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For the vast majority of us, the future has to be better than it is right now, and the only way that will happen is for as many of us as possible to contribute to the direction that it develops. Join Richard Bawden and his guests in the fortnightly episodes as they explore ideas, opinions, provide facts and evidence in support of the aim of getting to better together. If you are among the many who seek to involve themselves in developing a better future, please come and join the conversation ...
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In this podcast series, we have drawn on the words of the American anthropologist, the late Margaret Mead, as a recurring inspiration for our theme of getting to better together. “Never doubt” she wrote “that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has”. Indeed, it is this belief t…
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There is much talk these days about the ethical challenges that generative artificial intelligence technologies pose. While most of us might be hazy about what these are, they themselves are in little doubt. A question to ChatGPT on these lines will result in a list of areas of concern that include job displacement, intellectual property, transpare…
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It has recently been announced that the University of the Sunshine Coast has been assessed by the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings, as being within the top 2% of more than 1500 universities across the globe for its performance with respect to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It was ranked first in Queensland and …
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The emergence of generative artificial intelligence and easily accessible large language models like ChatGPT, have the capability of challenging our self-perceptions and what we mean by intelligence, sentience, and consciousness. These new technologies have triggered major concerns that AI has or will soon have the capacity to genuinely “change eve…
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The concept of universities engaging with communities and organisations beyond their walls, is a recurring theme throughout this podcast series. Indeed, it was the submission by the distinguished American scholar, Ernest Boyer a quarter of a century ago, that universities should become much more vigorous partners in the search for answers to the mo…
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At some date between August and December of this year, we Australians are going to be asked to vote in a referendum on whether we do or do not approve of altering the nation’s Constitution “to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice”. The issue is particularly complicated by the long h…
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While the international development and leadership aspects of the title of our Centre here at the University of the Sunshine Coast are generally well-understood, the meaning of ‘the phrase in the middle’ – social entrepreneurship – is less familiar to many. The word entrepreneurship itself tends to confuse the issue. Images of market-driven, profit…
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The merest mention of Nepal evokes immediate images of the majestic grandeur of the Himalayan mountains, of precipitous gorges and mountain passes, and of course, of Mount Everest herself, the highest mountain on the planet, standing some 8.8 thousand metres above sea level. Yet tragically, this country is no paradise on Earth. Literally sandwiched…
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All too often it seems, the pressing issues of the day that demand the attention of us all, are just too vast, too remote, too mind-bogglingly complex, that that attention is left wanting. We leave it to ‘them’ – to governments, corporations, our formal institutions, and so on - to fix the changing climate, the threats to world peace, the instabili…
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In this episode, as a solo presentation, the host of our podcasts, Emeritus Professor Richard Bawden, reflects on the Mission of the mini-series and discusses some of the key challenges that have been highlighted over the past two years and 40 plus episodes of the initiative. The basic purpose of the endeavour, he argues, has been to contribute to …
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An elder in Aboriginal civilisation has been defined as someone who has gained recognition as a custodian of knowledge and lore – the customs, legends and myths that have been held for millennia. Whilst there are differences within different communities, one common trait among indigenous elders is a deep spirituality – a commitment to a worldview t…
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In a recent solo episode in this mini-series, our host, Richard Bawden, talked of the significance of three different ways of knowing and their associated bodies of knowledge that he believes are foundational to addressing the pressing issues of this modern industrial era - ecological, economic, and ethical. These, he submitted, are critical founda…
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On March 8th we celebrate the International Woman’s Day [IWD] in Australia - although it would be more accurate to state that this celebration is somewhat conditional, for there remain issues that we need to still address in this country with respect to reaching gender parity. Furthermore, as Australians, with respect to our global responsibilities…
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In essence, what we each ‘do’ in, and to the world about us, is overwhelmingly influenced by how we each ‘see’ that world: how each of us attempts to make sense of what is happening about us as a prelude for doing something in response. We refer to our ‘way of seeing’ in this context, as our worldviews. These reflect complex sets of beliefs and val…
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When we hear the word ‘entrepreneurship’, the image that all too often springs to mind is less than flattering, to say the least. “The Wolves of Wall Street at work using someone else’s money to make money for themselves”. “Private gain is the go and Greed is Good”. In reality of course, an entrepreneur is anyone who sets up a business - typically,…
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Effective communication is an essential aspect of Getting to Better Together. How could we ever achieve anything if we were unable to understand each other: if we fail to agree about the meaning of anything? Yet, at the same time, communication would be virtually impossible if we paused to reflect on matters of meaning and language and understandin…
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What’s significant about togetherness in the pursuit of Getting to Better? Well it would seem that when we really work closely together in some form of collective or other, that we can achieve a state of group consciousness where we feel so immersed in the culture of the group – be it a commercial business, a voluntary organisation, an educational …
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The central theme of our podcast mini-series of Getting to Better Together, is that it is only through collaboration that we will be able to deal successfully with the really pressing issues of the day. How can we trigger local community responses to matters, like climate change, that have global dimensions with local impacts? This represents a par…
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In Australia, the service industries now provide virtually four jobs out of five while our exports are dominated by primary resources from mining and agriculture. Whatever happened to our manufacturing industries? When we compare ourselves to other developed economies it would seem that we lag significantly behind them as an industrialised nation a…
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Over past episodes in this podcast mini-series, we have explored many of the pressing challenges of the day: Most especially the changing climate of the planet and the related global warming have focused our attention. We have talked about the key features and about the appeals by the IPCC and other international and national bodies for policies, s…
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On one day soon within the coming months, there will be 8 billion of we humans on this planet. Clustered across nearly 200 different nations we will all be hustling and bustling away, to survive in a world that is beset by uncertainties and complex social, economic, cultural, and ecological challenges. Given that most of these challenges have truly…
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Another report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) brings another round of disturbing news about the extent to which the globe continues to warm particularly as a result of the elevated emissions of the so-called green-house gases. As long as we continue to rely on the burning of fossil fuels as our major source of energy, the…
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The central theme of this podcast series of Getting to Better Together is that it is only through collaboration that we will be able to deal successfully with the pressing issues of the day. So how do we get together to address these issues? And how do we figure out what 'better' is in the first place? In this episode, our host Richard Bawden explo…
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One of the major impediments to progress being made in response to the dire challenges posed by climate change, seems to be our reluctance as human beings to see ourselves as part of nature. In a somewhat refreshing commentary, a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released in February, suggests that major steps for…
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In the previous episode in this series, we heard from two young women about their experiences as immigrants into this country. The context set by our host Richard Bawden, was the fact that the recording was made during Harmony Week starting 21st March. A week of celebrations of the cohesion and inclusion in Australia as a multicultural society. In …
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In this week we celebrate nationally what has become known as Harmony week. Established by the Howard government back in 1999, Harmony Day (the 21st March) was intended as a celebration of cohesion and inclusion within Australian society. It was also to promote a tolerant and culturally diverse society. In this episode we hear from two young women …
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Not knowing how the future will turn out is a great challenge to those who have to educate today's children to be effective leaders in the world of tomorrow. As the COVID 19 pandemic illustrates so poignantly, the world is likely to throw up more and more issues that are inherently complex and filled with uncertainties and even unknowables. So how …
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The basic assumption of getting to better together is that, when faced with common concerns, people will want to do that - or at least recognise that they (we!) need to do so. Even when these concerns are pressing, however, all too often, we simply ignore the need for communal discussion and action and hope that the proverbial ‘others’ will act in …
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The end of the year is nigh, and this calls for some reflections on our journey of Getting to Better Together over the past twelve months. This episode is a solo effort by our host Richard Bawden. Rather than presenting a synopsis of all twenty or so episodes to date however, Richard looks for signs of betterment across three particularly pressing …
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At its 50th annual meeting in June 202, the World Economic Forum recognising the profound socio-economic instabilities associated with the COVID19 pandemic, argued that this presented opportunities to reset global priorities. Such a Great Reset would focus on rebuilding a more equitable resilient society in a sustainable way, based on environmental…
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When we are up to our eyes in our own crises, it is pretty difficult to appreciate the plight of others who are having to face challenges of an even greater magnitude. Take the case of the COVID pandemic. It is true that the wretched virus has had a very serious systemic impact on us here in Australia. At least we have been able to rely on formal s…
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In this episode, our host Richard Bawden talks with Oliver Freeman who is a futurist and one of the pre-eminent scenario planners in Australia. The conversation ranges over a number of issues related to the theme of developing foresight or learning from the future. This is of huge significance given the turbulence of the complex and ever-changing t…
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What each of us does in (and to) the world about us is essentially determined by how we see that world: Our behaviours and practices are functions of our perspectives which, in turn, are shaped by particular sets of beliefs and assumptions that we hold about such matters as the nature of nature, the nature of human nature, and the nature of knowled…
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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have such a frightening impact right across the world, it exposes very significant deficiencies, in so many different ways, to the quest of Getting to Better Together. In the first place, there continues to be a lack of shared understanding of knowledge about the basic science of viruses and other infectious di…
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