Michael Adams is a noted commentator on social values and social change in North America. The founding president of the Environics group of research and communications consulting companies, Michael has written five books published by Penguin Canada, including the bestselling
Fire and Ice: The United States, Canada, and the Myth of Converging Values, which won the Donner Prize for the best book on Canadian public policy in 2003.
In his most recent book,
Stayin’ Alive: How Canadian Baby Boomers Will Work, Play, and Find Meaning In the Second Half of Their Adult Lives (Penguin, November 2010), Michael reflects on the changes Baby Boomers have brought about in Canadian society—and the changes that are yet to come. In chapters on family, health, technology, politics, retirement, meaning, and death, Adams shows that the over nine million Canadians born between 1946 and 1965 are anything but uniform. Environics social values data reveal four distinct values tribes that will negotiate the years to come in their own ways. Understanding the diversity of this large and influential generation is a must for marketers, human resources managers, policy makers, and engaged citizens.
In 2006, Michael founded the Environics Institute for Survey Research, a non-profit entity whose mission is to sponsor relevant and original public opinion, attitude and social values research related to issues of public policy and social change. The Environics Institute seeks to survey those not usually heard from, using questions not usually asked. To date, the Institute’s projects have included the first ever major survey of Canadian Muslims as well as an ambitious Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study (UAPS) that sought to illuminate the experiences, values, identities and aspirations of Inuit, Metis, and First Nations people living in Canada’s cities.
A popular public speaker, Michael Adams offers topical, entertaining talks elaborating the data presented in his books. In addition to his groundbreaking work in social values analysis, he has conducted traditional polling in Canada for over three decades. Michael’s speaking repertoire includes a long-range look at the evolution of Canadian public opinion on a range of issues from public policy to national identity and diversity.
