By way of explanation

These stories are about our society and ideas for improving it.

Societies are complex, adaptive systems that have evolved to meet the needs of their inhabitants - not always successfully - as well as their own need to survive.

The rapidly changing, day-to-day events that dominate the daily news media are underlaid by longer term trends that have the potential, sooner or later, to affect the way we live.

These trends can sometimes reach a critical threshold. Rapid change and social transformation follow, and society takes a different path from which return or a change of direction is very difficult, if not impossible.

This transformation is affected by the trends and decisions made prior to its happening. This is why interested citizens should have a stake in the social conversation around critical issues and the means of influencing decisions that potentially affect us all.

The managerialism of today's governments would be better replaced by processes of deliberative democracy at the institutional and community level. New approaches to engaging with their audiences - and society in general - would renew the role of the media in modern societies without jeopardising their established and valuable Fourth Estate role.

It is surely time for civic journalism, citizen journalism and a new engagement with mainstream media.

Page updated:
Saturday, 13 October 2007

SOCIETY - fresh ideas...

IDEAS FOR POSITIVE CHANGE

Profligacy, greed or simply don't care?
An adaptation of the ecological footprinting process reveals Sydney's Eastern Suburbs has a higher than average ecological footprint despite the presence of poverty
[ more ]

Time for a new localism
Helena Norgberg-Hodge says a new localism is the answer
[ more ]

Spirituality and sustainability - a blend for modern times
Satish Kumar - wanderer, activist, editor - has an old message for modern times
[ more ]

The end approaches for the 3000 mile ceasar salad
Permaforest's Tim Winton stimulates Byron Bay locals to think beyond the petrol pump
[ more ]

Four ways to promote citizen participation
The media's role in deepening democracy in Australian society
[ more ]

Booming coastal population calls for housing innovation
Boom or bust in Byron Bay
[ more ]

SUSTAINABILITY & SOCIAL COMMENTARY

Towards sustainability in Australia... some ideas
Bob Beale and Dr Bill Metcalf on sustainability
[ more ]

New settlement in an old land
Aldinga Arts Ecovillage is a new way to live
[ more ]

The ecovillage - a viable alternative?
Ecovillages - viable if economic questions can be resolved
[ more ]

Freakiness to mainstream - resource-efficient building in Sydney
Once the province of the early environmentalists, now mainstream
[ more ]

Kogarah's resource efficient apartments
Kogarah shows that resource efficiency is at home in medium density living
[ more ]

Four ways of reading the land
Author, David Holmgren, describes techniques for gathering information from landscapes
[ more ]

Comfortable mudbrick on the Southern Highlands
Susie's mudbrick house makes minimal impact on the land
[ more ]

Mayors threaten photographer's freedom
It's moral panic time over convergent communications technologies in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs
[ more ]

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Humanitarian aid - doing harm while doing good
Humanitarian aid can harm the people it is supposed to help
[ more ]

Aid workers face increasing risk
Aid workers face dangers they are ill-prepared to cope with
[ more ]

Population - too many or too few?
Higher population can lead to environmental improvement
[ more ]

Letter from Vietnam
Veteran international development worker, Rosemary Morrow, writes about disaster preparedness in Vietnam
[ more ]

MEMOIR

Autobiographical stories as accounts of memory.

Authors lost and found"
Authors long ago lost discovered in Byron Bay and Manly
[ more ]

An excursion into shared memory: A house, a mystery package and the Red Phone

The story begins on Glebe Point Road, that long, undulating strip of asphalt...
[ more ]




Exercising his freedom of speech, ABC Gardening Australia presenter, Peter Cundall, speaks out against plans for a pulp mill on the banks of Launceston's Tamar River.

C o n t e n t : _R u s s_ G r a y s o n ___D e s i g n :_ F i o n a_ C a m p b e l l_ &_ R u s s_ G r a y s o n
PO Box 1045 MANLY NSW 1655 AUSTRALIA_ |_ info@pacific-edge.info_ |_ www.pacific-edge.info
© Russ Grayson/Fiona Campbell 2003. Information is provided for general interest and no responsibility is accepted for any consequences of the use of this material.