Category: Social-Technical
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Our food system: Power and Profit
“Power and profit drive what we eat: here’s why the food system needs a revolution” Decades of corporate control have shaped diets, harmed farmers and strained the planet — transforming the system will take collective action. Food Fight: From Plunder and Profit to People and Planet Stuart Gillespie Canongate Books (2025) Stuart Gillespie’s book Food Fight offers a…
walterstiers
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“Play should always be led by the child and what the child wants to do”
“Why kids need to take more risks: science reveals the benefits of wild, free play” Studies reveal how risky play can benefit child development. But encouraging it can be a challenge for parents. Over the past two decades, research has emerged showing that opportunities for risky play are crucial for healthy physical, mental and emotional development.…
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Beyond thinking fast and slow: clinical reasoning
“Beyond thinking fast and slow: a Bayesian intuitionist model of clinical reasoning” Clinical reasoning is a quintessential aspect of medical training and practice, and is a topic that has been studied and written about extensively over the past few decades. However, the predominant conceptualisation of clinical reasoning has insofar been extrapolated from cognitive psychological theories…
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Friendship and loneliness
“Why friendship and loneliness affect our health” Friendships play an especially important role in our lives, providing emotional and other sources of support as well as creating the communities on which our survival has depended. Friendship is underpinned both by core areas within the brain and by β-endorphins. Because β-endorphins have a number of direct…
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Updating MentalModels of Risk
“Updating Mental Models of Risk” Disasters are no longer isolated events. This demands a fundamental change in how we think about and respond to complex risk. Wealth is often thought of as a source of protection—a form of risk mitigation. Yet the security that money buys can paradoxically amplify certain risks. “When complex systems break…
walterstiers
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‘economic denial’
The world is facing a new form of climate denial – not the dismissal of climate science, but a concerted attack on the idea that the economy can be reorganised to fight the crisis, the president of global climate talks has warned. André Corrêa do Lago, the veteran Brazilian diplomat who will direct this year’s…
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A Knowledge Exchange Playbook to Build Resilience
“A Knowledge Exchange Playbook to Build Resilience” Hinrichs, Margaret M. and Patricia Solís (Editors). (2021). A KnowledgeExchange Playbook to Build Resilience. Tempe: Knowledge Exchange for Resilience, Arizona StateUniversity. Washington, D.C.: Global Council for Science and the Environment.Available online at https://resilience.asu.edu/playbook In the face of profound shock and change, individuals, organizations, and communities are seeking new…
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Sensemaking – Eurosense
Eurosense, A European Citizen Sensor Network, is a Europe-wide citizen science network that wants to make the voices of European citizens heard by activists, policy makers and governments.By understanding the experiences of citizens in public life, and the pulse of Europe, we will overcome polarisation and collectively tackle the challenges of our times such as…
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Nested hierarchies in skills – importance of basic education
In many careers, a person must learn foundational skills before advancing deeper into their profession. Computer programmers need a solid foundation in basic mathematics; nurses must gain clinical experience and specialized training to become nurse practitioners; a negotiator’s ability to persuade depends on solid communication and active-listening skills. A recent paper published in Nature Human Behaviour mapped the dependency…
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7 communication reasons organizations do not change
“The seven communication reasons organizations do not change“ Results of this study point to the limitations of management and impersonal communication. Change is a messy business, and transformational change will not happen unless management is willing to tolerate the ambiguity and the sense that emerges in communication. Results also point to the importance of communication…
