Remaking california: reclaiming the public good pdf download

And underlying everything is the biggest question of all — how do we collectively scoop up all the issues we care about and use this one big moment of disruption to put us on the path to a world where people and planet survive and thrive? Covid has been a relatively positive experience for some, while a very traumatic experience for others.

Some people are finding the pleasure of more time with family, a re-prioritisation of what is important and a re-localisation and connection to place. Others are trapped in difficult domestic situations, financially broken, desperately lonely and facing the future with huge uncertainties. Some people are experiencing elements of both. We need to act in both the short term and the long term. There is immediate work to be done to alleviate some of the most immediate pain.

At the same time anything we do now will lay the ground for the world we create and so we need to be thinking and planning long term as well. Our public goods are at once saving us and poorly run and provisioned. Do we celebrate the wonderful institutions like the ABC, our public health system and our welfare infrastructure; or do we point out the fraying edges of these services, the long-term attacks and the reality that the welfare system is a nightmare for so many?

We have thus far weathered the covid storm well, in part because of our incredible history of providing the public good, yet it has and still does exclude many and is built on stolen land. We know that action on covid, climate and social justice must be linked. We know that most Australians want a country where decisions are made for real human people and their real human loved ones and the incredible, wonderful natural environment that sustains us — rather than boring and discredited political posturing that simply increases the numbers clicking over in the profitable spreadsheets of the uber wealthy.

And that we need to do this in a way that grounds us in the best of who we already are. We think Australia is ready for a conversation about public good. The Australian state has a history and culture of providing for the public good and a high level of support for its universal provision, likely stemming from some early experiences such as the introduction of a living wage, the 8-hour day and the pension and from the political thinking popular at the time when colonial Australia was establishing its institutions.

It was a time when the role of government, as provider of services such as roads, railways and laws, came before individuals and their rights. This is a very different type of thinking to that which underpinned the colonisation of the United States some several hundred years earlier, when the rights of the individual were seen superior to the rights of government.

The idea of public good in Australia was also shaped by the fact that the most powerful collective of Australian colonisers were primarily from the middle classes rather than the aristocracy and thus more willing to experiment with different types of democracy from secret ballot, to votes for women, to representative democracy and to participate in conversations about purpose of government and civil society.

As a young colonial nation Australia had strong bipartisan support for the role of the state in providing the public good. While this radically shifted by the end of the 20th Century as neoliberal ideology took hold and bipartisan support shifted to be in favour of privatisation, these foundations still have a strong legacy.

In reflecting on the history and provision of public good it is important to recognise that in many cases Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were not included in the definition of public, and were intentionally excluded from benefiting from the public good. A new conversation on the public good is an opportunity to acknowledge this, to make reparation and explore the intersection with First Nations self-determination and the call for voice, treaty, truth. Today, examples of the public provision of goods and services for the needs of people and planet are everywhere.

Some of them are so normal that we fail to see them. Many of these examples have been starved of funding for maintenance or resourcing that would allow them to modernise and grow. Yet despite their limits, the fact that so many of these services seem invisible to us and are taken for granted, means that we have a strong basis for building and enlarging.

In fact, it is their very normality that makes them both vulnerable and strong — many of us assume we will be taken care of without understanding the infrastructure and frameworks that support this care. In a means-tested pension was introduced for male workers over 65 60 if permanently incapacitated , laying the groundwork for various pension schemes over the following century. Economic advantage and disadvantage reinforce themselves across the life cycle, and often on to the next generation.

The democratic state exists not — as in the case of the totalitarian state — to impose its own independent will, but to interpret and mediate the will of the citizens that constitute and shape its future direction.

They are its constitution. How are we to locate it? How are we to relate to it? Ministers of state may inform us that the state no longer governs from a single locus of power, but devolves power through networks of governance; yet state control of higher education through admissions and funding policies and through the mechanisms of bureaucratic accountability becomes increasingly invasive. The state seems to veer unpredictably between what central government sees as a strategy of decentralised enablement and what at the institutional level is experienced as a relentlessly disabling policy of centralised control.

Torn between rolling itself back and pushing itself forward, the state is increasingly out of joint. It means re-imagining higher education as a public good within a broader and deeper polity. In a democracy what is good for the state has to be for the good of the polity — and what is good for the polity is for the polity to determine.

How, then, might we set about this task of imaginative reclamation? We might start by acknowledging that higher education is not synonymous with the university — it is in and for society. Higher education is conducted in most university settings, but is also conducted in a range of other educational settings: the workplace, further education colleges, public libraries, the home, internet cafes, etc. Throwing the forbidden places open means, among other things, valuing these other places of learning as contributing to the public space of higher education.

That is not to devalue the university, but simply to speak back to the assumption that the university has a monopoly on higher education. Universities must reach out, render themselves more permeable and accessible, and re-orient themselves beyond their own institutional interests. More specifically higher education must re-imagine its institutional connectivity with further education, secondary schooling, primary schooling, and early-years provision. Universities are far too ready to lay the blame for their own inadequacies on the quality of state provision.

This is the continuing lament of vice chancellors and principals of elite universities whose admission figures display an appalling disregard for social equity and the equalising of opportunity and outcome across society. School students, further education students, university students, teachers and lecturers, and parents know this is a big lie.

No one in their right democratic mind wants universities to be finishing academies for the privately educated sons and daughters of privileged elites. Higher education must help re-define new forms of civic engagement. This is coming - the delay is because we are actually working on kick starting this right now for All documents and content are copyrighted and are provided for non-commercial applications. The intellectual property is and cannot be duplicated without written consent and release from Mobius Strip Press LLC.

This is our new page for showcasing our latest article regarding a "Constitutional Perspective. We need your support in efforts and helping us in this battle for our Liberties. Please click on the "Contact us" to do either of these. Thank you. Top of page. Free website hit counter. Reclaiming the Republic The focus of this site is to serve as a organization point for Constitutional Warriors and concerned citizens to coalesce and establish ground efforts within their area and State to move their State legislators to audit the Constitution and call upon their fellow States to convene a convention for Republic Review.

There is no greater issue facing our Republic today than Federal Tyranny. If we work together we can save our individual liberties and sovereignty, the sovereignty for each State and the Republic all the States collectively , and most importantly save our Constitution!

The States must take back the roles, responsibilities, and powers that were reserved to them and were not expressly delegated to the general government. The process to do this is simple. It only takes one State to initiate an audit and then call upon their fellow States to join in a convention to audit the Constitution as a convention which we refer to as Republic Review.

Target conservative or dark red State Legislators to learn the founding principles of republicanism and the separation of powers between the States and the general i. Federal government through the irrefutable argument for Republic Review Presentation and bullet points Once they understand the premise of the audit they also need to learn what and why Madison and Jefferson attempted to conduct Republic Review in , which will then help them realize and actualize their role, authority, and power of corrective oversight over the Constitution.

As they do, the leading legislators championing Republic Review in each legislative body will begin working on draft Resolutions to call for an audit of the Constitution against the general government They will also create a Resolution calling upon sibling States to join them in the audit to conduct Republic Review These Resolutions should be inclusive of all identified unconstitutional RRPs Once a comprehensive resolution with all violations has been passed by both houses this resolution will be promulgated to fellow States that would be receptive to fulfilling their obligation of preserving the Constitution and Republic.

Adopting a theoretically sophisticated and practical approach, Property in the Body: Feminist Perspectives rejects the notion that the sale of bodily tissue enhances the freedom of the individual through an increase in moral agency. Combining feminist theory and bioethics, it also addresses the omissions which are inherent in policy analysis and academic debate.

For example, whilst women's tissue is particularly central to new biotechnologies, the requirement for female labour is largely ignored in subsequent evaluation.

In its fully revised second edition, this book also considers how policies and developments vary between countries and within specific areas of biomedicine itself.

Most importantly, it analyses the new and emerging technologies of this field whilst returning to the core questions and fears which are inextricably linked to the commercialisation of the body.

Today, higher education institutions and programs are beset with multiple, and often conflicting, pressures and demands. Higher education is regarded by societies in general, and at the political level in particular, as a pathway to securing continued economic growth and ensuring cultural growth in surrounding societal contexts. Future academics are expected to become experts within their disciplines and at the same time to acquire and develop generic competences and transferable skills directly translatable into job market and professional contexts.

These conflicting and fragmented policy approaches to higher education leaves academic leaders, teacher, researchers, and students with an incoherent curriculum and a confused and eroded academic identity and societal outlook.

Much literature within higher education research that engages with similar topics are dominated by a backwards-looking and heavy critique of current political and educational conditions for the university and higher education. This volume suggests a new tack that is defined by openness and optimism towards possibilities for a transformative higher education curriculum-- that at the same time stays firmly rooted within the foundational academic soil.

By drawing on, and contributing to, the emerging research field the philosophy and theory of higher education, the book combines critique with a constructive and future-oriented approach and outlook on higher education.