I have set up a new blog called Big Wide World. Unlike this blog, which is a completely unfocussed compendium of my random brainfarts and rants, Big Wide World is about the environment, sustainability, technology and development. These are four separate but interrelated themes, central to my International Studies degree, topical, relevant, big, important, confusing, emotive, hyped, misinterpreted, and lots of other heavy words like that.
A particularly interesting piece I read yesterday after a Twitter contact linked to it was a speech given by Ivan Illich at the 1968 Conference on InterAmerican Student Projects, found on the website of Adam Fletcher, an expert on youth engagement. The speech, though given over forty years ago and related to US students volunteering in Mexico, is just as relevant now as it was then, and relates to the motives (be they naive idealism or vanity) of young people who volunteer in poor countries. This article by Tanya Gold echoes Illich’s sentiments forty years later.
So, I hope to discuss issues like this as well as the themes of environmental contest, change and response that are central to the OU’s Environment course, sustainability, the role of technology, and other issues around development and human geography. This blog might quieten down a bit, because all that is a hell of a lot to think about, after all.
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