The diverse articles and resources in this section are all part of the story of Resilience and Prosperity for business, economy and community – what BSSB is calling Strategic Sustainability. This is an area of emerging understanding and importance within the sustainability field and one which BSSB feels is the central hub of meaningful, relevant and high leverage sustainability. Happy reading!
- “Brighter Prospects: Enhancing the resilience of Australia” by Australia 21 (2009). This is a vitally important report published in March 2009 by one of Australia’s foremost research organisations Australia 21. There are a variety of perspectives presented about resilience which have relevance to business, economic development, education, national security etc. Highly recommended reading.
- “Beyond Economic Growth: From Quantity to Quality” by Richard Eckersley.Richard Eckersley looks at our options for the critical century ahead and questions an economic rationale that asks people in developed nations to eat another four litre tub of ice cream so that a child in the third world can afford a single cone.
- “A Manifesto for Wellbeing” by Clive Hamilton, the Australia Institute. Australians are three times richer than their parents and grandparents were in the 1950s, but they are no happier. Despite the evidence of a decline in national wellbeing, governments continue to put economic interests first. The obsession with economic growth means other things that could improve our wellbeing are sacrificed. There is widespread community concern that the values of the market—individualism, selfishness, materialism, competition—are driving out the more desirable values of trust, self-restraint, mutual respect and generosity. Many people feel alienated from the political process; the main parties seem too alike and think of progress only in material terms. The challenge of our age is to build a new politics that is committed, above all, to improving our wellbeing.
- “Our Panarchic Future” by Thomas Homer-Dixon.A theory that explains the evolution of ecosystems may apply to civilizations as well-and it says we're approaching a critical phase. [Editor's note: The following article is adapted from The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization, by Thomas Homer-Dixon (copyright © Resource & Conflict Analysis, Inc.) and printed by permission of Island Press, Washington, D.C. (www.islandpress.org).]
- “Alignment Beyond Agreement” by Yasuhiko Genku Kimura. Alignment is congruence of intention, whereas agreement is congruence of opinion. Opinion is a supposition elevated to the status of a conclusion held to be right but not substantiated by positive proof-rational or evidential. Because disagreement means difference of opinion, disagreement often escalates into a dispute as to whose opinion is right. When the dispute is not resolved through the logic of argument, the illogic of might tends to enter the realm of right, sometimes resulting in violent conflict. Alignment does not require agreement as a necessary condition. Alignment as congruence of intention is congruence of resolution for the attainment of a particular aim. An aim being in and of the future, unknown or unpredicted variables inevitably enter the generative equations for its achievement. Inherent in alignment, therefore, is the spirit of quest. This is a fascinating and very insightful article (a little long and heavy going in parts but worth persevering).
- “2009+: 10 Trends: Predictions and Provocations” by Richard Watson.This is a fascinating report from a foresight specialist, which identifies some of the key emerging trends and drivers for change in 2009.
- “Change Has Come to America” Speech by then President Elect Obama.What is there to say about this speech – a watershed moment in US history and a huge relief for the rest of the world!
- “Learning for a Change” by Allan M. Webber.Ten years ago, Peter Senge introduced the idea of the "learning organization." Now he says that for big companies to change, we need to stop thinking like mechanics and to start acting like gardeners.
- “Turning on a Sixpence: Creating a learning base for community engagement” by Sally MacKinnon.A personal account about the timeliness for a paradigm shift in community engagement – from a marketing base to a learning and collaborative base.
- “Celebrating 40 Years Since the 1967 Referendum” Speech by Minister Linda Burney. A highly articulate and moving speech that celebrates the 1967 Australian referendum where 90% of Australian people voted in favour of granting Aboriginal people citizenship in their own country.
- “The Six or Seven Axioms of Social Change: Margaret Mead’s Gift” by Zaid Hassam. “For a small group of thoughtful and committed people to change the world, they must believe that change is possible. They must be ready to act the moment a stuck system becomes liquid. They will only be effective if they display collective intelligence. Finally, they must live in a small world.” A great personal essay that explores and refines anthropologist Margaret Mead’s famous saying about social change. Based on systems thinking and affirming in the end.
- “Peter Senge’s Necessary Revolution” Business Week 2008. An exploration of business and organisational specialist Peter Senge’s new book “The Necessary Revolution” which links his business focus with deep sustainability and transition.
- “A Dialogue Reader”A collection of thought provoking articles about dialogue and purposeful conversation. Aligned mainly with physicist David Bohm’s important research on dialogue.
- “An Alternative Agriculture is Possible: The Politics of Food is Politics”
By De Clarke and Stan Goff. A long but fruitful essay about industrial food production by two excellent writers and gardeners which interestingly, transcends traditional, adversarial politics.
- “The Food and Farming Transition: Towards a post-carbon food system” by the Post Carbon Institute (2009). One of the first reports to address in highly practical ways, how to transition one of our major industries and systems to a post-carbon model. Excellent reading.
- “The Role of Conversation in Evolution” by Tom Atlee.Tom founded and runs the US based Co-Intelligence Institute and writes brilliantly about collaboration, conversation, dialogue and human evolution. This is an article that supports the value of conversation in social change and transformation.
- “The Great Turning: From empire to earth community” by David Korten. Korten is one of the leading lights of the human evolution movement and this is one of his inspiring, big picture articles about the opportunities we have to build a better world.
- “A brief history of September 11, 1906: the Birth of Satyagraha” Adapted by Nonviolent Peaceforce volunteer Derek Mitchell & Nonviolent Peaceforce staff from the writings of Professor Michael Nagler, Professor emeritus and founder of the Peace and Conflict Studies program at University of California, Berkeley. An exploration of Mahatma Gandhi’s development of the passive resistance/non-violent direct action processes that eventually transformed India into a democracy.
- “Can We Use Fear as a Motivator for Change?” by Satish Kumar. Satish is the editor of Resurgence Magazine and an international peace movement leader. This is a fascinating talk he gave about the dangers and futility of attempting to catalyse change through fear.
- “We Learned It All In Kindergarten” by Robert Fulgham. Awonderful chestnut about the simplicity of doing things right and doing the right things.
