You may have been reading about the Australian community engagement firm, Bang the Table, recently caught up in one of those sorts of political issues that characterise community high-profile engagement – at least in some Australian states. I have been concerned that the “baby might be thrown out with the bathwater” in this case [...]
A few months ago, I was lucky enough to have to write a short piece on evaluation for a consulting report. I reviewed what I had in my library, did a quick Internet search and decided it was time to bone up on the latest. So I took myself off for two blissful days in [...]
“Sustainability Fatigue”
I’m getting the feeling that our communities are being engulfed in a wave of “sustainability fatigue”.
“Don’t talk to me any more about climate change,” a friend says over coffee in the Village. She cradles her coffee and mumbles, “I’ve had a gutful of all that pessimistic talk!”
Two small Aboriginal children are playing in the [...]
The other day I went to a local community workshop in my small rural village. The topic is not important for my purposes and it’s not my intention to embarrass anyone.
Rather I want to make a point: there’s more to community workshops than a conversation at tables, participants scribbling down a few ideas and facilitators writing down [...]
This week, I’ve been reflecting on the responses I’ve received to my recent blog post about Mary Ann Hiserman, my friend in Berkeley who was a wheelchair user and activist for people with disability. I’ve been thinking about the actual experience of being “locked out” of an environment. And comparing it to being “locked out” [...]
A conversation at dinner with friends about global climate change raises the issue of scepticism and how it’s difficult for some people to come to grips with complex information. I was reminded how difficult it is to discuss sustainability issues in certain contexts. While we use the metaphor of the “kitchen table”, the “dinner table” may be another matter completely!
I will be conducting monthly workshops in collaboration with the Byron Bay-based organisation, “Will of the People” at the monthly Sunday market in Byron Bay from 12 noon to 2 pm.
For market details, see: http://www.byron-bay.com/markets/
For the local weather, see: http://www.byron-bay.com/weather/index.html
At the workshop each month we will work on one of the six components of the KTS [...]
I held a highly successful KTS workshop in Kitsap County, Washington State on Friday 13 February 2009.
Over sixty participants attended.
A video has been made of the workshop.
For information, please contact Rhiannon Fernandez at rfernand@co.kitsap.wa.us or + 1 360 337 7097
I delivered a public lecture on the topic of Kitchen Table Sustainability in Vancouver in February 2009. Also speaking was my Canadian co-author, Nancy Hofer.
Why are community engagement processes failing to engage local people with sustainability issues? And what can we do about it? I took a hard look at current community engagement processes in Canada, Australia and [...]
The other day we abandoned the shed to the rats, the python and the floods and drove to the University at the Gold Coast. I was a bit early for my lecture so I enjoyed listening to the students making their presentations about a planning project.
They were sophisticated postgraduate students and very articulate. Great research and [...]
