On Saturday 4th October 2014 I had the pleasure of making a presentation as part of the OASES Graduate College Saturday Breakfast Series.  During this workshop, I led participants through an exploration of how we might drive positive change, reinvigorate our political culture and build the socio-economic infrastructure necessary for resilience and prosperity as we confront a number of converging global crises.

DOWNLOAD: Presentation Slideshow.pdf

We are entering the Age of Consequences—also characterised as an Age of Limits, the Anthropocene, the Long Emergency—a period of great societal transition, driven by the related threats of climate change, energy insecurity, economic instability and technological innovations that are driving marginal costs of production toward zero. We approach these converging challenges burdened by a broken political process, hijacked by powerful special interest groups dedicated to the preservation of the dying economy. The socio-economic and infrastructure and political culture required to prosper in this emerging new reality are nascent and under-developed.

Using a back-casting model to engage in a process of strategic imagining, participants discussed what it might mean to “win” in the Age of Consequences—to drive positive change, reinvigorate our political culture and build the socio-economic infrastructure necessary for resilience and prosperity in this time of great transition.

Thank you to OASES Graduate School for the invitation to present in their Saturday Breakfast Series and to the workshop participants for their enthusiastic contributions to what was a lively and stimulating discussion.

—

Further Information

Kurt Campbell et al, (2007) ‘The Age of Consequences: The Foreign Policy and National SecurityImplications of Global Climate Change‘, Center for a New American Century.

Sun Tzu, The Art of War – Full Translation.

Ben Habib, (2013) ‘The Whitehaven Coal Hoax: Climate Change, Liberal Democracy and the Drawbacks of 19th Century Ideology‘.