Category Archives: management

78. The Problem of Work and the Rise of the Precariat

The Prob­lem of Work and the Rise of the Pre­cariat Work, as a life expe­ri­ence, has evolved greatly over his­tor­i­cal time. For most ordi­nary peo­ple, their job is not some­thing that they enjoy much. How­ever, with­out for­mal work many lose … Con­tinue read­ing

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77. Fakes, liars, cheats, deceivers, animals in the forest

It’s all around us. From face lifts to lux­ury cars on hire pur­chase, from inflated CVs to exag­ger­ated job titles, from com­pany pub­lic­ity mate­rial to the spin that gov­ern­ments put on their fail­ures and decep­tions. At what point does fak­ery … Con­tinue read­ing

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73. Some Uses and Misuses of Reason

When can the use of rea­son lead to bet­ter lives and soci­eties, and when can it under­mine them? Thor May Bris­bane, 2014 Think­ing point: The Aus­tralian Attor­ney Gen­eral, George Bran­dis has just declared that argu­ments for cli­mate change are irra­tional and that … Con­tinue read­ing

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72. Crime without Punishment – the journey from means to ends

Sooner or later every­one – indi­vid­u­als, gov­ern­ments, com­pa­nies – has to make choices about whether to put aside cer­tain val­ues to achieve a desired end. Michael Pas­coe, an Aus­tralian finan­cial jour­nal­ist, has recently dis­cussed this at http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/abandon-principles-and-pay-the-price-20140331-35tz4.html Image credit: Hugh … Con­tinue read­ing

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65. The Precariously Employed – that’s you, today or tomorrow – A Search for a New World Order

This is a work in pro­gress. Revi­sion and exten­sion is likely. The topic is immense, but immensely impor­tant. Ideas and con­tri­bu­tions are wel­come.  –  Thor _________________________________________________________________________   Com­ment   1. From the late 18th Cen­tury in Europe lead­ing thinkers became … Con­tinue read­ing

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62. Economic Complexity and the Engine of Psychology

Con­text: The essay con­sid­ers eco­nom­ics as a psy­cho­log­i­cal phe­nom­e­non with the char­ac­ter­is­tics of a com­plex dynamic sys­tem. It is an ini­tial and some­what play­ful explo­ration, not a math­e­mat­i­cal paper on sys­tems the­ory. The orig­i­nal con­text was a dis­cus­sion group back­ground … Con­tinue read­ing

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61. Ethical Behaviour is Harder for the Rich

Con­text: The mate­rial here com­prises dis­cus­sion points and some ref­er­ence links for a diverse group of peo­ple in Bris­bane, Aus­tralia, who fancy them­selves as “gen­tle thinkers”, and who meet from time to time to talk things over. All kinds of … Con­tinue read­ing

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