Listening to our social silences
Social silences point to critical issues that few people are talking about.
The concept is one I picked up in Gillian Tett’s book Anthrovision. Tett is Editor of The Financial Times. By trade, she’s an anthropologist. There are two other critical anthropological skills mentioned in this excellent work. The first is taking the time to see what appears to you as ‘the weird’. This allows you to build more empathy for others over time. And the second is to flip the lens back at yourself and see the weird in you. With these two lenses, we have a chance of appreciating more fully what is going on around us.
There are always more than two sides to a story. In truth, there are many. A commitment to broadening our ‘seeing’ range is a worthy one, especially in a world that feels increasingly polarised.
So, my reflections for the week are:
What are our social silences?
Are there narratives and opinions that I am exposed to more? Less? What are they?
What actions am I taking to lean into my silences, or the view I do not hear?
