INNOVATION OPINION:Dr Frasier Crane: "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times."

Norm Peterson: "Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa. Which was it?" (from Cheers, 1991).

A peculiar and irritating new form of austerity journalism has sprung up over the past six months, which attempts to put a rosy glow on recession, telling us offbeat little stories about how trendy and rewarding it is to make do and mend, often written by people with double barrelled surnames and a trust fund.

In essence, these articles sell the low growth economy as a lifestyle choice, as though the next few years will be one long Greek island holiday, where the locals play dominoes in the town square and sip ouzo until the sun goes down, blissfully unconcerned by things like jobs, money or ambition. (Incidentally, few people working in developing countries see much merit in low growth, suggesting as it does that they will stay where they are - poor and hungry - without the ultimate luxury of choosing to do so).

Oddly, this glass half full view of recession could be found at the recent G20 conference in London, where I spent a couple of days reporting from the demonstrations that were organised to coincide with the event. Wandering around the crowds I was struck by a couple of things. First, how nice people were. You wouldn't have got that from the TV coverage, which focused on a tiny number of trouble-makers, and on the aggressive response of the police.

Second, it was striking how disparate were the causes people were demonstrating against. They ranged from the anti-capitalists, to those who were against the war in Iraq, the deep green lobby, social justice campaigners and those who were just angry at how things had turned out.

This last group were strikingly middle class, made up of people who, by their own admission, had done well out of the last 20 years of debt-fuelled neo-liberal free market capitalism.

Most had difficulty articulating what it was they wanted to replace the existing system, but were advocating variations on the theme of a low growth economy - throwing up terms such as small scale, localised produce, environmentally sound working practices.

It's an idea that unites the demonstrators and the clever fools of the banking industry who got us here. Bankers tend not to hang around sweaty offices beyond their 40th birthday, but live out their lives in low growth havens such as the south of France, or Tuscany or the Caribbean.

"We want to slow down, enjoy a different pace of life," has become the mantra of a generation, fed by the burgeoning science of happiness which, at its root, preaches low growth on a micro scale.

According to research into the area, happiness can be found by the following regime: exercise three times a week; count your blessings at the end of each day; talk for an hour to your partner three times a week; grow a plant and keep it alive; cut TV viewing in half; smile at strangers; phone a friend you have lost touch with; have a good laugh every day, even if it is at yourself; give yourself a treat and spread some kindness by doing a good turn.

Simple. No mention of plasma televisions. No holiday homes in Dubai, no baby Bentleys.

What's missing is a central philosophy, someone to tie all these various micro and macro strands together. To this end, one question I asked as I walked around the G20 demos was: whose ideas do you follow? Is there a book, or a philosophy, that sums up best your point of view?

Some of the answers were expected: The Shock Doctrine,by Naomi Klein, for example, and Philip Blond's Red Torymusings each picked up votes. There were some nods to history, with a good few referring to Keynes and Galbraith, the two old-timers who they said had it right all along. One mentioned Hyman Minsky, to which I nodded sagely before looking him up when I got home. Minsky it seems was indeed a seer for our times, a Washington University professor who died in 1996, but who predicted everything, and whose remedies the governments of the world are now following to the letter.

But the winner of my straw poll was The Spirit Level, a book by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, which is my bet to become the manifesto of the next 10 years.

It suggests that unequal societies are the cause of most social problems we face today, railing at the "remarkable paradox that, at the pinnacle of human material and technical achievement, we find ourselves anxiety-ridden, prone to depression, worried about how others see us, unsure of our friendships, driven to consume and with little or no community life".

It's the low growth route to happiness. If that sounds good, buy it now.