tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15621292372954744192011-12-02T14:05:53.569-08:00Discusses these 3 topics as I come across things that interest me in my work and play!Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.comBlogger441100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-51605190988568322992011-03-01T12:33:00.000-08:002011-03-01T13:42:56.665-08:00

I live in Christchurch New Zealand which has just had is second strong earthquake in less than 6 months. It has been awful in many ways to see my city devastated - many familiar landmarks are now simply rubble and many of those still have dead bodies waiting to be retrieved. it is a terrible time for families and friends waiting to have the deaths of those reported missing confirmed. At the

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-57772681022906314342011-02-08T10:51:00.000-08:002011-02-08T11:41:32.144-08:00

I'm reading a book on Insight Dialogue by Gregory Kramer and reflecting a little on how we behave in relationship and also how deep our patterns of interaction in relationship are. I"m finding it a fascinating book with a lot of useful stuff that is helping me think through the patterns I"m observing in myself in doing community focused work.Kramer observes that we (human beings) have a need to

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-7556763592062287552011-01-30T17:36:00.000-08:002011-01-30T17:44:57.388-08:00

I posted something like this on my greenpress blog but it has got lost and I found myself talking to someone about it the other day so thought I'd write it here. Sometimes the whole business of writing and presenting submissions is depressing and feels like a waste of time. Once a plan is in draft, it seems to me that very little is likely to change. However despite our best efforts, this

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-67728238313763486372011-01-19T22:32:00.000-08:002011-01-19T22:37:09.199-08:00

Now here is an interesting idea! When a courier calls, what if they left the package with a neighbour rather than taking it back to the post shop. Then people have a reason to knock at the neighbour's door and so to meet their neighbours. I like this idea because I must admit that I find it difficult to knock for no reason!

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-56693029895181955082011-01-12T15:52:00.000-08:002011-01-12T16:12:18.492-08:00

Its holiday time again, and it also a new year and a good time to reflect on all the things that have happened over the last year. For many of us in Christchurch, it's easiest to remember the earthquake (and for me to remember having a car accident and breaking a few ribs about a month later) and to forget that a lot happened last year. It is for this reason that I keep a note in my diary of

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-14865783598194472082010-12-01T17:52:00.000-08:002010-12-01T18:20:18.888-08:00

Well I"m back on Blogger since it appears that Greenpress disappeared off the face of the internet and my blog there went with it. Hi Ho!I live in Christchurch, New Zealand where we experienced an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter Scale. It disrupted life quite considerably and continues to do so for many people who suffered extensive damage to the houses and in some cases to their

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-34518930750455107052009-07-28T18:29:00.001-07:002009-07-28T18:29:54.237-07:00

my blog can now be found at http://ChrysH.Greenpress.com

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-70276981527142500912009-06-27T01:10:00.000-07:002009-06-27T01:25:32.209-07:00

I recently started working at a community garden in Christchurch - the Strickland Street or Spreydon Garden. It is an interesting place and I"m meeting some very interesting people with an interest in green issues in a very practical grass roots sort of way. The garden has a spectacular composting system and takes in kitchen waste from a number of nearby households as well as composting

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-9998639503301834192009-06-02T19:13:00.000-07:002009-06-09T15:22:17.969-07:00

I've been presenting submissions at planning hearings this week and last. Yesterday I took a different approach and presented very little so that we could get into questions and discussion. I'm very glad I did because I learned a lot all in quite a short space of time and want to reflect on that.I'm intrigued at how the system we have here in New Zealand sets submitters up to feel powerless. I

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-27212613887266779962009-05-27T21:11:00.000-07:002009-05-27T21:24:30.938-07:00

I'm writing an article at the moment on communication and change. As I write I"m also composing a presentation to the Regional Land Transport committee here in Canterbury to try and convince them that they need to think differently about transport.Anyway in doing all this, it is becoming increasingly obvious that there is no way we will be an adaptable resilient society if we keep trying to live

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-56529853242750588932009-05-10T13:12:00.000-07:002009-05-10T13:25:44.416-07:00

I went to my first movie premiere last night. Earth Whisperers was a great documentary movie that caught the personalities of each of the people who talked about their passion - some aspect of the New Zealand Environment. This varied from healers through to organic gardeners to people who have saved large tracts of native bush or restored them. It is well worth a look if you get the

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-86074459644294209132009-04-29T00:15:00.000-07:002009-04-29T00:23:36.715-07:00

I've been writing submissions this week focused mainly on tranport - and specifically on trying to get our local councils here in Canterbury to recognise the need for them to provide cycling and walking facilities. For some reason they seem to have lost the plot on this one perhaps because of some misguided reaction to the economic downturn but their answers seems largely to focus on providing

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-46207879881797606432009-04-21T00:44:00.001-07:002009-04-21T01:09:29.346-07:00

I've just read an interesting article about to come out in American Scientist. Revisiting the limits to growth after peak oil links oil to the cost of other resources from metals and minerals through to food. The authors point out that: commodity prices have fallen despite the fact that they have become increasingly difficult to produce because oil prices dropped. This drop hid the effect of

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-67453655676048204222009-04-02T13:11:00.000-07:002009-04-02T13:45:58.419-07:00

I'm reading a book by Wendy Parkins & Geoffrey Craig called Slow Living and really enjoying it.Slow living has emerged from the slow food movement and builds from it. They talk about slow cities - small cities of 50 000 people or less which are focused on fostering "slow spaces" - spaces where people can take time out to reflect, and wonder and to enjoy just being with and talking to other

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-65833899309250898352009-03-24T17:11:00.000-07:002009-03-24T17:24:44.567-07:00

I was asked to write something the other day about innovation and rather oddly it took me some time to realise that in fact I do know quite a lot about innovation, having studied change and development processes!Anyway, a few conversations later I found myself thinking about the conditions that foster innovation. I've reached the conclusion that the greatest problem that we have in this day and

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-86725660839999102592009-03-18T12:42:00.000-07:002009-03-18T13:08:56.545-07:00

A new issue of Resurgence is out. I was particularly interested to read an article by Andrew Simms called Planet Crunch where he puts together a range of issues from the links between our attitudes to credit and money and how that links to resource use. I was also interested to read his account of the way in which oil tanker drivers were able to bring the UK to its knees because of the "just in

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-76249332126372868332009-02-15T13:16:00.000-08:002009-02-15T14:00:30.384-08:00

I've just read an interesting account of how the current bailout packages and focus on"getting people spending again" is not going to create the shifts that we need as we move up against our biophysical limits. Interestingly I see Chris Martenson has also just released a new report that discusses the need to think about how life might change in future as we move up against those same limits. To

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-28521390089662938332009-02-01T14:59:00.000-08:002009-02-01T15:39:18.531-08:00

Its been a while since I wrote here. What can I say? it's summer here and I've been on holidays. I"m just back from a couple of days at a retreat in Mid Canterbury and I'm feeling very relaxed and, well happy - despite all the bad news around the place!A new blog talks about this a bit. It's one of the thing that constantly delights and amazes me that there is so much pleasure in working in

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-9015810068212892562009-01-05T16:05:00.000-08:002009-01-05T16:13:32.812-08:00

I heard an interview on the radio the other day and it sparked my interest. the interview was with Ronald Colman and it was about the genuine progress index. The idea that GDP does not measure wellbeing or indeed progress is not new - I have read numerous articles about this over the years but what interested me that here is an organisation actually working to develop and use an index that

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-5834722626446042112008-12-17T14:18:00.000-08:002008-12-17T14:19:29.362-08:00

I used to work at a busy youth hostel. In that job I was required to communicate with a lot of people who did not have a good command of English. It could be a stressful struggling to communicate and I never quite stopped trying to speak louder to the person opposite me or to try to say the same thing in different ways. One evening, my Japanese counterpart answered the phone. The caller from

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-67952668152162596772008-12-06T10:16:00.000-08:002008-12-06T10:42:44.477-08:00

I spoke to an economist at the conference last week and asked him about steady state economies. He (and he is an economist who works in the same environmental science institution as me so I found this pretty depressing) dismissed the idea - positing the idea that we can grow the economy through the knowledge sector.I"m not so sure and even less sure now, given the New Scientist (18th Oct. 2008)

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-88389074491687937472008-12-05T18:01:00.002-08:002008-12-06T10:20:38.658-08:00

I"ve just returned from a tourism research conference up in Hanmer Springs. Overall I enjoyed the conference - it gave me the opportunity to meet and talk with some very interesting people.One of them was Ian Yeoman a futurologist with a tourism focus, who, as he put it, gets paid to "make stuff up" - although it does appear that there is quite a lot of interesting thinking behind the er ...

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-49102187835582338512008-11-28T19:41:00.000-08:002008-11-28T20:45:17.178-08:00

Well maybe. Nicholas Stern has suggested that recession is a good time to build a low carbon future in this article although he doesn't seem to be suggesting that perhaps we should be looking at how to reach some kind of steady state economy. I suppose that I still think it is a bit of a mistake to think only in terms of climate change which I think may be what Stern is doing. Still, he may be

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-3556333093327907392008-11-17T20:37:00.000-08:002008-11-17T20:44:37.706-08:00

Now here is someone a little different - I guess you could call her an integrated scientist - practicing what she preaches - the ultimate urban sustainable living. And of course right now we'd have to worry about what it would do the world economy if we all lived this way - but then that's another story.

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-54527356413626674362008-11-17T10:07:00.000-08:002008-11-17T10:42:43.291-08:00

Well we have a new government here in New Zealand. More right wing if we are to judge by coalition partners although it is good to see the Maori party in there to - to maybe temper the influence of ACT!Still, it's got me thinking because all the talk is now about fostering economic growth (admittedly not something I think that would have been any different if a more left wing government had got

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-24574583801498498342008-11-06T20:04:00.000-08:002008-11-06T21:32:48.723-08:00

What is the Jevons paradox you ask? Well, its the observation that (I guess) someone called Jevon's made, that increasingly efficient technology does not lead to more the use of fewer resources. Quite the opposite in fact!In fact, as efficiency increases, resource use also increases. For example according to this video, increasingly efficient cars means that the money people save by using more

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-18821730665747830952008-11-01T22:26:00.000-07:002008-11-06T20:04:30.140-08:00

I"ve just been away at an interesting conference on making connections across science and between science and other forms of knowledge. It was great. Perhaps the talks that stood out for me most (they made me laugh with considerable relief at the time too) was the difficulty that people experience as scientists trying to do work that spans disciplines and professional boundaries.As Hugh Campbell

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-73901660376978382702008-10-22T01:23:00.000-07:002008-10-22T02:03:20.093-07:00

Leadership is one of those things that keeps raising its head in my life. Apparently I'm a leader - something that I've never aspired to be. Interestingly tho I do want to change the world - or at least improve it - that's why I do what I do. So I guess that means I do need to lead. But what exactly does that mean?I've had the privilege of watching Joe and Joanna Doherty of Ngaputahi in Te

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-20194181972968446142008-10-16T11:26:00.000-07:002008-10-17T00:28:37.156-07:00

I watched a meeting some years ago in which there was a major mismatch in communication between 2 planners and a group of 3-4 community members all trying to work together to develop a district plan.The planners would put out a question with some background and then the group of community people would sit there and try and work out what it meant in terms that would help them answer. This was a

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-10583546818885959532008-10-15T10:57:00.000-07:002008-10-15T11:26:24.320-07:00

I was in a meeting the other night with a community group to whom we had come to deliver some research results. From where I stood it was frustrating, so it has been occupying my thoughts recently. Relevance is a funny thing. From my own experience as a receiver of information, one wee statement can suddenly make a whole lot of information suddenly much more personally relevant than it was a

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-15562440263792783172008-10-08T00:01:00.000-07:002008-10-08T00:35:36.892-07:00

I picked up a paper the other day by Nardi, Whittaker & Schwarz (2002) about networkers and their activity in intensional networks. I guess that for me as I read it, it began to ring bells of recognition. They talked about the work that goes into building, using and maintaining networks associated with project based work. This includes activities such as remembering/ recalling people (including

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-65099066266439569962008-10-06T11:51:00.000-07:002008-10-07T23:57:04.392-07:00

Terry Thomsen from The Inside Story sent me a really interesting link last night: Chris Martenson's Blog.I started watching his "Crash Course" last evening. It began with an outline of the basis of the US (and world) economic system and provided some fascinating insights about recent bank collapses and the property market bubble. He then provided some very clear and chilling analysis of the

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-50875294005366423732008-09-30T22:15:00.000-07:002008-10-03T00:29:29.786-07:00

I read a great paper today given to me by Simon Lambert of Lincoln University. In it Katherine Gibson and Julie Graham (I think) discuss building and acknowledging "new", or perhaps unrecognised, forms of economy. It's quite heavy going, but it made me feel that perhaps I am a real social scientist after all.Trouble with me is that I'm always being criticised for not being critical enough. But

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-61501533860581887942008-09-27T23:27:00.000-07:002008-10-08T00:38:49.115-07:00

I"m intrigued by a number articles I've read and conversations that I've had recently that allude to our propensity to live faster and faster.Richard Shaw of Massey University drew my attention to an article by Nicholas Carr at http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google which suggests a number of changes in the way we read and think as a result of the internet and the way in which we engage

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-25931729148483554812008-09-27T22:59:00.000-07:002008-09-27T23:23:16.222-07:00

As someone relatively new to Web 2 and all that it entails, I"m still experimenting. I"m also uncertain as yet of the benefits of spending time on the Web relative to spending time with more direct forms of communication (face to face, telephone, and even email). As someone with an interest in the social processes around learning and change, I'm wondering about generational differences, gender

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-37780232005840060232008-09-25T02:23:00.000-07:002008-09-25T13:34:41.068-07:00

I read a paper this morning (by David Waltner Toews et al (2006))that outlined 3 different ways in which we use the word "manage".I was fascinated because I recognised them all, and yet I hadn't really thought about it before.First, there is the idea of command and control. This meaning is linked to the latin manus which means hand and is linked to the Italian word for training and breaking in

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-844525575892863082008-09-19T22:47:00.000-07:002008-09-19T23:05:52.990-07:00

I"m a lumper! Tell me a few stories and I'll get excited by the linkages and the similarities. It's amazing how different disciplines give different names to the same phenomena. Geographers for example talk about liminality, whilst psychologists talk about anomie - both describe a sense of normlessness which can either result in a feeling of being lost or of being free of the normal constraints

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-23560519656958967302008-09-18T13:27:00.000-07:002008-09-18T14:01:06.218-07:00

I've been reflecting back on an amazing experience that I had a few years ago when I worked on a project aimed at mixing art and science. Two artists, two scientists and two social scientists worked together over a year or two to learn about our different perspectives and to apply our learning to a project centred around the Motueka River and its associated community in New Zealand. Check out

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-8622522071319794772008-09-17T12:07:00.001-07:002008-09-25T13:33:08.617-07:00

I"ve been away to meet with a group of social scientists from around New Zealand to talk about social science in New Zealand and how to raise its profile. One of the things that we discussed was interconnection in science which at the time translated into working across boundaries - disciplinary, cultural, social and professional usually to 'solve' complex /wicked problems.We assumed that this

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-44916404405232149012008-09-15T13:36:00.000-07:002008-09-15T13:49:17.671-07:00

Science is a pretty amazing thing, really and every now and again I'm struck by how fast things are moving. The machines that go 'ping', the wonders of modern medicine and dentistry which I have to say really do make our lives (in the west at least) a great deal more comfortable.And yet it seems that we are a long way of being able to work collectively to manage many of the modern problems that

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-88825140793197299942008-09-13T02:15:00.000-07:002008-09-13T02:20:03.222-07:00

I know this because for the first time this season, I got dive bombed by magpies today. One of them was pretty persistent despite my flailing arms and ducking head - he hit my helmet 3-4 times before flying off to watch for the next cyclist. It's times like these that I"m glad I wear a helmet!Still its nothing on bears as the news item below mentions....http://news.yahoo.com/s//ap/20080910/

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-62037827916366263962008-09-12T01:43:00.000-07:002008-09-12T01:57:35.220-07:00

They want to dam another wild river and understandably, I guess, another set of "they" want to fight it. The same goes for wind turbines, coal fired power stations etc. Well, I don't want to see a wild river dammed, but I"m wondering what we are balancing this up against? If we don't dam this river what are our options for managing our energy needs and who would do this?It is asking for trouble

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-51238129014527979082008-09-11T13:13:00.000-07:002008-09-11T13:32:17.857-07:00

I've just been looking at an interesting world bank report from the Guardian Website.http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Environment/documents/2008/07/10/Biofuels.PDFThere are many claims and counterclaims about the effects of biofuels on food prices and availability which highlights the need to do some serious thinking about our direction.I continue to be amazed at the ongoing head-in-the-sand

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1562129237295474419.post-63181521877575315682008-09-10T01:06:00.001-07:002008-09-10T01:12:22.650-07:00

I had the privilege of judging the science projects of many Christchurch School children last Sunday. There were some great projects and excellent ideas. I was struck particularly by the project of one lad from Lincoln High school that tested some social psychological theory. His was the only real social science that I saw at the entire fair! I was judging to give out an environmental award

Chrys Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03576199467998354458noreply@blogger.com0