Pseuds Corner - Part 8

As the University strives for excellence in research outcomes it is actively seeking to accelerate its engagement with the world and harness resources and expertise from several continents. Monash focuses its world-wide engagement through strategic and long-term partnerships. - In an increasingly transforming and competitive environment we need new ways of thinking about international engagement and what it means to be a ‘truly international university’. There are three important elements that form the core of international research and international education: mobility, collaboration and contribution. Mobility, is argued to be about [sic] creating opportunities for students and staff to travel beyond their borders in an attempt to nurture ‘global citizens with global outlook’. Collaboration is about forging new partnerships based on collaboration [sic] and mutual respect that produces ‘win-win’ outcomes to ensure that relationships going forward are sustainable. And contribution is not only about equipping our future generation of leaders with the relevant skills and values to contribute to society but universities leading by example in providing educational opportunities beyond monetary gains. (Professor Stephanie Fahey, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Global Engagment) "Message from the DVC(GE)", Monash University)

Home is a varied thing: part sanctuary, part nursery, part kitchen and vegetable garden, part office. If I were to give a word to what unites it all, I wouldn't say bricks and mortgage. I'd say 'rhythm'.- Home combines all sorts of rhythms: eating and sleeping, outings and returns, work and play, and the cadence within each. For example, the rhythm of chopping parsnip and carrot for mackerel soup is very different to the rhythm of writing a newspaper column. Yet home throbs with all of this. (Germaine Leece interviews Damon Young about "The Philosophy of Home", Some Home Truths - What Home Means To Us Today)

Finally, the means of measuring and evaluating knowledge transfer needs to be agreed. There are models and frameworks for evaluating the work of a department or unit in this area. For evaluating staff performance, the standard at present is likely to be Michigan State University’s Evaluating Quality Outreach Framework. Here, a staff project is measured against four dimensions: significance, context, scholarship and impact, and for each of these an appropriate group of qualitative and quantitative measures is chosen from a menu. Evaluation usually involves comparing historical data of external and internal outputs, and relating the department’s priorities to the percentage of staff time and cost. A staff member makes a portfolio submission, which includes a list of projects and clarification of their percentage contribution to each; the staff member’s reflective narrative of their own output; external documentation of impacts such as satisfaction surveys, testimonials and external reviews; and numerical data such as the number of students involved in an activity, the number of product units distributed and the number of community members involved. The Michigan State framework provides a rich array of alternatives to traditional measures of research or teaching performance, which are generally not appropriate for knowledge transfer. (Professor Warren Bebbington, Deputy Vice-Chancellor ("University Affairs"), "Embedding knowledge transfer in the university agenda")

The Proposition seemed to me like the kind of arthouse schlock that rides into battle with severed heads and genitals held on high as emblems of a ghastliness that can outstare realism, a cocaine-like fantasy of epic grandeur that sizzles and fizzles with a sort of adolescent poetry but lacks anything that might give it form or pressure. . .
From the outset [John Hillcoat's new film, The Road] skilfully establishes the moral gravity that underlines the horror-style narrative momentum. The father's narration tells us that if God's voice does not come through the child, then he never spoke a word. And so it goes as father and son move over the bleached and devatstated landscapes of some rural Pennsylvania or Oregon of the mind, some Montana that may be coterminous with a world where men rove like wolves. (Peter Craven on filming Cormac McCarthy's The Road, Australian Review of Books)

The essence of place-making is community engagement. It is more than just community consultation: it is genuine engagement and connectedness with individual community members - to a point where they themselves become place-makers of their own making. - Beautiful and meaningful places and spaces create an intransient value to the locality and a sense of pride to the community. As a result, people spend more time in their community: walking more, buying locally and spending more leisure and play time locally in vibrant mainstreets where there are places to sit, pause, learn, shop, connect and celebrate. - We all know and gravitate towards such places, and yet we keep building ‘empty’ places with little or no sense of ‘spirit of place’. Some would blame globalisation and consumerism on the demise of local communities, where they are reduced to their lowest common denominator - commercial exchange. Some would say that our built environment professionals are too focused on the hardware of place and have neglected the software, the soft skill of place-making. - Place-making provides a way of seeing the world through a more sustainable filter, and provides a platform to make the necessary changes and move towards sustainable lifestyles and behaviours. ("The art of place-making" Urban Design Forum)

One of the challenges for those who like to achieve is reconciling success and happiness. Most contemporary success formulas, science or systems have an element of drive or doing. Most of the happiness schools of thought talk about being present and living in the moment and being. - This creates a clash...or does it? - It's not an either/or proposition, it's an and/also one. It's about walking and chewing gum. Set the goals and intent but then let go and enjoy the process you put in place. The key idea to mesh these two worlds is to study or consider manifestation as an idea. It's about intent and action. Or put another way, you can pray as much as you like but you have to move your feet as well. (Matt Church, "Consider manifestation", Inspiring ThoughtLeadership)


What is Gender-Based Analysis (GBA)? GBA is a tool to assist in systematically integrating gender considerations into the policy, planning and decision-making processes. It corresponds to a broader understanding of gender equality using various competencies and skills to involve both women and men in building society and preparing for the future.
What is gender mainstreaming? Gender mainstreaming is a dual approach that implies the reorganisation, improvement, development and evaluation of all policy processes for the purpose of incorporating a gender equality perspective into all policies, at all levels and at all stages, by the actors normally involved in policy-making. By bringing gender equality issues into the mainstream, mainstreaming them, we can make sure that the gender component is considered in the widest possible variety of sectors, such as work, taxation, transport and immigration.
Who does GBA? Individuals who participate in developing policies, programs and projects are doing GBA. Including gender expertise in the policy process helps policy-makers become more gender-aware and encourages them to incorporate that awareness into their work. Most often, people who do GBA are:
- Involved in the planning and design of governmental or non-governmental interventions.
- Involved in the administration or implementation of governmental or non-governmental interventions.
- Participating in governmental or non-governmental interventions.
- Involved in developing policy or in research that guides governmental or non-governmental interventions.
[continues at length. . .] ("What is Gender-Based Analysis? (GBA)")

Spotters: CMcC, LK, CS