John Wiseman

Hope, despair and transformation: Climate change and the promotion of mental health and wellbeing

BackgroundThis article aims to provide an introduction to emerging evidence and debate about the relationship between climate change and mental health.Discussion and ConclusionThe authors argue that:i) the direct impacts of climate change such as extreme weather events will have significant mental health implications;ii) climate change is already impacting on the social, economic and environmental determinants of mental health with the most severe consequences being felt by disadvantaged communities and populations;iii) understanding the full extent of the long term social and environmental challenges posed by climate change has the potential to create emotional distress and anxiety; andiv) understanding the psycho-social implications of climate change is also an important starting point for informed action to prevent dangerous climate change at individual, community and societal levels.

University-Community Engagement in Australia: Practice, Policy and Public Good.

The rise of a community engagement movement offers a range of possibilities for universities to function as ‘sites of citizenship’. These include contributing to community social and economic infrastructure, supporting equity and diversity within higher education, and education for democratic citizenship. This article provides an overview of the findings of a recent study of engagement practices and policies in Australian universities. The article then goes on to discuss some of the possibilities and problems surrounding community engagement as a site of citizenship. It is suggested that while university-community engagement contributes to the public good, it also reflects a changed economic and social context in which concepts of ‘community’ have superseded broader notions of the social.

Community Wellbeing in an Unwell World: Trends, Challenges, and Possibilities

This essay explores the changing nature of the concept of community wellbeing and the richness of the concept for enhancing measurement of societal progress beyond the use of indicators focused more narrowly on economic growth. Beginning with the history of the concept of wellbeing in several disciplines, the authors pursue an integrated and ecological understanding of community wellbeing and present examples of recent developments and applications of community wellbeing indicators in international settings and in Australia.

Opening and Closing the Future: Climate Change, Adaptation, and Scenario Planning

The gales of climate change blow the future open and closed. In response, we are having to learn to live with a renewed notion of limits and a novel level of uncertainty. One emerging governance response is a turn to scenario planning, which generates narratives about multiple futures refracted out from the present. Like climate change itself, scenario planning, and the broader field of futures studies it is part of, is historically and socially positioned, belying its application as a mere method or tool. This paper discusses the growing turn to scenario planning within government climate change adaptation initiatives in light of parallel shifts in governance (eg, interest in efficiency and wicked problems) and adaptation efforts (eg, framed as risk management or resilience) and their shared roots in the ambiguities of sustainable development. It provides an extended introduction to a theme issue that provides, overall, a nested discussion of the role of scenario planning by government for climate change adaptation, noting how governance, climate change adaptation, and scenario planning all fold together the motifs of openness and closedness. This paper engages with the emerging field of future geographies and critical interest in future orientations to highlight the way societys growing engagement on climate change adaptation exposes, critiques, replicates, and amplifies our existing orientations to the future and time and their politically contested and embedded character. It points to the way the motif of open futures can be both progressive and conservative, as political and economic interests seek to open up some futures while closing down others in the name of the ambivalent goals of adaptation and sustainable development.

Community engagement and climate change: learning from recent Australian experience

Purpose – This purpose of this paper is to summarise the outcomes of a recent project in Victoria, Australia exploring the effectiveness of community engagement strategies in improving climate mitigation and adaptation outcomes.Design/methodology/approach – Roundtables and interviews with a diverse range of community engagement practitioners and policy makers involved in climate change work were conducted, informed by a discussion paper outlining recent Australian and international learning about community engagement and climate change.Findings – The project confirms and builds on recent international learning about the importance of carefully planned and implemented community engagement as essential components in effective climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.Originality/value – The paper brings together learning from recent on‐the‐ground experience from Australian community engagement practitioners and policy makers working in the climate change field. In addition to evidence supporting the inte...

Here to Stay? The 1997–1998 Australian Waterfront Dispute and Its Implications

Abstract The aim of this article is to bring together material from a range of media sources to provide an accessible and critical overview of the 1998 Australian waterfront dispute. It is argued that the dispute demonstrates the ways in which recent changes to Australian industrial relations policies represent both continuities and new directions. The outcomes of the dispute also demonstrate the dilemmas facing unions in resisting corporate and state assaults in an age of globalisation. Globalisation has created many new threats—but also some new opportunities—for labour movements around the world. A key lesson of the Australian waterfront dispute is that it is more true than ever that local and national struggles between labour and capital are now fought on a global stage and require transnational resistance and solidarity.

The 1.5°C target and coal sector transition: at the limits of societal feasibility

ABSTRACT National and global mitigation scenarios consistent with 1.5°C require an early phase-out of coal in major coal-dependent countries, compared to standard technical and economic lifetimes. This appears particularly apparent in the light of recent massive investments in coal power capacity, the significant pipeline of coal power capacity coming online, as well as upstream supporting infrastructure. This article analyses the existing and planned capital stock in the coal power sector in the light of scenarios consistent with 1.5°C. The article analyses the political economy and labour aspects of this abrupt and significant transition, in the light of domestic equity and development objectives. Firstly, the article examines employment issues and reviews the existing literature and practice with support schemes for regional and sectoral structural adjustment for the reduction of coal sector activity. Secondly, the paper surveys the domestic political economy of coal sector transition in major coal using countries, namely Australia, South Africa, China and India. A final section provides conclusions and policy recommendations. Key policy insights Achieving mitigation pathways in line with limiting warming to 1.5°C, or even well-below 2°C, would require the early retirement of coal sector assets in production and consumption. Historically, coal sector transition has often been associated with prolonged socio-economic dislocation in affected regions. Policies to accompany affected regions are thus a crucial part of policy mixes to limit warming to 1.5°C and even 2°C. Such policies should be anticipatory and long-term, as opposed to reactive policies focused on short-term measures to smooth the transition. A survey of major coal using countries shows that each is a long way from putting in place a long-term framework to transition the coal sector.

Climate Change, Resilience and Transformation: Challenges and Opportunities for Local Communities

While climate change is clearly a global emergency requiring global solutions, there is increasing understanding of the diverse challenges and opportunities that local communities face in strengthening resilience to its impacts and implications. Evidence is also growing about the crucial contribution that local actions and networks can make in strengthening community resilience – and in driving the broader social and political transformations needed to prevent catastrophic climate change in ways that are ecologically healthy, just and democratic. This chapter has two aims. The first aim is to bring together recent evidence and learning about the characteristics that strengthen community resilience to the threats and challenges of climate change. The second aim is to explore the links between the theory and practice of resilience and the actions needed for communities to adapt to climate change already being experienced and enable pathways to reduce the risks of catastrophic climate change – locally and globally. The core argument of the chapter can be summarised in the following way. Community resilience to climate change requires strengthening the overall foundations of resilient communities, augmented by locally relevant, locally tailored actions to improve local climate change adaptation capabilities and outcomes. However, given that the capacity of any local community to adapt to climate change is limited, strengthening community resilience to climate change will also require transformative action leading to the rapid and equitable reduction of carbon emissions and the drawing down of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This crucial journey from paralysis and fear to hope and transformation requires a well-informed understanding of the perilous path we are on; compelling visions of an alternative, desirable future; a shared belief that transformation is possible; and clear plans and pathways – all critical components of truly resilient communities and societies.

Community Indicators in Action: Using Indicators as a Tool for Planning and Evaluating the Health and Wellbeing of a Community

Community indicators are summarized or aggregated statistics that include broad measures aimed at measuring the progress of a community but community indicator projects are often criticized for a lack of direct policy and planning actions. This chapter introduces Community Indicators Victoria, a community indicators project located within a southern state of Australia, and describes a successful collaboration with a local government authority in the development of a 4-year Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan. The chapter describes a practical case study example of how community indicators can be used to develop informed, engaged and integrated community planning.

After ‘Working Nation’: The Future of Work Debate

Abstract This article provides a critical commentary on the White Paper on employment and unemployment, Working Nation. The central argument is that we need to renew the debate about the future of employment, unemployment and work in Australia. The White Paper does not provide a sufficient basis for this debate. It openly abandons the full employment objective without any clear identification of the kind of social and economic arrangements which might replace it. While it does include a number of progressive policy reforms, the overall direction is at best inadequate and at worst unjust. In the debate which must follow the publication of the White Paper a key challenge will be to tackle the question: how should we distribute work and income in Australia so as to broaden the possibilities of citizenship in the context of increasingly globalised social and economic relationships and increasingly threatening ecological constraints?