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The coming end of middle class work

HAVING SUBSTANTIALLY SHRUNK the working class (and, therefore, the membership and influence of trade unions), industrial technology and software are now shrinking the working prospects of the middle class. This is a software-driven revolution and it has been more deeply investigated in the book, Rage Against the Machine. There is little point in raging against […]

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Return — hut on a point

IT’S BEEN DECADES, I thought as the driver throttled back the engines to approach the jetty. Decades… and there was no jetty, no fast catamaran then… just an old wooden launch captained by a man in late middle age. Not the roar of powerful outboards then, just the putt-putt-putt of an old diesel. Today’s catamaran […]

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The scouting unit

IT WAS A BIG ANIMAL, ALRIGHT, though some distance off and, fortunately those new to the forward scouting unit thought, headed in a different direction. It was a quadruped covered in grey fur, in a mottled sort of pattern. It was not a creature new to the colony, however, and a few had encountered it […]

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All that remains… ruins on a Tasmanian mountainside

ALL THAT REMAINS is a bit of stone work where the house once was. And a few pieces of iron rusted by the decades since the fires of ’67 devoured the building and the rest of the farm — one of them looks like it was once part of a pot-bellied stove. The others — […]

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A new forest rises in Randwick

The mission: Establish a food forest at the Permaculture Interpretive Garden, one of the components that make up the Randwick Sustainability Hub. The difficulty: Hard work (though maybe not all that hard) in the warm Spring sunshine. The process: Identify needs > produce a plan for the forest garden > implement the plan over time.

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Sustainable Communities Plan for Chippendale—a submission

ON BEHALF of the Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network, I prepared this submission to the City of Sydney’s public exhibition of the Sustainable Communities Plan for Chippendale prepared, by Chippendale resident, Michael Mobbs.

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In sydney, a new economics recognises its existence

SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT happened on Thursday 27 September 2012. How it unfolds over the next few years will determine whether it will be a good idea stillborn or the start of an authentically new economy.

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Local government version 2.0: from managerialism to platform

What could happen if councils made the change from managerialism to platform? From doing things for people to doing things with them? It might be a move away from vending machine government...

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My work in local government—a few thoughts

A reflection on my recent role working in local government and a validation for my approach to the work...

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A next-to-last project: a new community garden for Woolloomooloo

It was a different process getting the Bourke Street Park Community Garden through the social design and into the design stage. When it's built it will supplement the existing community garden in Woolloomooloo to provide new opportunities in commuity-based urban agriculture and social development for local people...

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