These commentaries suggest that many aspects of the meaning of human life are rooted in the everyday and ordinary, as they are encapsulated in the environment and the resources that it affords, than the pursuit of profundity. Putnam’s (2000) discussion of social capital, for example, suggests that the introduction of television in the last century replaced communal activities with a form of entertainment which encouraged social isolation. The invention of television marked a significant stage in human development. The television itself depended on access to a wide range of resources in order to manufacture the complex components of the device from raw materials. The effect of television, however, was compounded by the dislocation of places of work from the community. The production of commodities such as the television required large scale and specialized industries needed to manufacture the components, and these factories required larger forms of organization and infrastructure such as transport networks. Small communities no longer offered adequate resources to support the growing population of people involved in these industries. Cities and towns grew and people increasingly commuted to work. The effect of introduction of the television was similar to that of the train earlier. In both cases, the production of affordable material commodities impacted on the nature of human occupation.
Prior to the onset of rapid urbanization, people shared in communal sports, talked together on the front porch, attended activities together, and thus formed part of the fabric of a socially engaged way of life. Putnam (2000) contended that it was through these activities that people recognized each other as members of the same community. The spread of television entertainment marked the point where this form of community ceased to exist in many parts of modern America and elsewhere in the world. Today, Putman observes, people invest more time with friends at work and home has become just a dormitory-like facility in the suburbs which only serves as a place to sleep. They have little to do with the locales in which they live, and the urban planning of communities reflects this altered way of life.
However, there are some grounds for skepticism about this view. One of the iconic examples of urban planning in the UK, which is an example of the separation of home from work, is the new city of Milton Keynes. Much of the vilification of this city and the many post war towns or urban developments which arose in the post war period, such as Stevenage, Crawley, or Swindon, has tended to be based in a form of snobbery rather than an examination of the quality of the lives of people there. To be sure there are people who live in social isolation in badly planned housing developments, but a sense of community, and therefore of the meaning associated with these developments is often evident (Clapson, 2004).
Other criticism comes from the strong indications of nostalgia for the lost sense of community and its supporting environment in modern times, combined with some rebellion against the nature and content of popular culture. The growth of industrial society produced overcrowding and filthy living conditions necessitated by poverty in many Western urban communities (Brogan, 1990; Foner, 1980, 1965; Marr, 2009; Zeldin, 1979). Marr (2009) among others noted that the forms of popular culture which arose from the 19th century urbanization and resulting squalor, while being adopted by the rising middle classes, were none the less often despised for the vulgarity which derived from their familiarity with every aspect of human life. The content of this popular culture was often sentimental, sometimes focusing on religious themes, sometimes subservient to the status quo, perhaps mindful not to go foul of the wealthier patrons in society (Russell, 1997). In order to be made attractive to the dominant view, the contents of this popular culture were often cleaned up or their meanings obscured (Lloyd, 1969).
The squalid conditions described above generated social pressures leading to a series of housing reforms, the development of affordable public housing, and culminating in the new towns and cities of the late 20th century. Some people in the communities resulting from these housing schemes developed aspirational values as suggested by Clapson’s description of Milton Keynes image of ‘Middle England’ (2004). People who moved to these homes left their overcrowded environments and streets behind, and yet some looked back to the familiar community feeling this close proximity with others afforded. The mixture of sentiments this ambivalence suggests may be one of the reasons that the meaning that any culture confers to human life has become contested. Some aspects of culture become sanitized or suppressed in order to be palatable to the majority view in society. Further, the hardships of the past can become romanticized in historical re-interpretations of cultural experiences (Bromley 1989). If this is so, to what extent does cultural content accurately represent the meaning of the lived experiences of those who live the life that it is supposed to represent?
Another consideration as we attempt to understand how the whole notion of ‘meaning’ in human life develops is the observation that meaning appears to be historically intertwined with the development of spirituality, although this may depend on the nature of belief, which is a social construction. For much of the western world, spirituality seems to be connected with the rise and development of the church and the culture of Christianity, particularly in relation to the church as an institution through which religious meaning is interpreted and managed. According to Berger (1973) one of the purposes of religion was to provide a mechanism through which a consistency of meaning could be achieved. For a long period of time in the European history, Christian religion had been a key institution that structured the relationships between people, their rulers, and the stability of the world around them. However, many folk customs derived from earlier belief systems and these were frequently accommodated in the rituals and practices of the church, particularly in Western Europe. St. Patrick and St. Columba for example had to make their arguments for their faith using the language of their hostile druidic or bardic adversaries. The church itself preserved the ancient celtic cultures of Brittany (Markale, 1977) and Ireland (Lydon, 1998; Nagy, 1997) and, some argue, a form of the druidic tonsure (Ellis, 1994). These were ways of both asserting new spiritual meanings, and accommodating something of the old ways which people were being asked to give up. This kind of incorporation often appears to have taken place, although it does not always occur, in the adoption of new religions.
In order for those who professed the new religion to communicate its purpose, they had to accept elements of the indigenous cultures. For example, the 19th century British missionaries to China were encouraged to adopt Chinese dress and customs (Worrall, 1988). Often the church had to address the everyday needs of the people as a part of enabling them to find meaning in the Christian religious faith. During the rise of industrialisation, the English church and its various denominations launched missionary initiatives geared towards addressing the needs of the rising numbers of poor and oppressed groups of people, who were disadvantaged by the rapid social changes. These included initiatives to increase literacy to promote Bible reading as a way of encouraging church attendance (Edwards, 1984; Worrall 1988). These efforts of the church to create meaning in people’s lives did not eliminate class tensions. The middle class quest for meaning included both a desire for social distinction from the poor, whom they saw as lesser beings and as objects for social reform (James, 2006; Marr, 2007, 2009). They felt guilty about depending on the labor of the working class poor for their bourgeois comfort, while at the same time they attempted to contain the threat posed by the animalistic atavism social reformers such as Seebohm Rowntree or Charles Booth perceived to be perpetuated by the savagery of these poor (Marr, 2009).
The society in the 19th century was partly characterized by a rising middle class, with greater opportunities for men to travel, or perhaps work in the colonies. This development led to increasing