Students worldwide invited to get ahead of the pack with important new ‘Power of 10’ IMEX/ Fast Future essay competition
 Organisers of IMEX in Frankfurt, together with research partners, Fast Future Research, are inviting students from all over the world to enter a prestigious new essay competition as part of its important new ‘Power of 10’ research study. The Power of 10 study is designed to commemorate the global meetings, events and incentive travel industry trade show’s 10th anniversary in 2012 and, at the same time, the essay competition gives students with an eye to working in the industry a valuable opportunity to get themselves and their ideas noticed.
The competition is open to full and part-time students over the age of 18 studying at an academic institution anywhere in the world. It invites them to submit either their ideas and visions for how the meetings industry will evolve over the next 10 years or a real life case study detailing how a particular destination is already preparing in an innovative way for the next decade. The competition picks up on the objectives of the Power of 10 study, which will take a look back 10 years and take a vital look forward over the same period by interviewing 100 meetings and non-meetings industry professionals, be they established and known leaders or personalities, rising stars or influencers.
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Why inequalities have come back into politics
Colin James
 Inequalities are the big political issue for 2012 and beyond. That's not because the left is about to surge -- the left has yet to connect principle to modern conditions. It is because the economic efficiency justifications are crumbling.
For three decades or so the ruling theory has been "all boats rise". Looser regulation and lower taxes freed entrepreneurs to innovate more, take more risks, make more money and thereby make us all richer.
Even if the already rich became very rich and the already very rich became staggeringly rich that was to the good because the whole economy would lift and even the lowly would lift with it. Theory said this was the most efficient route to wealth for the poor.
The working model was post-1945 United States: much more unequal than Europe and Australasia but its "middle class" got steadily richer.
Actually, since about 1980 a rising number of boats have risen more slowly and some not at all. Debt kept up an illusion the tide was rising but only till 2007, when debt soured. The result is widespread puzzlement, bewilderment, unease or anger, reflected in the Tea Party movement on the right and the Occupy Wall Street movement on the left.
Those extreme movements represent only small minorities of ideologues and super-angries. But they reflect wider discomforts and discontents -- evident in the Tea Party's raids on Republican candidacies and Republican fiscal conduct in the Congress and the fact that the Occupiers attracted serious media analysis and imitators across the "western" world, even, in a very minor key, here.
In is not the fact that there are inequalities that has caused the puzzlement, bewilderment, unease and anger. People widely understand, intuitively and from observation, that we are unequal in many ways -- genes, family circumstance, intelligence, physique, application, aspiration, educational opportunity, health and so on -- and that a wide range of random and significant influences can cause unequal income and wealth outcomes even from equal effort and ability.
Understanding that and knowing roughly where they fit, people make the best of their lives, with their equals.
They do that more comfortably if they believe they or their children have real opportunity to do better -- that is, if all boats are rising and/or there is socioeconomic mobility -- and if the collective (the state or community) eases the unfair inequalities.
Inequalities become a bother if they rigidify, if the state (or a state-backed class system) locks them in or appears to fix the rules in favour of the better-and-best-off, so inequalities grow -- and especially if too many boats stop rising.
Between 1979 and 2007, according to the OECD, while all boats rose in our sorts of countries, the boats in the top 20 per cent income band rose far faster than those in the other 80 per cent bands and those in the top 1 per cent rose far faster still.
After the debt veil was ripped off in 2007, there was initially a presumption that the old rules still held and that, with dollops of fiscal and monetary medicine, "recovery" would take hold and boats would rise again.
But "recovery" has been insipid or illusory. So inequalities -- particularly of income and wealth -- have seeped into politics: the two United States extremist movements, populist political parties in Europe and riots in Britain by an underclass not believing it has a stake in the establishment's game.
Angst about this used to be the preserve of the political left. But increasingly over the past six months it has been bothering the political right.
The World Economic Forum of major companies last week rated "severe income disparity" its top global risk for the next 10 years. Singapore is cutting politicians' pay by up to 51 per cent to counter rising public concern about income inequality.
In the Financial Times (FT), not exactly a left-wing rag, Lawrence Summers, a former banker and United States Treasury Secretary, wrote on November 20: "The extent of the change in income distribution is such that it is no longer true that the overall growth rate of the economy is the principal determinant of middle-class income growth. How the growth pie is distributed is at least as important."
On December 22 the FT's magisterial Martin Wolf, till 2007 a stout defender of the finance sector's brilliant but eventually disastrous inventions, declared in his column that the "huge rewards" for those with "ultra-high incomes" were "both unjust and inefficient". He demanded "a huge agenda" of government intervention, a "divisive" debate which "cannot be avoided if western democracies are to stay legitimate in the eyes of their peoples".
If such people -- and rafts of others -- think addressing inequalities is a political imperative in the north Atlantic countries, expect inequalities to feature here, too.
How that plays out -- and particularly how, or if, John Key comprehends and addresses it -- will be this year's most serious political show.
Future Times 2011: Volume 4
 The latest Future Times is now available on this site, here.
e-Future Times
e-Future Times is a collection of articles allied to those printed in the hard-copy version Future Times but for which there is no space available. The latest edition, Volume 17, November 2011, is here. We are working on making previous issues available in the near future and these, together with future issues, will be able to be viewed at the new menu item “e-Future Times”.
Hard copies of the articles are also available from the NZFT office.
The Self-Attribution Fallacy
 If you've been following the progress of the 'Occupy' movement, you might be interested to see this article by George Monibot in the prestigious UK newspaper 'The Guardian.
Is this an early sign that the thinking behind 'Occupy', might be going mainstream?
Interesting times.
New Zealand and Asia
 "Managing the security of this country’s sovereign territory, its people and its interests abroad has required significant expenditure of effort, time and resources in the past. It will continue to do so in future."
Victoria University's Centre for Strategic Studies has just published a report, from whence the above quote has been copied. The full report can be viewed on their website. It's worth looking at.
UK Foresight Group Report
The UK’s Foresight Programme brings together key people, knowledge and ideas. The programme looks beyond normal planning horizons to identify opportunities that could arise from new science and technologies and explores the actions that could be taken to help to realise those opportunities.
You can read their interesting new report, just released, here.
Future of the Book
"Writers, artists, and public intellectuals are nearing some sort of precipice: Their audiences increasingly expect digital content to be free." Does this ring a bell with you? If so, you might like to read the full article
New Zealand Educational Theses (NZET) database
 The New Zealand Council for Educational Research has shown the way by creating a website containing educational theses from New Zealand universities.
"Historically, it has been difficult to access information about education theses because they are held in individual tertiary institutions. Many theses focus on New Zealand education but are held in the overseas universities that provided doctoral supervision. Through creating access to a national database of New Zealand education theses the Iterative BES Programme is seeking to support cumulative knowledge building and collaboration in educational research in order to strengthen policy and practice in New Zealand education".
Congratulations NZCER, for blazing an important trail for (hopefully) others to follow. Wouldn't it be a marvellous thing if a full set of free teaching plans and other shared resources for the NZ school curriculum were to be also available on-line?
Chris Skrebowski on Oil & Money
 If the on-going financial malaise seems confusing, you might like to read this article by Chris Skrebowski. He explains the linkage beween the two vexed issues of the day; peak oil and money, and what we might reasonably expect over the next few years. The article is backed up by verifiable data, which makes it compelling reading.
Future Times 2011 Volume 3.
 To introduce the new format of Future Times this issue is posted on our web page to be freely available for all interested people.
It highlights some recent gatherings of organistions and people who are dreaming, planning and creating new vibrant inclusive communities for the future. There is a strong emphasis on including all people involved in the planning and action, caring for each other and the environment using the talents and resources available sparingly and wisely.
Money:
From Whence it Comes and Where it Goes.
 One of the great myths of the modern age, is that governments and Reserve Banks create all the money we use. James Robertson knows otherwise, and this chapter of his latest book outlines what really happens, quantifies the total mess the world's money supply is in, and offers what appears to be a sensible alternative.
New Zealand in Space
At the same time the US is winding down its spacecraft progrmme, NZ is winding up its space endeavours. SKA - it's exciting stuff.
SKA (The Square Kilometre Array, the world’s biggest telescope) is purpose build to explore deeply into the Universe, to help answer several mysteries. It seeks to explore the birth of our Universe; to find out how the first black holes and stars were formed; to learn how Galaxies evolve and find out about the mysterious “dark energy”; to find out what generates giant magnetic fields in space, to find out if Earth’s inhabitants are alone in the Universe, and finally to find out if Einstein’s theory of general relativity was right in its prediction of the gravity of black holes.
Check out this website to see how we are involved. www.ska.govt.au or www.ska.govt.nz
Signs of Change
 Signs of Change was a national e-conference (held in seven centres simultaneously in late 2010) showcasing a transition to sustainability. People active in sustainable projects in many places and in different fields each had 10 minutes to showcase their work. This link has presentations and videos generated during the two days. The stories are of local community and individual initiatives, based on sustainable resource use.
Dr Richard Slaughter in Wellington
Dr Richard Slaughter interviewed by Christine Linnell when he was in Wellington in March 2011.
Dr. Richard A. Slaughter, Director of Foresight International, visited New Zealand and spoke at several seminars arranged by Futures Thinking Aotearoa. His presentation, ‘Navigating the Anthropocene’, argues that humanity has entered a new era in which booming populations, climate change, peak oil and economic crises pose major threats to civilisation. Rather than accepting an ‘overshoot and collapse’ scenario, however, Dr. Slaughter is exploring options that will help us adapt to the challenging times ahead.
His most recent book, The Biggest Wake Up Call in History, serves as the background for his presentation.
See the interview here
The Impact of the Media on Politics
Keith Suter
“This essay examines some of the major ways in which the mass media have impacted western politics in recent decades. The overall theme is that we are not so much living in the midst of a dramatic new revolution - but rather in a period when old trends have rapidly accelerated”…...”
This article examines three major drivers of change - technology, content and media finance – and then sees how each has an impact on politics. It concludes with a comment on the need for a politically engaged public. Having the best mass media in the world (whatever that would look it) would be of little point if the general public had little engagement with politics. Read the full essay.
A World to Big to Fail
A fascinating insight into American foreign policy and how it works, and what it might mean for the future. This piece is written by a person in a highly respected position in the US, which makes it even mofre interesting.
The UN and Sustainability
"For most of the last century, economic growth was fuelled by what seemed to be a certain truth: the abundance of natural resources.
We mined our way to growth. We burned our way to prosperity. We believed in consumption without consequences.
Those days are gone......"
Read more about what the Secretary General said at Davos
Planning a Christchurch Future
by Steven Ames
Steven Ames is a consulting long-range planner based in Oregon who works with cities in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In 2001-02, through the sponsorship of the New Zealand Futures Trust, he conducted a series of visioning training workshops across the country, including Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin, Palmerston North and Christchurch. Read his latest report on the revisioning of Christchurch.
J. Bradford DeLong is a professor of economics at UC Berkeley, and was an economic advisor to President Clinton; Susan Rasky is a senior lecturer in journalism at UC Berkeley, and was an award-winning reporter for the New York Times. Together, they have compiled for the Neiman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard lists of what economists need to know about journalists, and what journalists need to know about economists, in order to result in useful and accurate economic reporting. The lists are straightforward, and if followed would make a world of difference.
This is a remarkably good idea, one with direct application in a number of disciplines that are important for society but prone to obfuscation and confusion in the press: environmental science; bioscience; computer science (pretty much all sciences, in fact); developments on the Internet; and, of particular focus here, futurism and foresight. It's too easy for poorly-informed journalists to skim off unrepresentative (but sound-byte-friendly) examples and concepts, and help to further public confusion instead of help to clear it up.
Read more...
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Local Economies for a Global Future
by Jason F. McLennan
This article is about a simple, singular idea, yet the significance of the idea to modern society is profound and far-reaching. Here it is: In the near future anything heavy will become intensely local while at the same time the limits to things that are ‘light’, ideas, philosophies, information will travel even further than today—literally and figuratively. This is a new paradigm for humanity and it has huge implications for the complete reordering of society.
Environmentalists, economists, and sociologists agree: we are in an incredible state of flux, and this is simply the beginning. The planet is undergoing massive change and critical resources are diminishing, conditions to which the human race must respond. Population growth, resource scarcity and climate change will propel us, whether we like it or not, toward a new energy, food and resource paradigm. The world’s economies, based on cheap plentiful energy and the exploitation of people and the environment are starting to crumble. We are beginning an era in which the cozy assumptions of the last half-century are turned upside down, a time when the institutions and technologies that run our civilization are re-engineered. To understand how radical this new paradigm will be, let’s explore similar re-orderings in the past.
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The Future Report
This report from the UK makes for thought-provoking reading. While some of the forecasts are based on a continuation of current trend-lines (always a suspect way of looking at the future), it nevertheless raises some interesting ideas of what might happen over the next decade or so.
The new term: Time for Strategic Policy
Colin James
"Some other strategic issues: modernising tertiary education so cross-boundary rigidities biodegrade; reframing environment and economic policies as mutually reinforcing, not as alternatives; settling employment relations law so it isn't get reworked with every change of government; doing the bits of tax reform Bill English left out; working out for the rest of the country the logic of the Auckland local body reorganisation.
It was a busy government in 2008-11, mostly focused on near-term need. The challenge for this term's busy government will be to focus on the 2020s"
See the full article here.
NEW ZEALAND EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT
2005 - 2011
Eddie Robertson
Youth unemployment has been much in the national and international news in recent times, as an increasing number of people realise how this issue is likely to impact on our futures. This solidly researched statistical review by Eddie Robertson, a longstanding active member of the NZ Futures Trust, outlines how the situation has developed in NZ over the last few years. It's a 'must read' if you're in the business of developing NZ social policies for our future, and a thought-provoking read for every other New Zealander.
The Black Market
The 'unofficial economy', the black market; is it something likely to get bigger if times get tougher? If so, what will it mean? It's not something we'd usually dwell on, but here's what the influential 'Foreign Policy' magazine has to say on the subject.
More Snakes, Fewer Ladders
NZ Institute Report
"....today there are no realistic, agreed and widely understood ambitious targets for improvement of youth outcomes. There is currently no agreed youth outcome improvement strategy and improvement trends are not evident."
"...The challenge is to find a person or agency with the motivation, resources and mandate to successfully launch the changes we propose. The absence of such a readily identifiable person or agency may help explain why there is so much youth disadvantage and so little progress in reducing the social issues experienced by youth, especially Ma¯ ori and Pacific youth."
If you would like to look into this further, or feel that you and/or your organisation would like to rise to the challenge, read the full report. It's very compelling and credible reading.
Mapping our Future
Sir Paul Callaghan -- StrategyNZ
This Youtube video is worth looking at. Some conventional myths about New Zealand are debunked and Sir Paul outlines a new way of thinking about our future.
This youtube video on education today and tomorrow is worth the 11 minutes it takes to run through.
Steven Ames
An interview by Christine Linnell
This Interview in five parts was recorded when Steven Ames visited New Zealand in August 2011.
During his visit he talked about the ENVISIONING A "LIVING CITY" project that he is involved in Bend, a small city in Oregon, USA.
Five years ago, the City of Bend, a lifestyle- and recreation-oriented community of 82,000 located in Oregon's High Desert, was one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S. and expanding at a breakneck pace. At risk was the city's vaunted quality of life and its special relationship with the natural environment. Then came the Global Financial Crises and real estate collapse, bringing the city's economy to its knees. It was clear Bend was on an unsustainable path and that a new vision for its future was in order.
Fortunately, Bend had prepared for that very possibility: In 2007, the Bend City Council adopted the new, citizen-generated Bend 2030 Vision and Action Plan, laying out a sustainable path for the community. Today, Bend 2030 is a non-profit NGO with 63 partner organizations that seeks new and innovative ways to advance the community's vision. One such initiative is the Bend Living City Design Project based on the work of the International Living Futures Institute. The Living City Design Project is attempting to take the notion of sustainability to the next level, transforming every aspect of living in Bend.
Steven Ames is a consulting long-range planner, futurist and principal of Steven Ames Planning, based in Portland, Oregon, USA. Steven has worked with local communities, cities and regions across the U.S., as well as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, in planning for the future. Steven speaks frequently on the topic of civic vision and its connection to growth, urban development and sustainability, and he conducts trainings in the community visioning process in the U.S. and Antipodes.
His visit was jointly supported by the NZ planning Council, Development Action and the New Zealand Futures Trust.
Negative Interest Money (Freigeld)
Mike Gould
For those who like to pay attention to these sorts of things, it is becoming more obvious by the day, that the short term (and maybe the longer term) future for many people is being played out in the financial arena. Increasingly, it looks like the the system most of the world has been using for the last four hundred years (the fractional reserve banking system) has been dislocated so badly by the over-exuberance of the now largely unregulated banking industry, together with the interaction of the main drivers of change in today's world, that it can't be fixed. There's more debt around than can be paid for from the real economy. Limits to growth seem to have been reached in a number of important areas. The interest-based financial system can't cope with slow, or no, economic growth. It's all messy, to say the least.
All spectrums of the political arena are proposing alternative economic/political nostrums, most based on aging economic dogmas, none of which today, appear to work. More and more people are beginning to rebel as their leaders show they are unable to put matters right. Things are starting to look decidedly dodgy, even in the so-called richer economies. New ideas must be looked at, and if they look good, tried out.
A new approach to how we view and use money, has to be a good start. Perce Harpham's 'Kiwi Dividend' and Gareth Morgans 'Big Kahuna' are two very useful New Zealand contributions. Sacred Economics by Charles Eistein is also worth reading if you're interested in seeing the financial system in a wider, spiritual/ecological context. Margrit Kennedy's 'Interest & Inflation Free Money', outlining the concept of negative interest is specially worth reading. It's only 57 pages long, easy to read and easy to understand. The idea also has a great pedigree, that suggests it's more than likely to work!
The biggest blockage to giving it a go, is likely to be the average voter's belief that money is something that has to be earned, not created. It's a misbelief that endures, even though official statistics indicate that over the last decade, more than 90% of money has been digitally produced in the form of debt, by banks, out of thin air!
My pick, for what it's worth, would be a marriage between the Big Kahuna and Freigeld. It could result in a financial system that provided a minimum wage for everyone, (with opportunity for doing better for most of us if we want to) a continuous supply of money in the marketplace to keep business activity going, a huge reduction in the amount of social bureaucracy, and a way of coping with the mega-drivers of change that are increasingly interacting to cause all sorts of mayhem around the globe.
The unfolding major world financial crisis provides an excellent opportunity for a new financial system to be tried, and little old New Zealand with our relatively small financial political lobby, might just be place to give it a go. After all, showing the way in world social innovation is nothing new for us.
Extreme Weather- What’s Behind It All?
Jennifer Coote
 New Zealand papers around 15 July 2011, were highlighting warnings from public presentations by New Zealand scientist Kevin Trenberth, head of the US National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado. He linked recent extreme weather events such as the heatwave in Russia, excessive rains in Queensland, heavy flooding in the Mississippi Valley, USA, high force hurricanes in the Caribbean and the flooding of the Indus river in Pakistan to increased global temperatures, which indicate a new climate pattern.
His research team started from studies for the reasons for the Russian heatwave, and found a consistent linkage with all these other extreme events. There has been globally, over the past three decades, a steady and significant rise in temperatures, even adjusted for natural variability. Over the past decade this has risen sharply, again allowing for natural variability, and indicates a sharp shift in global climate for the longer term. It has marked effects on oceanic temperatures of about 0.55 degrees Celcius. Warm waters hold far more water vapour, about 5%, which means that when the clouds above rain, they deluge. This in turn intensifies the power of storms from the oceans, especially hurricanes, as well as intensifying the Pacific Ocean climate systems of La Nina and El Nino.
Over land, higher temperatures strengthen water retention in systems such as the South Asian Monsoon, which has greater attraction for water vapour in adjacent regions. The disastrous Russian drought and heatwave was the result of this drawing-off of moisture to the monsoon system in South Asia. Drought in parts of Australia could also be linked to the moisture draw-off to “the rains “ in Queensland. Similar patterns are observable in North and South America.
TAKE NOTE
What has previously been acceptable in local government planning for once in 50 or 100 year extreme weather events, now needs to be revised. Such emergencies are likely to occur far more frequently, in greater intensity. Planning and civil defence organisations need to be prepared.
From Report, Page A1 Dominion Post 15 July and Public lecture by Dr K. Trenberth, Wellington, 15 July.
Ladders and Snakes
The New Zealand Institute has just released its first discussion paper focused on social well-being.
This is well worth spending time on. The Executive Summary is crunchy and the full report can be seen here.
How enterprise can flourish without growth-fixation
by Jules Peck
CitizenRenaissance
A number of people have asked me what a flourishing enterprise might look like in practice, how they would incorporate change into their business and get shareholder backing. In this blog I will try to answer those questions.
Within the flourishing enterprise model of strategic change there are three key areas of value-creation; market changes, innovation and capabilities for flourishing. All three are critical and no company can flourish without real effort in each domain, and none can be done by a company on their own. A great deal of innovation is required within companies, much of which needs to be open and collaborative. Aristotle said that no individual could flourish without being an active participant in the flourishing of society and community, no company can succeed without being an active participant in societal and market changes.
Read more...
New wind blowing:
American decline becomes the new conventional wisdom
By Clyde Prestowitz
If this is the view in the US, what does it mean for we New Zealnders?
Read the full article here
Joining the Dots
Every now and again an article appears that captures the essence of where we are in the world. In this article', David Korowicz, Feasta, The Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability, creates a mosaic by joining the dots of some major drivers of change in a way that is very believable. The article is well worth reading.
From 'Science' and 'Nature'
by Jennifer Coote
 From NATURE
3 February, 2011
Social Science poses its biggest challenges for the future, as noted by the US National Science Foundation.
1. How can we induce people to look after their health?
2. How do societies create effective and resilient institutions, such as governments?
3. How can humanity increase its collective wisdom?
4. How do we reduce the ‘skill-gap’ between black and white people in America?
5. How can we aggregate information produced by individuals to make the best decisions?
5. How can we understand the human capacity to create and articulate knowledge?
7. Why do so many female workers still earn less than male workers?
8. How and why does the Social become Biological?
9. How can we be robust against “black swans” (rare events that have extreme consequences)?
10. Why do social processes, in particular civil violence, either persist over time, or suddenly change?
24 February 2011, pp 479-485
A A Hoffman, C M S Gro (Australian scientists), report on research into climate change and evolutionary adaptation.
This evolution can be rapid and help species to counter stressful conditions or to take advantage of ecological opportunities arising from climate change. The challenges are to understand when such evolution will occur, and to identify potential evolutionary winners and losers, for example species lacking evolutionary adaptive capacity living near physiological limits. Evolutionary processes need to be incorporated into managerial programmes designed to minimize biodiversity loss under rapid climate change. These challenges can be met through realistic models of evolutionary change limited to experimental data across a range of species.
From SCIENCE 2011-
14 January, p 36
An innovative technology developed by a Norwegian group, Sahara Forest Project, is being set up by the Red Sea, which utilises sea water, a giant greenhouse and natural breezes to crow crops, for irrigation, and drinking water. The potential from many countries with arid environments is huge. The seawater greenhouse trickles water over a grid, which is ventilated by the natural breezes, and evaporates. In the resulting cool, moist atmosphere, crops grow well. The air leaving the greenhouse is warm, but as it passes over pipes bringing in cold seawater, moisture condenses on the pipes. The resulting water can be used for drinking or irrigation. The demonstration plant is due to be completed by 2015.
11 February, Special Section, from p 692 onwards, Dealing With Data
The deluge of data is a major and increasing headache for scientists worldwide, yet, if properly organised, it is incredibly valuable. This special section provides an enlarged collection of contributions from experts, who explore in more detail the challenges involved, the range of emerging opportunities, and possible solutions. It will take great efforts, not only from the scientific community, but from funders, learned societies and journals, from educators and the lay public, to provide the necessary stewardship.
Science has also teamed with its sister publications, Science Signaling, Science Translational Medicine and Science Careers, to provide a broad look at the issues surrounding the increasing influx of research data, which is online www.sciencemag.org/special/data
Recommended Reviewed Books
Engaging the General Public in Climate Change: Behavioural Change and Communication. Eds Lorrainne Whitmarsh, Safffron O’Neill, Irene Lorenzoni. Earthscan, 2011.
Experts from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of East Anglia, examine what works, and does not work, and why. Best practices worldwide, which get the message across, and effect results, are highlighted.
Conservation Science: Balancing the Needs of People and Nature, Peter Kareiva and Michelle Marvier. Roberts, 2011
Although designed primarily as a textbook, this can be profitably read by those already established in the field, and by interested lay people. It encourages a rethink of assumptions and out-of-date learning. Humans are increasingly disconnected from the natural environment, with consequent diminuation of support for conservation. A strategy which balances the needs of humans and nature is necessary. The writers combine sound, informative text, with suggestions for group projects, with case studies and with potentially provocative essays to raise issues for reconsideration.
World Energy Outlook: 2011
What are the likely impacts arising from changes in the world enery equation? This analysis by Gail Tverberg, a highly respected independent analyst from the United States, makes for thought-provoking reading. Her comments on the future of tourism and the development of agricultural economies are especially relevant to the NZ economy.
The Functions of Money
The international financial crisis is raising serious questions about the world's financial system. This essay by Petrus Simons highlights some of the issues
Structural crisis in the world-system:
where do we go from here?
by Immanuel Wallerstein
Excerpts only. The complete article is available online. ... Premise No. 1 is that all systems—from the astronomical universe to the smallest physical phenomena, and including of course historical social systems—have lives. They come into existence at some point, which needs to be explained. They have “normal” lives, the rules of which need to be explicated. ... [At a certain point, the system] begins to fluctuate wildly and repeatedly, leading to a bifurcation—that is, to a chaotic situation in which a stable equilibrium cannot be maintained. In such a chaotic situation, there are two quite divergent possibilities of recreating order out of chaos, or a new stable system. This period we may call the structural crisis of the system, and there is a system-wide battle—for historical social systems, a political battle—over which of two alternative possible outcomes will be collectively “chosen.”
Read more...
The Public Service:
Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow
Whether you love it or hate it, The Public Service has always been an important feature of New Zealand life. The Future State Project: Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century by Derek Gill, Stephanie Pride, Helen Gilbert, Richard Norman and Alec Mladenovic is an interesting read for those who want to know what the latest thinking is, on where things might, or should, head in the Public Service.
Original article here
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