference in our world.
The Learn-Engage-Series to date:
Part 1 - July 7, 2022 - A Vision and Challenges
Question 1: Imagine you are now living 25 years into the future. What is your vision of the world, then? What do you hope it would be like?
Part 2 - July 14, 2022 - Your Hometown
Question 2: What problems do you have in your community today that must be solved before they could be part of your vision of the future?
Question 3: How do those problems in your community affect your life today?
We decided that following the first question, which is decidedly global, it was essential to go right to the local level, our hometowns, where we live, work, and play.
The link between Questions 1 and 2, what must be solved in our local communities first before realizing our global vision, may help prioritize what problems to resolve.
How those problems impact our personal lives (Question 3) gives us an understanding of peoples' pain points with those problems.
We discovered though our hometowns worldwide may look different, we all share common problems and hopes for our future.
Did you know? The Global Survey is ongoing, and it is never too late to complete one. Please visit the im4u.world Global Survey today at https://www.im4u.world/globalsurvey. Every voice matters.
15 simple questions. That is all it takes for you to begin making a positive difference in the world!
Question 2: What problems do you have in your community today that must be solved before they could be part of your vision of the future?
im4u.world Collaborators' Discussion
The survey immediately transitions from a global view to the local community perspective with question two.
People identified many issues that require resolution in local communities before achieving the global vision described in question one.
Presumably, people connected local issues and global problems since Q2 asked what has to be solved locally to address the global vision. But do we know what that connection is?
Comparing this question's categorical responses to the overall survey results (see the graph above):
People expressed more concern with issues of Equality, Home & Family, Government & Society, Health, and Housing in their local community than the overall survey results.
People expressed less concern with Planet & Environment, Spiritual, Economic, and Culture issues in their local community compared to the overall survey results.
In many instances, problems at the local level are a microcosm of global problems. Examples include:
Government & Society. The division between individuals and groups (politics, leaders, electorate, governments at all levels) and impacts from those divisions (violence, law enforcement problems, unequal justice, prison, discrimination, institutional racism).
Planet & Environment. Local issues of pollution, waste, recycling, transit, waterways (pollution), sustainability, and renewable resources reflect larger global concerns.
Health (public and individual) ranked 6th in global and 3rd in local topics. Much of the topics in this category are related to visible public health issues locally, such as mental health, addiction, and food security. Individual health concerns, such as stress and health systems (perhaps price and availability), were less visible.
It was interesting to see Health topics eclipse Housing topics at the local level. Homelessness and affordable housing are on many of the respondents' minds.
Equality topics are significant probably because of the widespread abuses and the media attention. The key concepts mirror the global vision references and are similarly ranked (#4 globally; #5 locally of 14 categories).
The Climate Change and Home and Family categories are all tied in their ranking. Though Climate Change ranked #3 in the Global Vision, it falls to #6 in local concerns. A few reasons why may include:
People are not making a connection between global and local concerns;
Climate change factors create underlying stressors on other systems at the local level (such as Health), and there is an echo effect on those categories.
There are connections that we don't know and have yet to discover.
Still, some respondents are making a connection to Climate Change, mostly with elements such as the use of motor vehicles or transit and consumer goods consumption.
Family and Home topics subdivide into topics inside the home and their conditions (children, elderly, domestic violence) and those outside the home (homelessness, housing affordability). These topics are key ones to watch. Unusual stress here tends to have disproportionate effects in almost every other category. For example, the tension in the family and home life may link to violence (Government & Society category), homelessness (Housing category), or anxiety and unhappiness (Health and Spiritual categories). Likewise, this relationship may also be true with stressors in the Economic category.
Poverty & Wealth and Economic categories ranked equal at #9. Food security is a problem globally, even in developed countries in the Poverty & Wealth and Food categories. There may be a correlation to Climate Change. Keep an eye out for this issue in the future. It is potentially unstabilizing to societies.
It was interesting to see that Education ranked so low in topics raised in Q2. This low ranking may reflect a higher socio-economic group answered the survey and didn't see it as an issue that needed resolving to achieve a global vision.
No specific concepts were identified in this question in the Peace category. Many local 'Peace' (category) topics are in the Government & Society category (e.g., crime, violence). Peace as a category addresses war and anarchy. Crime and violence are, of course, subsets of war and anarchy. Still, the context used in the respondents' answers relates better to government and society topics.
Question 3: How do those problems in your community affect your life today?
im4u.world Collaborators' Discussion
The top five areas where people's lives are affected adversely by the problems in their communities (that need to be addressed to realize their future vision of the world) are:
Government & Society
Planet & Environment
Spiritual
Health
Economic
Altogether, these account for 71% of all issues raised by survey respondents for this question.
Comparing this question's categorical responses to the overall survey results (see the graph above):
On average, peoples' personal lives are affected in their local communities most by issues in the Government & Society category than the corresponding category average for all the survey responses. (35.45% vs 24.97%).
People's personal lives are less affected by issues in Education, Equality, Spiritual, Peace, and Economic categories than the corresponding category averages for all the survey responses. These results may reflect the respondent's race, income, and where they live.
People identified Equality problems in Question 2 that require resolution to realize their global vision (Question 1). However, the respondents didn't note it as a problem that was personally affecting their lives in Question 3. There is an awareness of the problem but not necessarily the experience of it.
People were more consistent with the Climate Change category from Q2 to Q3. They identified, with similar frequency, Climate Change problems that must be resolved in their local communities and as problems that personally affect their lives (5.93% and 6.02%, respectively)
People in wealthier countries are seeing growing problems in their communities that are often associated with less affluent countries. Examples include communities of homelessness, food insecurity, poverty, civil unrest, gridlocked traffic, worsening pollution of all types, failing infrastructure, and extreme poverty/wealth gaps.
Younger people are concerned about problems they are inheriting, and there is underlying stress in their lives, which they feel powerless to address.
Many people expressed fear, anxiety, loneliness, isolation, hopelessness, and sadness. These are both Spiritual and Health concerns. Mental health is a significant concern, according to people who responded. Rapid changes, usually by degradation of some external factor(s), are typically cited. (e.g., The rapid onset of forest fires in the last 10-15 years and the growing frequency and severity of them. The rapid growth of urban centers with escalating home prices and the visibility of tent cities as permanent fixtures in the city's landscape. The fast-moving pandemic and the disruptions to our daily lives.)
Gun violence is a concern raised by many respondents.
Diverse groups of people (racial, cultural, religious, gender and non-gender, sexual orientation) have expressed fear over growing intolerance and outright displays of hatred, prejudice, and discrimination in work, law enforcement, law, housing, salaries, and professional mobility.
There is a tacit understanding of the interconnectedness of the issues. People understand a failure in one category, such as Government & Society, or Planet & Environment, leads to degradation in other categories, such as Spiritual, Health, and Economic conditions. (For example, how law enforcement treats black people makes many angry. Forest fires and the degraded air quality in our city are a regular occurrence every summer, and some people must stay indoors because of health conditions.)
People point to Government & Society as the primary cause of most problems experienced in local communities. Political polarization has trickled down from national governments to local community politics. Division, anger, lack of clear leadership, fighting, indifference to common community concerns, fingerpointing, and inability to take effective action are examples. Speculative - The rapid onset of so many problems may have created a tipping point that paralyzed local governments.
What do we think we know so far?
People have a clear vision for the world's future, but there are many challenges to achieving it.
Many people identified similar problems in their local communities. Progress towards a world vision is possible if we solve those local problems. Many other issues identified at the local level don't appear connected to the global issues and vision upon first examination. We may get further insights as we progress through the other questions.
People's personal lives are affected by the problems identified globally and locally. Still, we don't have enough information to understand the relationships. That information would help us determine what actions could impact resolving problems most.
The Global Survey
The Global Survey is one of the bases of the Learn-Engage-Empower model that underpins im4u. world's mission, mainly the Learn function. Thirteen Collaborators representing multiple disciplines developed the Global Survey.
The survey consists of 15 questions, of which 13 are open-ended, and two are numeric. The survey begins by asking about the respondent's vision of the future for the world. The questioning then immediately turns to a local community context and takes the respondent through a series of questions about obstacles and opportunities in their community and with themself.
Important Caveat
The Global Survey is not a statistical survey, meaning that the method by which it was designed and administered yielded statistically significant results. The results are not a statistical representation of the world's population. Anyone was welcome to answer the survey. More importantly, the survey results will define the topics and framework starting the next phase of im4u. world's development, Engagement. Subscribe to im4u.world for updates and an invitation to join global conversations. There is no cost and no obligation. Visit: https://www.im4u.world/join-subscribe-contact
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Join us next week as we continue our blog series on The Global Survey Results. We continue drilling down into the local conditions worldwide with Questions 4 and 5:
Question 4: What happened that created those problems in your community?
Question 5: What will happen to your community if it cannot, or will not, solve those problems?
im4u.world is an ambitious project designed to build positive and constructive conversations worldwide, share learning experiences and make real change locally.
Make a difference in the world. We can show you how.
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