FREE, EQUAL AND MUTUAL

This volume explains the origins and contemporary relevance of Rudolf Steiner's Threefolding, developed as a contribution to conditions for lasting peace in war-torn Germany between 1917 and 1919. The subtitle of rebalancing society for the common good suggests the need for a harmony between the three components of business and economy, state and politics, and culture. The title refers to the aims of these three areas: freedom in cultural life at the individual pole, equality of rights in political terms, and mutuality in economics. The original formulation in 1917 uses the term liberty in cultural life, meaning individual development, free enquiry, pluralism and tolerance as a means of overcoming antipathies. In the political or rights sphere, the aim is equality in terms of democracy, justice, participation, universal humanity and recognition. In economic life this is expressed as fraternity – mutual support, collaboration, association and new sympathies, as opposed to an overemphasis of competition. Steiner's own definition is 'socialism in economic life, democracy for the life of rights and individualism for spiritual life.' (p. 55) The authors in this volume suggest that we need a much stronger contribution from culture to balance that of economics and politics.

Early contributions explain the historical background and influence of Steiner, while later chapters consider current challenges, inspired initiatives and openings for the future. Andrew Scott considers two different views of the human being, one dominated by what he calls noisy images of the human as separate from God and dominating nature, with the emphasis on economics and humans as beasts and mechanisms, which he then explores in various manifestations before proposing the quieter images of knower, individual, and human being as an evolving holon. Christopher Schaefer sets out nine propositions relating to the social world moving towards empathy, caring and love through a process of dialogue and consensus. Steve Briault applies this model to work and organisations with a threefold structure, culture and process intersecting with purpose in the centre.

In setting out the challenges, Martin Large notes that we live in a corporatocracy where the market has captured much of the state and plural sector, for example in terms of privatisation and the idea that education should be fundamentally utilitarian. He provides some excellent and informative diagrams characterising the current situation and the one he feels is desirable. Financialisation has been rampant and the ethos of society has become materialistic and consumerist, with an emphasis on accumulation of capital and predatory power exploiting and destroying our natural resources or simply commodifying them. The potentially emerging model rebalances our relationships, restores agency and creativity, and regenerates the earth. However, the next chapter demonstrates the opposite dynamic in analysing the two forms of shadow represented by Trump and Clinton in the 2016 US election, suggesting that we need to work through aspects of the collective shadow. Inspired initiatives include a description of SEKEM as a model for holistic sustainable development in Egypt and a living example of 'what is possible if one has a strong vision, the will and the involvement of like-minded people who support the idea with a similar level of awareness'. (p. 150) The same applies to the Tamera Community in Portugal, where I am writing this review – they have transformed a very dry and exploited area with water retention schemes creating lakes and a fertile landscape. This is a continuing process of manifestation based on vision and a clear set of ideas and values. There is then a chapter on the food movement and one on community land trusts. Richard House proposes an education beyond capital and the neoliberal state, cautioning the move towards effective privatisation of the school system, effectively incorporating schooling into the business sector, with predictable consequences.

The last part considers openings for co-creating our social future, with a chapter on conversation and dialogue, partly based on David Bohm, and with an emphasis on the sympathetic economy, equality and empathy - all of this is summed up in a useful chart on p. 223. I found the threefolding framework a very useful tool for considering the roles, relationships and interfaces between culture, politics and economics. The editors pose a number of pertinent questions that can serve as criteria for assessing progress in all three areas, and there is a course considerable room for improvement. They usefully sum the book up in the following sentence: 'the more that freedom informs cultural life and the plural sector, the more that equality guides political life, human rights and the public sector, and the more fraternity or mutuality guides business and economic life, the more creative, socially just, democratic, healthier, prosperous and sustainable will be our society or "commonwealth"' (p. 254) The book serves as a further example of how relevant the thinking of Rudolf Steiner can be to our time, characterised by Nicanor Perlas in his foreword as VUCA - volatile, uncertain and unpredictable, complex and ambiguous. He is surely right in insisting on the need to activate and engage civil society to wield cultural power in order to help transform our economic and social systems.