Environmental protection is tooooo important to leave it to politicians – a sure recipe for failure.  Here empowering local bushy fisherpeople has a self organising glocal outcome (see bold please) – In Holland the dikes etc are toooo important to leave to pollies so it’s a recipe similar to that below that is uses and it works for centuries that is engineers and citizens boards – who needs Governments?

FYI

Comments welcome  ciao paul

 

Based on a successful experiment in Chile, the researchers say a new approach to marine tenure could help to reverse the maritime 'tragedy of the commons' which has led to the depletion of fish stocks worldwide.

"Marine ecosystems are in decline around the world. New transformational changes in governance are urgently required to cope with overfishing, pollution, global changes, and other drivers of degradation," says Professor Terry Hughes of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University, one of the authors of a new scientific paper advocating sweeping reform of ocean governance.

"In recent years there has been a growing appreciation that the health of ecosystems like the oceans and human wellbeing are closely linked," says co-author Dr. Per Olsson of the Stockholm Resilience Centre. "Unfortunately, typical governance arrangements don't effectively link these two essential elements, when trying to manage fishing pressure for example. They are often too rigid and don't cope well with surprises or changed conditions."

A combination of fisheries collapses and the move to democracy in Chile, quite by chance, provided the opportunity to try out some new arrangements for looking after fisheries, involving a partnership of fishers, scientists and managers.

"There was a general recognition that Chile's fish stocks were in trouble," says Professor Carl Folke, also from the Stockholm Resilience Centre and the Beijer Institute. "Things were turbulent and people were looking for answers and that made them open to new approaches. There was also good scientific understanding of the coastal ecosystems of the region on which to base a new management plan."

Fishers and scientists had been working together on the problem for some years, sharing knowledge and building trust. This led to the trialling of new co-operative models for fishery management, based on the latest that science can reveal about the state of the fish stock and the surrounding marine ecosystem.

The result is a revolutionary national system of marine tenure that allocates user rights and responsibilities to collectives of fishers.

"Although fine tuning is always needed to continue to build resilience of this new regime, this transformation has improved the sustainability of the interconnected social-ecological system," Prof Folke adds.

A vital ingredient in the change was the move by Chile to democracy after a 17-year dictatorship. This opened the way for reform of the laws governing fishing rights.

The new laws gave exclusive ocean territories to local 'artisanal' fishers, and excluded the big industrial fishing fleets, which had their own exclusive fishing zone.

Scientists and small fishers then worked together to understand and rebuild the shattered fish stocks in their zone, leading to a shared vision and voluntary agreements on how to manage them. Fishing pressure was reduced in the industrial fishing zone by cutting the number of big vessels.

Professor Hughes says the Chilean experience contains lessons which can potentially apply anywhere in the world where a fishery is in trouble and there is good scientific data on the marine environment.

"You need a shared recognition that something has to be done, you need a good understanding of the marine ecosystem and how to regenerate it, you need a strong rapport between scientists and fishers, and you need a political moment when sweeping changes can be brought in," he says.

"If you have all those things, there is a good chance you can avoid the marine 'tragedy of the commons' which has been a feature of fisheries around the world in the past half century."

The research indicates the key to managing fisheries may depend on creating agreements that are both voluntary and flexible enough to cope with changes in the ocean environment, leading to fisheries that are both ecologically and socially sustainable.

September 17, 2009 Australian population to nearly double to 35 million by mid-century

Article from: The Courier-Mail

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Stefanie Balogh

September 18, 2009 12:00am

THE Australian population will explode to 35 million people in a generation and we will be younger than previously thought, according to forecasts.

Our demographic surge will be driven by more women of childbearing age, higher fertility rates, and increased net overseas migration.

Treasurer Wayne Swan will today provide a glimpse into the future when he reveals key details from the much-anticipated third Intergenerational Report.

The full report, due to be released before next year’s federal Budget, is a crucial planning tool.

With Treasury Secretary Ken Henry’s review of the nation’s taxation system, the intergenerational data will guide the Rudd Government’s policies for the nation’s growing and ageing population.

Mr Swan will tell the launch of the Australian Institute For Population Ageing Research in Sydney that the proportion of people over 65 will almost double to 25 per cent of all Australians in 2049 .

But the proportion is slightly less than previously projected.

In his speech, Mr Swan will say “the population ageing story in Australia is changing”.

The updated Intergenerational report will predict Australia’s population will grow by 65 per cent to 35 million people in 2049. It was previously tipped to reach 28.5 million in 2047.

The extra 6.5 million Australians over 40 years will come from births and migration.

“Our projections suggest that Australia’s population could be larger and younger than presented in previous (intergenerational reports),” Mr Swan will say.

He says the total fertility rate of Australian women has increased to more than 1.9 births per woman in recent years – a level of fertility not seen since the 1980s.

Migration to Australia will also increase, and Mr Swan says these people “tend to be younger than the resident population, and . . . contribute to the projected larger and younger Australian population”.

But despite changes to the nation’s demographic make-up in four decades, the drain on government services including health, pensions and aged care will come from a greying population.

The proportion of the population aged 85 and over is projected to increase most rapidly, rising from 1.7 per cent of the population in 2009 to 5 per cent in 2049.

The Government has laid the groundwork to tackle the ageing population by raising the pension age to 67 from 65 at a rate of six months every two years from 2017.

Mr Swan’s Budget boost to pensions begins next week, with single pensioners on the maximum rate receiving an extra $70.83 every fortnight, and couples on the maximum rate getting $29.93 more.

“Over the next 40 years it is projected that the number of young people and the number of people of traditional working age will both increase by about 45 per cent,” the Treasurer will say.

“But here’s the thing – over the same 40-year period, the number of older people aged 65-84 years will more than double and the number of very old people aged 85 and over will increase by more than 4½ times.”

Clunkers V’s Spankers – saving energy? or just greenwash – a bushy’s view August 31, 2009 A case study in greenwash – an Australian bushies view –
—-US The Spanker for a Clunker scheme uses more energy that it saves—-
Clunkers V’s Spankers NEA (Net Energy Analysis for similar vehicle but newer basis) Calculations viz. replacing Clunkers with Spankers (S4C scheme) [US terms and scheme (also similar schemes are operational in the UK and Japan)]

Aspect The Clunker
TEE (Total Embodied Energy Units) 10
Reuse Energy *
Net Recycle Energy (NRE) 01***
Operational Energy Saving (OES) 01****
Total (∑) lost

Aspect Your new Spanker
TEE (Total Embodied Energy) 10
Reuse Energy **
Net Recycle Energy (NRE)
Operational Energy Saving (OES)
Total (∑) 10 cost

Grand Total (∑∑) Energy Used in one Clunker – Spanker swap over = 19.4 energy units
Source: P Wildman 10-08-2009:

NB: * at least 70% of the car is reusable at least once indicate this potential will not be harvested because the motors are destroyed as part of the C4C US program.** less of the mechanical and electrical systems are field reusable – deliberate design parameter. *** In the US the motors are destroyed so that the vehicle is unsuitable then for the wreckers/reuse/second hand car parts market. A clunker is a vehicle most of which are operating effectively with 95%+ of their parts functioning, that can be field repaired, being replaced by more recent model with marginally better fuel efficiency yet vastly less field serviceability and reusability (shifts costs from the manufacturer to owner – greenwashing) + net energy indicates the energy going into the recycling process inc. transport, heat, equipment, labour, parts separation (generally does not occur) etc. cp. that coming out. My standpoint guesstimate is that recycling takes more energy than it replaces. **** net efficacious OES – relative small as petrol use over life differential 4cyl cp. 4cyl is minimal and field maintenance cannot occur the owner must pay higher garage per hour costs for proprietary maintenance etc.

Observations:(1) To replace a clunker with a spanker will cost 19.4 units of embodied energy cp. 0.3 units to repair the motor of the clunker if that was necessary.
(2) At least as much energy can be saved on the clunker by correct tyre inflations and proper driving behaviour as can be saved by driving the slightly more fuel efficient spanker.
(3) Another approach is to check car exhausts and proscribe changes necessary to meet certain emission standards
(4) The S4C scheme is nothing other than using taxpayers’ dollars (a car owner gets several thousand dollars per clunker ‘recycled’ in this program) to prop up the auto industry a form of tariff that discriminates against the poor and has a massive net environmental loss – often sold as an environmental program – this is a case in unethical behaviour a particularly nasty example of greenwashing.
(5) The issue isn’t the marginal improvement in efficiency (but drop in efficacy) it is the fact both are still petrol – nor does electricity solve anything unless it is solar. The whole shemozzle just distracts us from the main game getting an alternative to petrol that bypasses the petrol cartel and empowers us to reuse and repair as our g’parents did.

Paul Wildman
paul@kalgrove.com
V4 @ 01-09-2009 comm. 10-08-2009: 500 words

http://thebushy.wordpress.com

Welcome! Bush Mechanics and Artificers Guild of Australia and New Zealand (BMAGANZ) – an emergent peer-versity.

The concepts behind the content are as detailed in particular on www.kal.net.au Adult Learning button on Left Hand Side & directly http://www.kalgrove.com/adultlearning/ and http://science-artificer.iwarp.com/index.html .

The BUSHY may be defined as:

someone who while being deeply and broadly technically skilled is reflexively orientated and who ethically and participatively explores the big picture and prioritises, chooses, designs and enacts forward wisely by creatively developing prototypes towards a world transformed. [Paul Wildman 15-12-03]

French: Bricoleur – A bricoleur is a ‘Jack of all trades or a kind of tinkerer, a professional do-it-yourself person.’ There are many kinds of bricoleurs – interpretive, narrative, theoretical, practical and political. The bricoleur produces a bricolage – that is, a pieced-together set of representations or components that are fitted to the specifics of a complex situation [closest English equivalent – tinkerer – though usually used disparagingly]

French: L’esprit Accor – is the art of blending skills, of combining traditions of the past with the modern innovation, adding the generosity, discipline, imagination and warmth which can carry our work to a higher level of excellence. L’esprit Accor then is a transforming vision of success (the closest English equivalent is – efficacious magnanimousness/morale – 20 per cent fit).

Bush Mechanic in other languages Ummanu http://www.piney.com/BabGloss.html The Seven Sages, who wrote the great epic poems such as those of Erra and Gilgamesh in the Babylonian epics. ‘Ammenon, another of the forms into which Enmenluanna was corrupted, is in

(1) Akkadian ummanu, ‘artificer,’ ‘artisan,’ which, when translated into Hebrew, becomes Kenan and in an abbreviated form, Cain.’ (George Barton). In the Apocalyptic literature Jubal, Jabal, Tubal-Cain and Naamah are all summed up under the name Genun. Pilikam,

(2) Sumerian ‘with intelligence to build.’] In

(3) Babylonian Semitic it would be literally Ina-uzni-eresu, or, ummanu, ‘artificer.’

The (4) Hebrew translation of this is Kenan, which means ‘artificer.’ Also Melamkish gives us the Hebrew Lamech by the simple elision of the first and last consonants. Langdon makes the suggestion that Lamech is the Sumerian, Luma, an epithet of the Babylonian god Ea as the patron of music. (Barton, George, Archaeology and the Bible, p. 323). No. 4 on the list, Ammenon is the Babylonian Ummanu, meaning ‘artificer,’ and is the equivalent of Kenan (Cainan) which means ‘smith.’

(5) Hindi Jugaadu – artisan.

(6) American – farmer astronaut. Juggad. n. an improvised or jury-rigged solution; inventiveness, ingenuity. Jugaad literally means a work around, which have to be used because of lack of resources and will power. This is a Hindi term also widely used by people speaking other Indian languages, and people of Indian Origin around the word. Jugaado/Jugaadu a person who practices Jugaad [see http://www.jugaadu.com/ ].

(7) French bricoleur.

In (8) ancient Greece a word also often used for craftsman was demioergos (public~demios and productive~ergon).

(9) Japanese daiku – the carpenter the great among craftsmen he is the master builder and the designer through the use of his carpenters sketch book where ideas, prototypes and experiences are recorded via. Tatami layout (tatami are floor units that link all rooms in a common denominator were originally a mat the size of two men sitting and eventually came to mean the whole floor unit of about 1x2mtrs) sketch of floor plans which is drawn by the family that will live in the home in conjunction with the daiku in order to achieve Enfilade [old French – to thread a needle - from Sennett (2008:259&263)]

The sequence of, interface and flow between, rooms of a house so that one room yields gracefully to another – based on floor plan and door design, generally with a vista down the length of the building viz. Queenslander hallway ~ in all a crucial aspect of architectural design. Other terms: sub-altern, demiurge, practical philosopher, futuring, critical futures praxiser, anticipatory action learner, Prohairesist – Greek for one who chooses ahead wisely – (Bushie extended to acting ahead wisely); one who practices Poietal knowledge ((10) Greek) viz. producing – forming and making and therefore designing – i.e. artificing; Phronesisist – Greek for one who practices wise action, practical wisdom (Bushie actually!!) ethical praxis. Creactivist (Paul Wildman).

In Australia there is a term for someone who can act forward wisely and solve problems with what is available while developing innovations ‘in the field’ so to speak that respond to broader needs – this person is called a ‘Artificer’. NB: A Artificer is committed to the use of personal ingenuity for self reliance and excellence at her task of developing innovative exemplar project and is not to be confused with a ‘backyard mechanic’ who does shoddy work.

The Artificer is deeply ingrained into the Australian national psyche indeed the runner up for the national anthem – Waltzing Matilda – is about a bushie who steals a sheep for food and ultimately takes his own life rather than be caught by the law. Conventionally a bushie is someone who can fix a practical problem with ‘fencing wire’ and do a great job to boot and the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s Artificer series (see web site section in resources) literally shows just that particularly in indigenous communities.

Exemplar Projects June 14, 2009 by ionamiller In today’s complex and turbulent world it is vital to have futurists who can collaborate on collective projects, focus on action codified in exemplar projects and validate actions towards a better world. Unfortunately current ‘education’ systems focus almost exclusively on the individual learner and have separated the learner from the praxis of the lived life. Furthermore classrooms separate the learner from design, production and integration of learning into community life. The author argues that overcoming this separation of thinking and doing is one of the key challenges for modernity and in futures in particular.

A way in which we may be able to meet this challenge is known by the term ‘Artificers’ in Australia – innovative individuals who look forward wisely and solve collective problems today through applying their ingenuity with what is available, thus integrating thinking, doing and being in what in ancient times was called Poiesis and in Medieval times ‘artificing’ and today can be seen in Action Learning and the Artificer. The four principles, as well as examples, of the Artificer approach are discussed including their exemplar projects. Finally, the importance of the Artificer approach to ‘futuring’ and creating living breathing examples today of a future our children can live with is emphasised and collaboration sought.

Keywords:

Artificer Learning, Futuring, Critical Futures Praxis, Artificer, Action Learning

1. INTRODUCTION

In today’s complex, turbulent and often incoherent world it is vital to have futurists who can collaborate on collective projects, focus on action codified in exemplar projects and validate actions towards a better world; and actionists who can think of the longer-term and the big picture in which we, and our actions, are located (or situated). Unfortunately current ‘education’ systems have separated the learner from the praxis of the lived life; and classrooms separate the learner from design and production of artifacts for our lives, and more generally intergenerational community life.

In Australia there is a term for someone who can act forward wisely and solve problems with what is available while developing innovations ‘in the field’ so to speak that respond to broader needs – this person is called a ‘Artificer’. NB: A Artificer is committed to the use of personal ingenuity for self reliance and excellence at her task of developing innovative exemplar projects[1] and is not to be confused with a ‘backyard mechanic’ who does shoddy work.

The Artificer is deeply ingrained into the Australian national psyche indeed the runner up for the national anthem – Waltzing Matilda – is about a bushie who steals a sheep for food and ultimately takes his own life rather than be caught by the law. Conventionally a bushie is someone who can fix a practical problem with ‘fencing wire’ and do a great job to boot and the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s Artificer series (see web site section in resources) literally shows just that particularly in indigenous communities.

In order to understand the Artificer approach, we need to embrace the vital role of praxis in the design process viz. Idea | Design | Implementation (action). I have found that, in social innovations in the ‘real’ world, up to nine tenths of project energy is absorbed in implementation and compliance rather than (re)conceptualising an idea or active experimentation towards improving the concept’s application. This compares, for instance, with up to nine tenths of the energy expended in the conventional academic process in conceptualisation. And regrettably in Vocational Education today, which is assessed by correct behaviour not understanding, up to nine tenths of energy is directed to action, not as praxis or poiesis, but in behaviour, not to understanding as in conceptualisation let alone active experimentation. Additionally, the actions of those concerned with implementation tend to be limited in scope to operations only and bigger conceptual issues are seldom engaged.

This fundamental structural mismatch in education (action-less conception and concept-less action) has emerged over the past 200 years and been identified and explored previously by many educational innovators, yet possibly has not been adequately applied to futures/foresight. This article maintains this as one of the fundamental critiques of the positivist and post positivist paradigms by action learning/action research circles, and one of its key areas in urgent need of redemptive innovation.

Emergence of the division between thinking and doing

Boyte after Arendt, explains that it was Plato who introduced ‘the division between those who know and do not act and those who act and do not know’. Boyte [1], Arendt [2]. The Judeo-Christian belief of original sin – where the manifest world, and potentially our actions therein, are seen as tainted compared to seeking the divine in the life of the ascetic including renunciation of the senses, or at least suspicion of the joy found in manual dexterity and its fruits to some extent maintained, extended and deepened this Platonic division.

Newton’s view extended this Platonic perspective in that for him ‘The Universe was a mechanical one whose order was maintained by a distant God’, and the best man could hope for was to understand the mechanics of it all – not the underlying rationale. Newton, in fact, wrote more on alchemy, at essence concerned with ultimate causes and transformations, than mathematics: he saw the universe tinctured and enviviated by emotion and love. These works, however remain unpublished. Coulter [3], Christianson [4]. After the tradition shaped by Plato and enhanced by Newton, in the West, we have doggedly followed a staunchly mechanist view, that culminates in the structural separation of thinking and doing in our schools, Universities, bureaucracies and scientific research laboratories.

Society as cephalocentric – accessing the overlooked mimetic epistemology of dexterity

What this means for today’s humans – some 200,000 years after the transition from Homo Erectus to Homo sapiens – is that our learning abilities and creativity are still very deeply connected to our manual capacities. The two are linked by dexterity[2]. Cultures such as ours dichotomize ‘mind’ and ‘body’ and hold to what Wilson calls a ‘cephalocentric view of intelligence,’ whereby the importance of the hand-brain nexus is bypassed and the role of dexterity is largely ignored. Wilson [5]. As a result, we overvalue symbolic knowledge (the ability to manipulate words and numbers to describe or represent meaning in abstract theoretical linguistic symbols) while undervaluing ‘bodily knowledge’ or ‘hand knowledge’ (or what Wilson calls mimetic knowledge i.e. knowledge which uses conceptual-manual dexterity to directly transform physical reality i.e. the world around us and vice versa. Wilson [6].

Such Mimetic knowledge he severely differentiates from imitation because mimesis includes more than just copying and includes elements of intentionality and understanding and capability generally manifest through dexterity i.e. learning or as I call it here ‘futuring’. For example in car manufacturing in the 50’s and 60’s many accused Japan of just copying the design of western vehicles and selling them back to the West at a much cheaper price, however in the subsequent 25 years it has become clear that the situation was one of mimesis not simple copying as the Japanese mastered the deeper conceptual and design arts and now have generated for instance in Toyota one of the most innovative and largest vehicle manufacturers on earth, and many of the companies producing the vehicles originally ‘copied’ e.g. Leyland are not in business.

Mimetics then are acts that embody a theory of knowledge, an epistemology, that manifests in intentional, representational and concrete acts (e.g. making a stone axe 1,000,000 years ago or an exemplar project today as discussed in this article) that are not mythic (symbolic narrative) or theoretic (abstract calculus) but mimetic. Thus they are not just copying as in monkey see monkey do, but replicating with understanding including intentionality leading to the capability to manipulate the elements of our physical environment to create meaningful actions and objects in our lives. For Wilson this mimesis involves the invention of intentional socially encoded representations and their articulation into communal reality. Wilson [7]

In schools, Wilson writes, children ‘who are most successful, even virtuosos, at using their hands to conceive, understand, build and fix complicated things in the everyday world around them’ are often the same children doing very poorly on mathematically related intelligence tests. Furthermore one can see this respect for the mimetic epistemology behind the theories of education of Dewey, Kolb, Sarkar and Steiner and others and also in much of the intent of the vocational education systems. Dewey [8], Kolb [9], Rama [10], Inayatullah [11], Steiner [12]. According to Wilson then such systems are not as they are seen nowadays as secondary for students who cant ‘cut it’ in academia, they are actually discrete and equal to the symbolic systems now so dominant in our educational arena.

Wilson’s book can be rough going at times, but I highly recommend it to those of us who feel that our hands are quite literally the smartest things we own, further he maintains that the hand speaks to the brain just as surely as the brain speaks to the hand. This can be seen in any discussion where people who have to put their hands behind their back simply can’t communicate properly. From Wilson’s perspective gesticulation is part of the mimetic episteme based on dexterity. Certainly smarter than the conventional Western brain that chooses to risk either ignoring or overworking dexterity to the point of RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury), seldom choosing to dance with or respect it.

The results of this split are readily seen to day in terms of the specialisation of skills, separation of academia from actual social change projects, separation of producing from consuming e.g. we are moving rapidly away from being ‘prosumers’ – having our own gardens, making our own clothes, and the pejorative position that vocational education takes in relation to higher education, and so forth. Arendt claims this is the challenge for modernity: to re-braid thinking and doing, in sort facilitating the re-emergence of mimesis.[3]

3. FROM ACTION LEARNING TO ARTIFICER LEARNING

Artificers then may be seen as a type of action learning that:

· Focuses on the learner, not only the thinking (academic education) but also action (although much action is seen as ‘behaviourist’ vocational education), such that it…

· Draws from experience, yet is proactive and intentional, towards a better world and…

· Embraces the overall Design process covering Idea | Design | Implementation
(I | D | I): including intelligent understanding of the basic concept; prototype design; establishment and critical reflection on subsequent outcomes by…

· Embodying the agency of the learner; not only in seeking to address structural issues/projects but is also…

· Directed to the good of the person and the good of society (integrity and ethics) i.e. virtuous action towards the good (of) society by…

· Linking action directly to the priorities from the ‘global problematique’ and is concretised in an exemplar project or master piece, that…

· Moves from praxis to poiesis i.e. from doing to making and shaping, i.e. action as prototype development, for the general good through a focus on critically informed instrumental action.

Artificer Learning or Artificer Learning then is a form of action learning focused on the learner – who learns by making or shaping an action decided on collectively and intended for some particular application towards a better world. Such learning is always threefold – internal to the learner (integrity, values etc), external to the learner (ethics and how the world works), and bridging between the two (dexterity delivered content).

‘Artificer’, then, is based on a type of action that emphases a learning by doing approach that is designed to improve the human condition generally over an extended time period of at least a decade,.

The present condition of the West may well be a reflection of Rick Slaughter’s view of western cultures as manifestations of ‘industrial flatland’ where horizontal extension reigns and intention or vertical knowledge is deemed unnecessary – where thinking and doing remain disparate. Slaughter [13]. Any serious system of activism needs to engage this dilemma at a profound level. Historically, in Australia, I argue that one of the closest ways we can get to this ‘path less travelled’ is via. a person called a ‘Artificer’ or in this instance ‘Artificer’.

THE FOUR CARDINAL PRINCIPLES OF THE ARTIFICER

The outcome of my grounded theory whereby theory is build up from local or grounded observations not as is usually the case in ‘grand theory’ local data are sought to prove or disprove the grand or general theory[8] Glaser [17]. Based on a two year research period working with some 4 Artificers identified the following four key principles. During this period I kept a field journal and recorded learning insights therein. Grounded Theory was then applied to code these insights and identify key emergent ‘meta categories’ from this field data records. The key or paramount category that emerged, one that all other categories related to, was ‘the exemplar project’ (see Principle 1 immediately below) Glaser [17], Dick [18]. This action research protocol for this project is explicated in Wildman and Hadkins [19].

Artificer Principle 1: The Exemplar Project Principle

Exemplar project – or bricolage – means a best in class project/prototype designed to address a collectively prioritised need, and demonstrates a better world is possible for our children.

For example a project that is based on Artificer learning over a decade of praxis, such praxis helps generate a grasp of the big picture while understanding the small picture, its components and interface. Interface is that interdisciplinary surface between skill sets that are to be integrated if knowledge is to be efficaciously applied. For instance a project/prototype requires such interface/interdisciplinary integration for its successful testing and in fact much of the beta version is about working out the interfaces i.e. working out efficacious ways various skill sets/knowledge areas can interface effectively.

In this way active practical knowledge/wisdom through the exemplar project embeds interdisciplinary interface in the very ‘D’esign process and often occurs at the edges of the formal | informal economy. The project tends to be innovative rather than inventive, and combines business discipline, vocational expertise and social context, that braids thinking and doing; part and whole; individual and collective and is aimed at bettering the lot of our fellow human in line with the requirements of the global problematique.[9] In a social sense then the Exemplar Project integrates/interfaces Social Futures | Action Research and | Change Management.

Such interface involves the following key interface/interdisciplinary arenas:

[1] Technical Interface category

[2] Human Ecology Interface category

[3] Ends Interface (Normative and Strategic) category

[4] Lateral Interface category

[5] Informal Interface category
[6] Learning Interface category

[7] Design Interface category
[8] Butterfly Effect Interface category

[9] Interface as Focus

[10] Failure Interface category

[11] Tool Interface category

[12] The Polis as interface nest

Should these be applied to a learning institution we end up not with a ‘University’ (one way of knowing) but rather with what may be called a ‘polyversity’ (many ways of knowing). That is from monophonic university to polyphonic multiversity. Wildman [20]

Artificer Principle 2: Social Betterment Principle

The exemplar project is seen by the Artificer as an example of a social betterment. Such betterment can be for the corporation and its community interactions, for the community independent of the corporation, or for society as a whole.

The exemplar project although it may manifest in an technological or organisational manner is actually seen by the Artificer as a social betterment or holon, after Koestler [21]. That is as self organising nested system which is simultaneously part and whole, hierarchically situated yet autonomous, using fixed rules yet flexible strategies, such as the heart in the circulation system of our body.

The Artificer then may be seen as a Renaissance person and sees the exemplar project at essence not uniquely materialistic i.e. a technological endeavour yet to be understood in terms of social betterment. Artificers tend to integrate life at the individual perspective with social betterment.

In overview the article calls for a concentrated action research project in the arena of the largely bypassed mimetic artificer type epistemology alluded to by Wilson and urged by Arendt in the re-linking of thinking and doing.For me this is the underlying and as yet unanswered or even unacknowledged challenge of the Western modernity project, thus this article.Potential areas that could enhance the Artificer approach’s chance of success and encourage others who now, or wish to, work on similar lines are highlighted below and the editor and I are keen to hear from anyone so interested.

This calls for a need to bias learning to action; to braid thinking with action – not separate the two. Further, I suggest the need for a pedagogy that reconciles the Platonic differentiation of thinking and doing while focusing on action, in a sort of epistemic affirmative action, and finally moving away from the ‘universe as a machine’ world view of Newton to a ‘universe as an interactive exemplar project’ view.It may well be that the development of an integrated artificer pedagogy may once again help re-integrate Higher and Vocational Education towards a better world for our children’s children.

One such approach, Artificer Learning, is more commonly recognised as Artificers.It may be that in the medium term future organisations aiming at Futures Work may wish to use some artificer or Artificer skills and approaches in order to concretely demonstrate through exemplar projects systems ideas and designs for a better world.Such a ‘futuring’ approach braids thinking and doing through exemplar projects by artificers, and artificer organisations, of integrity, e.g. the exemplar project examples in the box above.In this way the English Statute of Artificers of the 14th Century may well have relevance today.

One may see many such exemplar project examples today in the arenas of hard technology such as air and space craft and space craft design, information processing and genetic engineering and some of the better aspects of training in the health and military arenas.Little vocational education and almost no higher education today bare much semblance to artificer learning.

Sadly we see few exemplar projects in the social technology arenas of governance, restorative justice, local economy, urban design, citizen rights and responsibilities and deep sustainability[10]. Imagine if you will a FOX cable program called Return to Intentional Community which set teams seeking to join a particular community certain time critical governance and soft system tasks, the outcomes of which could then be assessed, piloted and posted on a web based exemplar project clearing house site.Exemplar project write-ups could even have a place in journals and themes such as this.Lack of development in socio-governance arenas means that for instance new hard tech processes such as weapons and information control are grafted on to existing non participatory top down delivery systems e.g. bureaucracies and other punitive systems which then just further exacerbate the problem by further reducing citizen rights and overall system sustainability.

A few of these soft technology exemplar projects are out there however they are few and far between often don’t interact with one another as they are in different sectors and have little web interface.This needs to change urgently as soft technologies are the nested system upon which hard science rests, and we urgently need improvements in, as well as the dissemination of, such soft technologies, in our social ingenuity in order to direct our hard technologies in ways that can demonstrate today a better world is possible tomorrow for our children.

In light of this challenge it is hoped that the neologism of the Artificer may play a part in providing an encouraging way forward to this more representative interactive artificing future.