Britain and the World at the Dawn of 2003: Report of a New Year's Listening Post: Wednesday 8th January 2003 from 7.00pm to 9.30pm College Hall, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HZ: Convenor

Listening Posts are based on the notion that a group of people meeting together to work in the way described below allows the unconscious expression of some characteristics of the wider social system and the experience of the Listening Post is itself, therefore, relevant to an understanding of society beyond individual and personal preoccupations.

The aim of the Listening Post is to enable participants as individual citizens to reflect on their own relatedness to society and to try to develop an understanding of what is happening in society at this moment.

The Listening Post will provide an opportunity for participants to share their preoccupations in relation to the various societal roles they may have. Collectively they are invited to try to identify the underlying dynamics, both conscious and unconscious, that may be predominant at this time.

Part 1: The Sharing of Preoccupations and Experiences

In this part of the Listening Post, participants were invited to identify, contribute, and explore their experience in their various social roles, be those in work, unemployed, or retired; as members of religious, political, neighbourhood or voluntary or leisure organisations, or as members of families and communities. This part was largely concerned