There are only two ways to respond to the US presidential election, one cataclysmic and the other chock full of hope. You could look at what has happened in the election, and the turbulent and distressing four years since the last one and come to the discomfiting conclusion that America is disappearing. All that we […]
Smart Cities: People, Place and Power
It was great to have the chance today in a short presentation to the South Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (SSROC) to revisit 20 years of engagement in the “smart cities” movement, which for me started as a member of the small team inside Cisco that started to explore ways that networked technologies played into […]
Why is is so hard to do what we know? Or what happens when I’ve hit the wall
There’s a lot of movement at the moment around questions of rebuilding after COVID (assuming there is an ‘after COVID’; I think this is with us for a while) especially in what is sometimes referred to as the “foundation economy” (health, social care, education, food – what Sydney University’s John Buchanan recently described as the […]
Reflections on government and COVID19: expertise, the role of government, the new public work, social imagination and beating the binary #3
8 In my work in the public sector over the last 20 years or more, one of the most familiar tropes is the exasperated crusade so many engage in to find better ways to collaborate within and across governments and between governments and the wider community. The trouble is that aspiration and hope seem to […]
Reflections on government and COVID19: expertise, the role of government, the new public work, social imagination and beating the binary #2
5 Public work is work that results in solutions and services that are available and accessible to all, are usually paid for by some form of collective investment and effort and which are accountable and ethical in ways that everyone can easily see and understand. They are common, collective, legible and provide benefits that can […]
Reflections on government and COVID19: expertise, the role of government, the new public work, social imagination and beating the binary #1
1 It turns out that good government, done well and an effective, skilled and well-resourced public sector matter. They matter all the time, but they matter especially in times of crisis and danger. The trouble is, if you don’t think they matter all the time and mistreat them accordingly in the way you talk about […]
