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Individual- Collectivism

Individual-collectivism is a new way of thinking, promoted by “ The Fratu Foundation” which aims to emphasise the strong correlation between the collective benefit and the individual benefit, basically connecting both into one unit.

Etymology:

The word derives from a combination of the word Individual in this case meaning a single unit or person, and collectivism; a group of people or interests.

History:

During history there was a constant tension between the terms individualism and collectivism as the society understood both terms as contrary. The philosophical individualistic term started developing faster in the last century with a decrease in religious beliefs*1 and a belief in the personal individual skills and control over destiny. This resulted in a change in society and personal behaviour, making a strong correlation between life results an individual actions. As the individual belief had increased so did increased the contrary- Collectivism as we saw during the last century an increase in the number of charities *2, as well as organizations gathering persons to serve a common goal. Such a clear evidence can be seen with Avaaaz www.avaaz.com which is one of the largest online comunity acting together for common goals.

Development:

Individual-collectivism aims mainly to provide tools for individuals to understand the relations between the well being of the society and the individual well being. Based on the belief that the human being received a great benefit from helping and doing well to others. The positive psychology center*3 through its extensive research showed a high correlation between happiness and help to society. The term “ individual- collectivism” started to be actively promoted by “ The Fratu Foundation”*4 which aims to provide individual tools to assess their contribution to the society.

Economy:

According to the theory, each individual has a great influence over the collective well being. For example, when someone buys a shirt, he/she influences- the shop owner, the transport company, the producer in the far east, the cotton grower, and so on. In today world the dependence on each other become very strong, thus creating a reality in which an individual will find it very difficult to survive alone. Being aware of the individual influence logically can bring the individual to consider not only economical values but also social values.

1. http://www.vexen.co.uk/UK/religion.html 2.http://philanthropy.com/blogs/government-and-politics/number-of-charitiesfoundations-passes-12-million/21832 3. http://www.ppc.sas.upenn.edu/ 4. http://www.fratufoundation.com