By Jennifer Conley
At the Geelong Manufacturing Council, like other industry associations, we believe that contributing to a community of like-minded businesses is in the interests of each of the individual organisations, as well as the wider sector.
What you may not know is that joining a group will also increase your life expectancy. The discovery of a clear link between belonging to a group and the wellbeing of a society, a region, and the individuals involved, is documented in a new film, Join or Die, available recently to stream.
According to Harvard University social scientist Robert Putnam, now 83, “your chances of dying over the next year are cut in half by joining one group”. Based on a growing body of research, including in Italy and the US, Putnam and others document how “social capital”, such as membership in organisations, is strongly linked to vastly improved economic and civic outcomes.
GMC represents manufacturers and organisations supporting, Geelong and the southwest region of Victoria. Our mainly SME member companies work closely together in a trusted, like-minded network with the shared aim of securing the viability of regional manufacturing. In 2024, we spoke up on key issues for manufacturing, including the challenges of skills shortages, the rising cost of energy, industrial relations reforms, and immigration, and we led a regional schools strategy to highlight the value of manufacturing careers. Fortunately for the GMC, our community continues to grow – and this is largely due to repeated interactions among members throughout the year. The Geelong region is a comparatively connected community with effective groups doing great work.
It may sound obvious, but while being involved in a group suggests a lot of effort, it reaps exponential value. Economists argue that repeated social interaction plays a key role in the creation of social capital, solving the problem of free riders (people who get the benefit of an activity while not contributing themselves) and vastly improving co-operation and outcomes for any given society. A decline in membership of face-to-face groups over time has led to increasing isolation of individuals. This has wider implications for community health, wealth and the effectiveness of our democratic institutions. So, can you afford the time, money and participation effort to join a group? You can’t really afford not to.
This article was first published in the Geelong Advertiser 16/10/2024