The Way We Are: Lessons from a lifetime of listening

Social psychologist, Hugh Mackay, provides a summary of observations regarding issues affecting the lives of Australians in the twenty-first century based on many years of research. 

In this book the author looks at seven trends that he believes are currently eroding social cohesion and leading to social fragmentation - shrinking households with the result that many people are alone or lonely, high rate of relationship breakdowns, falling birthrate, sharp decline in religious faith and practice, increasing mobility, relentless busyness and incessant use of information technology and social media. Much of this can result in the lack of sense of community. 

Hugh Mackay includes chapters on our use of information from a variety of resources - reliable and unreliable; the flood of opinions that we face daily; true gender equality; poverty in Australia; the legacy of the baby boomers; declining role of religion in people's lives: the importance of kindness and the need for all of us to develop our listening skills. The final chapter looks at how the author has conducted his research over the years. A detailed list of references plus an index completes the book.