The Affection Economy: Toward a Co-Design of What Comes Next
The conversation is growing
Over the past year, The Affection Economy has started appearing in unexpected places.
First, in an essay by Samir Saran in The Indian Express, “The affection economy: Kinship, community, soft power — new currency of a new age”, which proposed that influence in the modern world now depends on a nation’s or company’s capacity to build trust, kinship, and belonging. Then, in Psychology Today, a piece by Susannah Harmon Furr and Nathan Furr, “Affection Economy: How Caring Can Change the World”, explored how care, kindness and community can redefine the meaning of work and change how we live.
Both are powerful signals. They show that affection, once dismissed as soft or sentimental, is emerging as a serious lens for understanding how societies thrive. And that means it’s time to deepen the conversation.
From attention to affection
We’ve spent the last two decades in the attention economy — building systems that reward clicks, outrage, and velocity. But attention without affection is empty. It can’t sustain trust or build communities that last.
As I’ve written for years through The Affection Economy, we’re now entering a different era — one where affection, belonging, reciprocity and care are the new levers of prosperity and influence. When people, organisations, and even nations measure success not only by growth or GDP, but by trust, connection, and emotional stewardship.
The Indian Express essay approaches this through geopolitics and soft power. The Psychology Today article grounds it in daily life and vocation — the care we bring to our work and relationships. Both are right. Because affection operates at every scale — from the systems we build to the smallest human gestures that keep those systems alive.
Affection isn’t a sentiment. It’s a system.
In my own work, I describe The Affection Economy as a values-led framework for growth without compromise, a way of designing cultures of belonging that make affection strategic, not decorative.
Because affection isn’t about niceness or nostalgia. It’s structural. It’s systemic. It’s how we design for human flourishing inside our economies, our organisations, and our communities.
When leaders understand affection as infrastructure, when they see that emotional connection and shared purpose create measurable value, transformation follows. This is how we turn care into competitive advantage. And why the future belongs to those who build with empathy and integrity at scale.
Designing the future of affection
If The Affection Economy is truly taking shape, we must design it consciously. That means developing:
Ethical frameworks that keep care from being co-opted or commercialised.
Metrics that measure belonging and trust, not just performance.
Design principles that balance empathy with accountability.
Stories and case studies that demonstrate affection in action — across business, policy, and community life.
This is the work I’ve been building through The Affection Economy for years — translating affection from a philosophical ideal into a practical strategy for values-led leadership, culture, and growth.
A shared invitation
What excites me most is that others are now naming it too. It means this idea has momentum. And momentum, when guided by integrity, becomes a movement.
So perhaps this is the invitation — to co-design what comes next. To bring affection into the architecture of how we live, lead, and build. Because affection, when activated, changes everything.
Join the conversation on LinkedIn.
Related Reading
Author’s Note:
This piece was originally published here on The Story Maker. It is available for republication, syndication, or editorial adaptation.
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