Think Again Jennifer Borrell & Jacques Boulet

Jennifer talks with Jorge Jorquera who is a Councillor at Maribyrnong Counil and Coordinator of Borderlands Cooperative.Jorge tells how he came to Australia with his family as an infant in the wake of the military coup in Chile in 1973, and the brutal regime that followed. In his early teens he joined the Labor Party for a time, before it took a turn to the right, bringing in various neo liberal 'reforms' in the 1980s. His life of social action since then has included student politics, and work with unions and community organisations.He believes that social change is inevitable, while we still have to work collectively for the form that social change takes. Currently inspiration can be found in the solidarity that young people and university students are showing with the Palestinian people in Gaza. Music: Righteous Ones by Blue King Brown; Milkumana by King Stingray Community announcement:The future of community development: a morning tea conversation with Peter Westoby10:30am Saturday 25 MayBorderlands Cooperative30A Pickett Street, Footscray 

Jacques and Marie talk about how universities could reinvigorate their work of teaching, learning and researching, following the devastation of 40 years of neo-liberalism, budget cuts and managerialism.

Jennifer and Jacques discuss the systemic and economic effects of internet platforms and social media, especially with power concentrated in a few super-rich companies.Author, Yanis Varoufakis, calls these 'technofeudalists', while most of us are reduced to 'serfs' - producing the products of the 'cloud' for free, and giving away data about ourselves that, in turn, is used to manipulate us. ReferenceYanis Varoufakis 2023, Technofeudalism: What killed capitalism. Australia: Penguin BooksKari Paul 2024, The House passed a Tik Tok bill: Will the US really ban the app? The Guardian, 14 Mar 2024Lily Hay Newman 2024, It's time to get real about Tik Tok's risks WIRED  

Jennifer talks with Katelyn Butterss, CEO of the Victorian Public Tenants Association (VPTA) about what is happening with the demolition of public housing towers, and public housing in general.Katelyn begins by explaining the difference between public housing and community housing, While there is a place for community housing as part of the housing mix, public housing is cheaper, more secure and more protective of human rights. Research has shown it is important for housing the most vulnerable and preventing homelessness.Katelyn and Jennifer discuss the folly of selling off public land to private developers to redevelop the public housing towers - evidently for very little gain. Nevertheless the detail of the Victorian Government's plans are vague at this point, giving some hope for activists that it might change course.Links:Victorian Public Tenants Association3CR Raise the RoofSave Public Housing Collective

Jennifer and Jacques discuss how we are constantly distracted by new information coming in from our devices, which is draining our ability to focus, and think deeply and creatively. This has serious implications for collective sense-making and for our capacity to address threats to our wellbeing and survival.ReferencesRobert Colvile (2016) The Great Acceleration: How the world is getting faster, faster. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.Jonathan Haidt (2023) ‘Get phones out of schools now’, The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/06/ban-smartphones-phone-free-schools-social-media/674304/)Johann Hari (2022) Stolen focus: Why you can’t pay attention. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.Joshua Meyrowitz (1985) No sense of Place: the Impact of electronic media on social behaviour Oxford: Oxford University PressHartmut Rosa (2005/2013) Social Acceleration: A new theory of Modernity. New York: Columbia University PressSoshana Zuboff (2019) The age of surveillance capitalism: The fight for a human future at the new frontier of power. London: Profile Books Ltd.New Community Journal (2018) vol. 16 (2) issue 62 Community Development + Social Media (order from ncq@borderlands.org.au; the editorial "the promises+ predicaments of the social media" offers a good overview of critical works discussing this issue)Alan Kohler (The New Daily 4th February 2024) Social Media is Rewiring Humanity's central nervous systemDerek Thompson https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/cell-phones-student-test-scores-dropping/676889/

Jennifer and Jacques talk about the ways Australia is following disastrous paths toward constant war and has been for a long time, and why we need to fight for peace instead.ReferencesAlison Broinowski (2024) ‘Australia’s moment of choice: Illegal war on show in 2003 Cabinet papers’, Pearls and Irritations, https://johnmenadue.com/australias-moment-of-choice-illegal-war-on-show-in-2003-cabinet-papers/Joseph Camilleri (2024) ‘Time to silence the drums of war and give voice to the human spirit’, Disarming Times, 49(1), March 2024. (The journal of Pax Christi Australia)Michael Pascoe (2024) ‘Politics drives poor policy and forsakes principles in Palestine’, The New Daily, 16 March 2024.Naomi Klein on complicity in genocide, believes this is ‘not the first time’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOZENYTvibU