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I read an interesting article in the latest edition of Maclean's last night, entitled Building a better city. If you look at how an ecosystem works, it spends as much time on maintaining itself as growing, unlike human systems.  Our infrastructure deficit is continuing, making the cost of replacement greater every year we keep sticking our heads in the sand. The infrastructure deficit is estimated at $123 billion in 2007, up exponentially from $12 billion in 1985 and $60 billion in 2003.

Most of my work touches on the theme of reconciliation, between ourselves and other species, between the built and the non-built environment, and critically, between the heart and the head, especially important when one works as an academic.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has many supporters and of course, many detractors. What I find interesting is that there are so many well-educated young people involved. Clearly, this demonstrates a deep structural problem that is not being addressed, why are so many young well educated people under or unemployed in today's society? Another disturbing trend is the chart below showing that even though GDP has increased, so has inequality. What does this mean for the good society and what questions should we be asking?

We have just published A Policy Agenda for Canadian Muncipalities. This is agenda is the result of a series of e-Dialogues held with 19 sustainability planners from across the country, who then identified 6 international case studies that were leaders in implementing sustainable development. We then came together again to discuss the lessons to be learned from these six leaders and their application to the Canadian context.

In asking ourselves what is important, what do we value and how is what we are doing affecting our well-being, sometimes pictures and music are worth a thousand words. Why do human systems always seem to trend to maximal scale? Sustainable systems should self-organize to a scale that optimizes economic prosperity while respecting ecological limits. We have an article on this topic published in Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy, Spring/Summer 2009, Volume 5, Issue 1.

I am privileged to work with wonderful younger people; it also ensures critical diversity in my life. One of those people is Rebecca Foon, a planner who works with me from Montreal, who is also a wonderful cellist. This music video is a birthday song for Lhasa, who died of breast cancer over a year ago. Music brings such joy and beauty, pause a moment and listen. 

Last week, we had the first of our Robert Bateman Conversations on The Meaning of Growth and Progress in the 21st century, very rich discussion because of the diversity of the panel. We will be publishing the conversation this week, so stay tuned.

This video powerfully demonstrates the power of innovation and simplicity to enhance human well-being. In our search for the 'big fix' and the 'grand solution' we often miss the meaningful small steps that can lead to major social change.

I stumbled across an old paper written by Amitai Etzioni in which he draws upon a key concept in his characterization of a good society.

Community is a combination of two elements: a) a web of affect-laden relationships among a group of individuals, relationships that often crisscross and reinforce one another--rather than merely one-on-one or chainlike individual relationships; b) a measure of commitment to a set of shared values, norms and meanings, and a shared history and identity--in short to a particular culture.

What makes a community healthy? I think it is as simple as understanding how important it is to have and to be able to listen to multiple stories, how critical diversity is human well-being. All of the stories of a place contribute to more equitable human systems and emphasizes how much we have in common than how we differ. A question we must ask in our search for the good society is why humans are so bad at difference?

You may be interested in an upcoming e-Dialogue this coming Thursday, October 27th, on What is the Meaning of Progress and Growth in the 21th century? This is a critical question that all communities are facing in conversations around the meaning of the good society. This real time on-line dialogue is the first in the series of Robert Bateman Conversations, a forum for provocative dialogue and idea sharing around critical questions of the day.