A Different Kind of Sense Making in Times of Chaos and Fake News
A plague on both your houses! I am sped. Is he gone and hath nothing? (Mercutio to Romeo in Romeo and Juliet Act 3. Sc. 1) Mercutio’s curse of frustration and anguish, as he confronts his imminent death, is in some senses echoed by many across the globe as they confront seemingly unpalatable and opposing choices. Does one, on the …
The Decentralisation Revolution: Now no-one and everyone can own networking power
Perhaps the line of logic here is a bit complicated but in my view the line of logic will be repeated again and again in the next few years. It goes as follows: When the internet was first developed two important principles were central to its design. The first was that the internet as conceived by Robert E Kahn and …
The big silence
About the time of this last post I decided to do a PhD that critiques the work of Jeremy Rifkin and in particular his work on the Third Industrial Revolution. I chose to do it under the supervision of Sohail Inayatullah a globally renowned futures thinker, philosopher and more recently UNESCO Chair of Future Studies, using macro history as a …
The transformation challenge for the Property Sector: Rethinking form and space in the 21st Century.
The form and space of our cities reflects what we have valued and what we value. The banks with their Roman or Greek columns, churches with spires and formal botanic gardens say much about what our 19th century forebears valued and aspired to. So too, the Mechanic’s Institutes, the surprisingly enduring 50’s state house and the large cloned shopping mall …
Re-imagining Christchurch as a 21st century CBD
In November, the Chinese held their 18th National Party Congress. As the debate focused on a new era of leadership, one of the key influences was Jeremy Rifkin’s bestseller the 3rd Industrial Revolution. Perhaps its lessons already in currency in Europe, might well apply to the reframing and rebuilding of Christchurch’s new CBD as well? Lets consider: Getting …
FOOD; A MIRROR OF LIFE AND LIFESTYLES?
One of the best ways to understand another society or culture is through the ways it produces and consumes food. It offers us a first glimpse into ritual, values and custom. In one way it is a mirror of what has been and what might be. This insight or reflection is as true for us as any one else. So …
Running on empty as history ruptures
It is now very clear, in this second decade of the 21st century, that the rules for success in almost every sphere are changing. The very basis of competitiveness is being reinvented before our eyes. In other words current ideas and associated value propositions are not delivering the energy to keep organisation’s moving. Those caught up in the eddies of …
Reliving the blacksmiths nightmare
The following think piece came from some work I recently did in with a group exploring the future of manufacturing in Victoria Australia. The model I suggest is equally appropriate in other developed countries. A little over 100 years ago the blacksmiths, stable owners and telegraph officers saw with some bemusement the first cars go by. What those vehicles heralded …
A future of bricolage
Could new technologies and different business models combined with a healthy dose of necessity see us run quickly into the age of bricolage? While in literature “bricolageâ€Â means to create a work of art from diverse pieces or forms, in a wider sense it means to create a product or service from whatever is at hand. While bricolage has long …
Hard questions; no philosophy
For months now we have been treated to a daily diet of ‘wiki leaks.’ In the process how the worlds national power broker’s think has been laid bare for all to see and for the most part found wanting. It has one might add provided a useful page filler for most of the world’s media in the process. Their indignation …
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