DSA & Q-Lab: 'In an Age of Answers, Questions Matter More Than Ever'

This afternoon I joined an online webinar organised by THE DIGITAL STATECRAFT ACADEMY:

'Gaining understanding by structuring inquiry: 
probing data with one right question after another is almost here'

The art, science, and practice of governing well in the algorithmic age

The Digital Statecraft Academy (DSA) is a global hub for cultivating visionary public leaders ready to navigate the complexities of data, AI, and digital governance. Backed by world-leading academic and policy institutions, DSA equips today’s leaders with the tools, knowledge, connections, and foresight to govern ethically, strategically, and resiliently in a rapidly evolving digital world.

 

There is a manifesto to read and endorse: and Ten Principles of Digital Statecraft

 

Also highlighted was Q-Lab 

About Q-Lab

Questions shape what becomes visible, what is investigated, what is funded, and ultimately what societies come to know. They are fundamental not only to scientific inquiry but to a wide range of sectors and practices—from education and journalism to policymaking, medicine, law, and business, among others.

Despite this foundational role, questions are seldom treated as objects of systematic study. Established fields examine intelligence, knowledge production, and decision-making, yet few, if any, take questions themselves as their subject.

How should we define a good question? Which questions are most likely to serve as stepping stones toward breakthrough insights? Who determines which questions matter most? In short, what do we actually know about questions?

Questions Lab (Q-Lab) is the first multidisciplinary initiative dedicated to establishing questions as a field of study and practice, understanding how questions emerge, how they evolve, which questions make the greatest impact, and how they shape the trajectory of knowledge across disciplines and generations, in order to help individuals and institutions navigate complexity, deliberate more thoughtfully, and set better priorities.

I look forward to more events in future.

 

Previously: Questions in eclipse : 'question'

DSA Webinar: Gaining understanding by structuring inquiry: probing data with one right question after another

Dear colleagues,

 

You are warmly invited to an online webinar hosted by The Digital Statecraft Academy (DSA), which may be of interest to those working with data and evidence in social policy.

 

DSA Webinar: Gaining understanding by structuring inquiry:
probing data with one right question after another

 

Date: Thursday 8 October 2026

Time: 15:00 BST / 16:00 CEST

Register: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/c6b38f8d-8f6c-4324-8c98-a73eeb36af86@f8ff7417-c954-4bf8-ba5a-1c103f38279d

 

Good analysis on clean data can still give a poor answer if the question behind it is wrong. This session looks at how we move from questions to evidence, in two steps.

 

Dr Stefaan Verhulst (Co-Founder, The GovLab at New York University and The Data Tank; Co-Editor-in-Chief, Data & Policy) will look at where questions come from, which questions get asked, and how governance priorities and political context shape them long before anyone opens a dataset.

 

Professor David Hand (Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, Imperial College London) will look at the next step: turning a real-world question into a statistical one that data can answer, and how this step can go wrong.

 

The session will be chaired by Dr Zeynep Engin, Co-Founder and Director of The Digital Statecraft Academy.

 

The discussion draws on Professor Hand's new book, What is the Question? Deciding What You Really Want to Know (2026)

 

The webinar is open to all. Register via this form. Please feel free to share this invitation with colleagues who may be interested.

 

Best wishes,

The Digital Statecraft Academy

 

My source: JISC SocioTech list - https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=SOCIOTECH

10 years of Money and Mental Health

An update from Helen Undy OBE - Chief Executive of Money and Mental Health.

Marking a full decade since we were founded, we've put together a short film summarising who we are, what we do, how we put lived experience at the heart of our work and our impact so far. We're particularly grateful to the members of our Research Community - Suzanne, Rob and Catherine - for giving up their time to appear in this film. If you're interested, please watch below. And please do feel free to share with friends or colleagues who might be interested in learning more about our work.

Sometimes the most basic of formulations speaks volumes and distances ...


individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES             

humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL   

|

group

Mental health
	Money

World Justice Report: a Plan for Equality and Prosperity Within Planetary Boundaries

Box 1: Combining Global Equality and Planetary Habitability

The Global Justice Report describes desirable future scenarios combining two key goals: socioeconomic equality (including full equality between countries, full gender equality in labour hours and pay, sharp compression of within country income and wealth scales, combined with fair access to education, health and political voice), and planetary habitability (aligning global resource use within ecological boundaries, including a limitation of global temperature rise below 2°C). 

To avoid climate catastrophes, we show that sufficiency is required: a structural transformation of the economy involving shorter working hours, a lower material footprint, a shift from material-intensive sectors toward relatively immaterial sectors such as education and health, and major changes in food systems and land use. Rapid decarbonization of energy systems is also necessary, as is the sharp compression of income and wealth inequality. This compression is both a social justice objective and a condition for financing necessary climate investment and human capital expenditure and for sustaining political support from bottom- and middle-income classes in both the North and the South. 

Box 2: Material and Monetary Accounting for Democratic Debate

Economy and ecology cannot be debated apart: every economic activity has a material footprint, every ecological policy shapes incomes and wealth. To make these links visible, the Global Justice Report uses multidimensional social progress indicators. We set quantitative targets for global socioeconomic justice by combining two complementary languages: material accounting (work hours, sectoral shares, education and health, energy systems, GHG emissions, land use, forest cover, temperature levels) and monetary accounting (income and wealth scales between and within countries, progressive tax rates). The report draws on two centuries of historical data on global inequality and resource use, and on the recent literature on social progress, climate and colonial reparations. 

The Global Justice Report proposes a quantitatively and institutionally grounded step toward global justice. It does not seek to close the debate: it offers a transparent basis on which citizens, unions, parliaments, and international bodies can debate, contest, and decide the course of the coming decades.

...

Chancel, L., Dietrich, J., Mohren, C., Moshrif, R., Odersky, M., Piketty, T., Somanchi, A., et al. (2026), The Global Justice Report: A Plan for Equality & Prosperity Within Planetary Boundaries, World Inequality Lab (gjp.wid.world).

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES             

humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL   

|

group 

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Previously: 'wealth' : 'poverty' : 'social justice'

 My source: BBC Radio 4 World at One.

 

 

Hodges' model: An antidote to "Cognitive Surrender"*

'The pope's counterpoint that humanity flourishes "not despite limitations but often through them" is one that many people are becoming more aware of in the case of "cognitive surrender": the realisation that making things easier through AI can diminish rather than enhance our abilities. It is in a similar vein that the FT commits to always keeping human judgement at the centre of our journalism.'

* - and burnout?

The FT View, The ethical dilemmas of artificial intelligence. FTWeekend, 6-7 June 2026, p.12.
https://www.ft.com/content/d2c90246-11d7-4169-ac35-988de7fdb2af?syn-25a6b1a6=1

See also: https://www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/magnifica-humanitas-and-being-human

Previously: 'ai' : 'language'

100,000 signatures to win a parliamentary debate about the ownership of the water industry

INDIVIDUAL

|

     INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

'I feel thirsty!' 'It's really hot, let's have a swim!'	... Water ...
Public services Public health	I need 100,000 signatures to win a parliamentary debate about the ownership of the water industry. Do your thing internet.https://t.co/kZz1cXBtz3 pic.twitter.com/qWaQPmPEHv — Feargal Sharkey (@Feargal_Sharkey) April 29, 2026

My source: 
https://x.com/Feargal_Sharkey

Previously: 'water' : 'pollution'

BCS SPECIALIST GROUP ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (SGAI) - Ethical and Legal Aspects of AI

The next in our series of free evening virtual seminars will be on Wednesday May 6th from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. (UK time). The topic will be Ethical and Legal Aspects of AI.

 

The speakers will be

• Prof. Bernd Stahl (University of Nottingham) on 'Artificial Intelligence for a Better Future - An Ecosystem Perspective on the Ethics of AI'
• Prof. Dr. Griet Verhenneman (Ghent University, Belgium) on 'Patch Day in Brussels: How the EU AI Act ran into the unusual scenario of reform prior to application' and
• Dr Uchenna Nnawuchi (Sheffield University) on 'The “Why” being Algorithmic Decision Making: Explainability as the Backbone of AI Governance'.

The seminar will be chaired by Dr. Carlisle George (Middlesex University).

 

The virtual seminar series is free and open to all. For further details and for the zoom link to use go to https://bcs-sgai.org/seminars/2026-05-06/.

 

Details of future SGAI events will be placed on the website at https://bcs-sgai.org as they become available. To register to be sent information about future SGAI events by email go to https://www.bcs-sgai.org/register/.

 

Max Bramer

Chair, BCS SGAI

----------------------------------------------------

Chair, British Computer Society Specialist Group on Artificial Intelligence

Emeritus Professor, School of Computing, University of Portsmouth, UK
http://www.maxbramer.org

My source: BCS SGAI list

BCS SPECIALIST GROUP ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Virtual seminar 'Generative AI'

BCS SPECIALIST GROUP ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (SGAI)

The next in our series of free evening virtual seminars will be on Wednesday March 11th from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. (UK time). The topic will be Generative AI.

Synopsis

Generative AI is rapidly reshaping the landscape of intelligent systems. This virtual seminar covers cutting-edge research and visionary perspectives on the design, deployment, and governance of generative models. It explores how generative models are enabling adaptive control, task planning, and embodied intelligence in dynamic environments. It also addresses GenAI robustness, interpretability, and alignment which are critical pillars for deploying generative systems in high-stakes domains.

The speakers will be Dr Mark Post (University of York) on 'Safety, Trust, and Perception of Generative AI: Is it deceiving us, or are we deceiving ourselves?' and Dr Erfu Yang (University of Strathclyde) on 'Generative AI in Robotics and Automation: Applications, Advancements and Challenges'.

The virtual seminar series is free and open to all. For further details and for the zoom link to use go to http://https://bcs-sgai.org/seminars/2026-03-11/.

Details of future SGAI events will be placed on the website at https://bcs-sgai.org as they become available. To register to be sent information about future SGAI events by email go to https://www.bcs-sgai.org/register/.

Max Bramer
Chair, BCS SGAI
----------------------------------------------------
Chair, British Computer Society Specialist Group on Artificial Intelligence
Emeritus Professor, School of Computing, University of Portsmouth, UK
http://www.maxbramer.org

My source: BCS-AI mail list.

‘Life & health’: overview of global health, climate crises, SDGs and Africa Agenda 2030

26 December, 2025 

Afrihealth Optonet Association (AHOA) proudly announces its Maiden ‘Life & Health’ Symposium, a landmark convening designed to inspire dialogue, innovation, and collective action around one of the most pressing issues of our time: “Overview of Global Health, Climate Crises, SDGs and Africa Agenda 2030.” This inaugural symposium represents AHOA’s commitment to shaping forward-looking conversations that connect health, environment, and sustainable development across Africa and beyond.

The world is experiencing an unprecedented convergence of health challenges and climate-related crises. Rising temperatures, extreme weather events, environmental degradation, and biodiversity loss are reshaping disease patterns, food systems, water security, and livelihoods. These realities disproportionately affect low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Africa, where fragile health systems and socioeconomic inequalities amplify vulnerability. The ‘Life & Health’ Symposium seeks to interrogate these realities and offer integrated, actionable pathways aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Africa Agenda 2030.

At the heart of the symposium is a bold premise: health is both a driver and an outcome of sustainable development. Achieving good health and well-being (SDG 3) is inseparable from progress on climate action (SDG 13), clean water and sanitation (SDG 6), zero hunger (SDG 2), sustainable cities (SDG 11), and reduced inequalities (SDG 10). By convening experts across disciplines, the symposium will explore how these interconnected goals can be pursued through coordinated policies, resilient systems, and inclusive partnerships.

The Maiden ‘Life & Health’ Symposium is designed as a multi-stakeholder platform, bringing together policymakers, health professionals, climate experts, development practitioners, civil society leaders, academics, youth advocates, and the private sector. Participants will engage in high-level discussions, evidence-based presentations, and solution-oriented exchanges that bridge science, policy, and practice. The symposium will also provide a space for emerging voices and community perspectives, ensuring that local realities inform global ambitions.

A key focus of the symposium is Africa’s Agenda 2030, which contextualizes global commitments within the continent’s development aspirations. Africa stands at a pivotal moment: with a rapidly growing youth population, expanding urban centres, and increasing climate exposure, the choices made today will define health and development outcomes for decades. The symposium will highlight opportunities to harness Africa’s demographic dividend, promote climate-resilient health systems, and foster innovation that aligns with the continent’s priorities.

Participants can expect rich thematic sessions addressing:

I. Global health trends and emerging risks in a changing climate;

II. Climate-sensitive diseases and the future of prevention and preparedness;

III. Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in the context of climate resilience;

IV. Policy coherence and governance for integrated SDG implementation;

V. Financing and partnerships for sustainable health and climate action; and

VI. Youth leadership and community engagement as catalysts for Agenda 2030.

Beyond knowledge exchange, the symposium is action-oriented. It aims to catalyze policy-relevant recommendations, foster cross-sector partnerships, and inspire practical initiatives that can be scaled across regions. Afrihealth Optonet Association envisions the symposium as a springboard for sustained collaboration, research, advocacy, and capacity-building that advance health equity and climate justice.

The ‘Life & Health’ Symposium also reflects AHOA’s broader mission to promote evidence-informed decision-making and civil society leadership in health and development. By creating a recurring platform for dialogue and learning through the 52 Sessions in the 2026 ‘Life & Health’ Dialogue Series, AHOA seeks to strengthen the role of civil society in shaping inclusive policies, amplifying marginalized voices, and holding stakeholders accountable to shared commitments.

As the world accelerates toward 2030, time is of the essence. The interlinked crises of health and climate demand urgency, innovation, and solidarity. AHOA’s Maiden ‘Life & Health’ Symposium offers a timely opportunity to rethink silos, align strategies, and recommit to a future where people and planet thrive together, a future that will always seek to ‘Leave No One Behind’.

Afrihealth Optonet Association warmly invites policymakers, practitioners, scholars, development partners, youth leaders, and all stakeholders committed to sustainable development to be part of this historic inaugural symposium, as well as partner with AHOA through the 2026 Dialogue Series. Together, we can deepen understanding, strengthen partnerships, and chart a resilient pathway toward better health outcomes, climate resilience, and the realization of the SDGs and Africa Agenda 2030.

Continued - with links (and my source):

https://www.hifa.org/dgroups-rss/%E2%80%98life-health%E2%80%99-overview-global-health-climate-crises-sdgs-and-africa-agenda-2030

And - Happy New Year to All!

Leurs (2023) Data as Boundary Objects, Datafication as Boundary Work

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic -------------------------------------------  mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group-population

PERSON SUBJECT	person [DATA] OBJECT
'Situating data' inequality 'Conceptual Stepping Stones' - Social (and Political)  choreography?	SLAVERY REGISTERS - PASSPORTS RACISM COLONIALISM FEMINISM Star .. feminist slogan “the personal is political.”

Leurs, K. (2023). Data as Boundary Objects, Datafication as Boundary Work. In K. van Es & N. Verhoeff (Eds.), Situating Data: Inquiries in Algorithmic Culture (pp. 123–140). Amsterdam University Press.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/376113967_6_Data_as_Boundary_Objects_Datafication_as_Boundary_Work

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_personal_is_political

Situated: Does the 'work' that can be done by a concept vary by definition, according to the (care / knowledge) domain it is found / placed in? Does this is turn influence the 'objects' that are found in the act of crossing(s)?

Seeking Alpha?

OK. I admit it. I submit!

Despite many posts tagged economics, references to capitalism, the recent reading of Prof. Borras's 'Health and Health Care Inequities', it looks like the search for 'alpha' has won out.

Health, healthcare, health systems and health services, universal health coverage, universal access, planetary health, social care and more SDG3 are playing catch-up. This is inevitable. That is clear, as and in the lives we live.

We shouldn't be ashamed. 

As curricula (by and large), medicine, and academia keep telling us:

health care is bio-medical, or at best bio-psycho-social.

Business, commerce, neoclassical economics, in short - Capitalism holds sway within the political domain. It influences policy, sustains the existing ill-health care system paradigm. Without which, we must acknowledge of course, COVID, and other threats, the ageing populations in many nations ... society as we know it would be in serious trouble, if not at risk of collapse.

Individual

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      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

|

Group

psycho-	bio-medical
-social	"What Is Alpha? Alpha (α) is a term used in investing to describe an investment strategy’s ability to beat the market, or its “edge.” Alpha is thus also often referred to as excess return or the abnormal rate of return in relation to a benchmark, when adjusted for risk."

The literature in the past has identified the risks of free-ranging reflection. Two sources are referenced in the paper published this month:

61. L. Platt, “The ‘Wicked Problem’ of Reflective Practice: A Critical Literature Review,” Innovations in Practice 9, no. 1 (2014): 44–53. 

62. A. de la Croix and M. Veen, “The Reflective Zombie: Problematizing the Conceptual Framework of Reflection in Medical Education,” Perspectives on Medical Education 7 (2018): 394–400.

There is a truth here, however. It looks to me like the economists, politicians, and policymakers are engaged in navel-gazing.

To fully apprehend health, healthcare, and prevention in the 21st century we must reflect upon and think critically biopsychosociopolitically.

Then collectively the disciplines, embedded in the spiritual 

ALPHA CARE 

is presented to us.

Individual

|

      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

|

Group

What is Alpha? - https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/alpha.asp

Image: https://iconscout.com/icons/alpha

UK Evening Symposium: Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining - May 14th 2025

 UK Symposium on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining 2025

Wednesday May 14th 2025 from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.

Location

This will be a virtual event using the Zoom video-conferencing platform. 

Outline Programme

6.00 p.m. (UK time): 'Arrival' and Introduction

Chair: Prof. Max Bramer (SGAI)

6.10 p.m. to 6.40 p.m.

Prof. Dr. Anna Fensel (Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, Wageningen University, The Netherlands) BIO

Knowledge graphs, FAIR principles and generative AI for scientific discoveries in agri-food

6.40 p.m. to 6.50 p.m. Discussion and Questions

6.50 p.m. to 7.20 p.m.

Dr. Anelia Kurteva (Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of Birmingham, UK) BIO

Responsible AI through responsible data management and governance enabled by knowledge graphs

7.20 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. Discussion and Questions

7.30 p.m. Close

Please see links, e.g. 'programme' at: http://ukkdd.org.uk/2025/

My source: BCS-SGAI list

Time to revisit Wikipedia?

Yesterday morning an email from a mail list -

https://groups.google.com/g/bytesforall_readers/about

- regards a Wikipedia entry, prompted me to look back at some personal - 'local' history. In 2006 having started this blog, I'd noticed 'models of care', and nursing theories' on Wikipedia.

I posted an entry on Wikipedia about Hodges' model.

This included the now defunct url/domain - p-jones.demon.co.uk (See below).

A request followed to remove it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Hodges_Health_Career_Model

I must admit there is a repetitive 'spam' quality to emails, contributions, activity on twitter and posts here. I do try to keep things relevant, in context and seek what is salient. 

Given the digital divide and ethos behind the web the 'complaints' now seem exclusive.

From scribbled notes to a global revolution - the personal journey behind the World Wide Web’s invention and the unexpected turns along the way. It is both a history and my vision for what comes next.

This is for Everyone isn’t just a story about technology; it’s about… pic.twitter.com/gdUBmFCViG

— Tim Berners-Lee (@timberners_lee) April 23, 2025

After a brief problem with Blogger I also wrote a blog post:

'Thanks Google ... Wiki ... oh for more time ....':

https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2006/05/thanks-google-wiki-oh-for-more-time.html

At the time I wrote: 'I agreed the submission should be deleted - another time.' 

In writing - 'Another time...', perhaps, I should try again - or leave it to someone else?

Following up, I found that the now archived POLITICAL care/knowledge links page -

original static website 1998-2015

https://web.archive.org/web/20140821191217/http://www.p-jones.demon.co.uk/index.htm

- is, ironically listed on Wikipedia. You'll find it under 'External links':

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_political_science 

[ Which is itself a useful 'collection' of resources. ]

Since 2006 the bibliography for Hodges' model has grown, please see sidebar:

http://hodges-model.blogspot.com/

Created in NW England higher education in the mid 1980s Hodges' model was intended for use within post-registered nursing courses - psychiatric and learning disability nursing, health visiting and district nursing. Hodges' model, is however, universal in scope and potential application.

As no doubt occurs in other professions/disciplines, advocates for tools, resources, theories, model that may also be simple, free - open access, 'neutral', pragmatic, supportive of lifelong learning, curiosity, literacy and informatics forms can be met with internal resistance - never mind external responses:

Raskin, Jef. "Humbug: Nursing Theory". Archived from the original on July 10, 2001. Retrieved December 14, 2015. (Wikipedia).

More recently the phrase 'Nursing eats its own' has resonated. A phenomena not limited to nursing no doubt?

Virtual Evening Seminars on Topics in Artificial Intelligence - BCS-SGAI

BCS Specialist Group on Artificial Intelligence (BCS-SGAI)
Virtual Evening Seminars on Topics in Artificial Intelligence

The first three events in this year's programme of virtual evening seminars will be on March 26^th, April 9^th and May 14^th. All the virtual seminars are free of charge and open to all. No registration is necessary. 

Further details are given below.

 

(1) Wednesday March 26th 2025 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. (UK time): 

'Symbolic AI versus Neuro-Symbolic AI'

Dr George Baryannis (University of Huddersfield) on 'Knowledge-based Artificial Intelligence: Achieving Inherent Explainability in Intelligent Applications'.

Dr Mercedes Arguello Casteleiro (SGAI) on 'One Digital Health: Symbolic AI versus Neuro-Symbolic AI' and -

Dr Safaa Menad (University of Rouen, France) on 'Merging and Validating Health Ontologies'.

Website (including Zoom link): 

https://www.bcs-sgai.org/seminars/2025-03-26/

 

(2) Wednesday April 9th 2025 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. (UK time): 'Computer Vision Applications'.

There will be two talks: Dr James Haworth (University College London) on 'Progress in computer vision for scene understanding in urban analytics' and Dr Tianjin Huang (University of Exeter) on ' Benchmarking the Robustness of Remote Sensing Foundation Models'.

Website (including Zoom link): https://www.bcs-sgai.org/seminars/2025-04-09/

 

(3) Wednesday May 14th 2025 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. (UK time), as part of our Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining series. There will be two talks: Prof. Dr. Anna Fensel (Wageningen University, The Netherlands) on 'Knowledge graphs, FAIR principles and generative AI for scientific discoveries in agri-food' and Dr Anelia Kurteva (Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of Birmingham, UK) on 'Responsible AI through responsible data management and governance enabled by knowledge graphs'

Website (including Zoom link): (link to follow)

 

To register for information about future SGAI events go to https://www.bcs-sgai.org/register/

Max Bramer, Chair BCS-SGAI

(- and my source BCS-SGAI list)

Social Capital - related to Hodges' model: c/o Andy Haldane FT

'The world is more diverse and interwoven than ever before - economically, culturally, ethnically, generationally. This is largely the result of the postwar explosion in cross-border flows of:'

ME

|

      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

|

WE

INFORMATION*	GOODS
PEOPLE	MONEY

 *Here I am treating information as analog - attached to meaning and sense-making, human reasoning - thought; information is of course also digital and an economy in itself.

'There is no ecosystem on the planet that is not enriched by increased diversity. The complexity of rainforests and oceans explains their abundance. In social systems, the cross-pollination of ideas, cultures and practices in diverse communities has been a driver of innovation and dynamism for millennia.
Yet this is a double-edged sword. A rainforest or an ocean are vulnerable to antagonistic arrivals such as humans seeking timber or fish. If cultures clash rather than cohere, diverse communities exhibit similar fragility.
Every complex system faces this balancing act, but it can be improved by strengthening ties and trust - what Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam calls social capital. The depletion of social capital over the past half-century, documented by Putnam, has tilted the scales decisively towards fragility. Today's open, connected economies are nested in brittle, disconnected societies. Neither can flourish like this.
One policy response is to reverse economic course, tightening restrictions on cross-border flows of people, goods, technologies and information. While economists (like me) tell us that doing so would diminish economic dynamism, given these policies address the insecurities felt by many at source, it is no surprise they are gaining support - especially on immigration and trade.' 

ME

|

      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

|

Group

My - sense of security My - trust  (AFTER) - FORETHOUGHT	... Rainforest : Ocean Wetlands : Kelp forests ...^ Maps of Social Capital1 Spatial planning
Social capital Social mobility Sociable housing2 Social cohesion Social -	Policy Curricula Governance, Citizen Trust Nat. Strategy for social connection3 Capitalism

'An Office of the President or Prime Minister, charged with lacing social cohesion through policy, should be hard-wired into the machinery of governments.'

(Here, here!).

1. Raj Chetty - Social Capital Atlas: https://www.socialcapital.org/

2. Richard Sennett

3. Chris Murphy

^Sometimes perhaps the map is the territory? Discuss.

With thanks to:

Andy Haldane, How to get from the me to the we society. Opinion: FT Weekend, 14/15 December 2024, p.12.

Upswing image: 
https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Robert-D.-Putnam-and-Shaylyn-Romney-Garrett-Upswing-9781800750371