John Parkinson
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The danger of policy – and deliberation – in straight lines
Teaching a class of middle- ranking policy makers last year brought to the foreground an issue I’ve been pondering for a while now. It is this: many officials focus too much on a well-defined problem, and design solutions to fix that problem directly. Indeed, they are taught, and incentivised, to do that. The vast majority…
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Parliament Rebuilding – don’t let them seal themselves off
I was privileged yesterday to take part in a discussion on CBC radio’s Ottawa Morning show with host Robyn Bresnahan and Jennifer Ditchburn, Editor in Chief of Policy Options. Jennifer had written an excellent piece about a huge, decade-long programme to renovate the Centre Block of the Canadian Parliament, something that is not being discussed but…
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A new job in Europe!
Followers of my social media feeds will already know this, but on 1 January 2019 I take up a new position as Professor of Social and Political Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. It’s a rather exciting opportunity because the whole faculty works…
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*Waves hello*
Hello! I’m popping my head above the parapet for the first time in — oh my goodness, nearly 18 months. And what an 18 months it’s been. I feel like I’ve barely drawn breath, and have not had the headspace let alone time to write here. I’ll not go into all the details, but the…
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Welcome Núria Franco-Guillén
I’m delighted to welcome Dr Núria Franco-Guillén who has joined the National Conversation Project as Project Specialist, based with me in the Centre for Governance and Public Policy at Griffith . Dr Franco-Guillén holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona. Her research interest focus on territorial and multilevel politics…
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Closed: Research Assistant Job
I’m hiring a research assistant (or possibly two) to work on my ARC-funded research project, Sparking a National Conversation. The research assistant might contribute in a number of different ways to the project, but the right person might have one, two or all of these skill sets: e-social science or big data skills qualitative and…
Ruminative Rumblings 