Practical solutions for people + planet
Paul Wildman's Page
Profile Information
- Hometown:
- Brisbane, Australia
- About Me:
- About: Dr. Paul Wildman
Paul has an extensive track record in the areas of, Exemplar Project and Systems design and development, Artificer Learning (Bush Mechanics), Bioneering, Anticipatory Action Learning, Strategic Planning, Futures Studies, Business and Organisational Development and Action Learning. Presently (2001-present) he works in Kids and Adult Learning, through his family company KALGROVE Pty Ltd, which specialises in Child Care, and Adult Learning Development areas in the private sector, undertaking strategic, and catchment analysis in the companies business niche [ http://www.kal.net.au/ ]. For info on Artificer Learning/Bioneering project please click on the third button from the bottom called ‘Adult Learning’ and bingo your away. If you want the eBook specifically then select the ‘Artificer Leaning - enter the bush mechanic’ option and select ‘Bush Mechanic - action research project’ and then select the top box ‘Zen and the Artifice of Ingenuity’ or you can go straight to it at http://www.kalgrove.com/adultlearning/bmarp1.pdf .
It may take a minute or so to load as it is about 380 pages long. At this web site you will also find heaps of stuff on Adult Learning inc. background and ancillary reports and articles on the bush mechanic and the overall action research project. You can contact the author directly on paul@kalgrove.com . From 1989-2001 he worked in the Adult and Vocational Educational area concentrating in Apprenticeships and Traineeships – ultimately as Deputy Commissioner for Training and Director Employment Directorate (Queensland Government), and from 1994-97 as lecturer at Southern Cross University (SCU) where he developed, and lectured in, Futures Studies (FS) then the only on line Masters specialisation in Futures Studies in the world.
He has published four CD-ROMs, contributed 10 chapters and some 45 articles in these and related areas. Interests include bike riding, squash, healthy diet, grandchildren minding and spending the past three years on building his own bush mechanic exemplar project in the marine services industry as well as developing a theoretical and practical understanding of this specific type of advanced Anticipatory Action Learning called Artificer Learning which, in Australia is called Bush Mechanics, and publishing therein. Artificers are the step beyond Artisan and are expert generalists in a number of related fields. They bring a methodical and ingenuous approach to solving everyday dilemmas with an eye to assisting today the development of a better world tomorrow for our children.
Overseas experience: in management development and futures includes Tonga, India, Malaysia, Africa and Singapore and Papua New Guinea.
Qualifications
2001 Cert IV in Workplace Assessment and Training, 1997 Doctorate in Management (Community Economy Futures), 1985 Masters Social Administration (Social welfare planning), 1975 BA Econ (Hons – Regional Economics).
Contacts
paul@kalgrove.com +61 7 32667570 (@ 01/2008) PO 73 Northgate 4013 Brisbane Queensland Australia
- Website:
- http://www.kal.net.au/
- Favorite Book(s):
- Alexander, C. (2005). The Nature of Order - an Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe - three book series. This ref to Book 3 - A vision of a Living World. This Chapter - Chapt. 15 in Book 3 - How Living Process Generates the Process of Construction - All Building as Making. UK: Centre for Environmental Structure. 700pgs.
- Favorite Musician:
- Earl Klugh
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Before I sent my email I left you a message on your wall, but it turns out it was on my wall. No matter. I hope that through our conversation we can find a way to share information with people at large. There are some folks out there who could grab on to these ideas and run with them. (Not sure where they would run, hopefully not off any cliffs.)
Sent you another bunch of thoughts. Looking forward to the conversation.
B
Just started back into the school year with the kids. Home school, it's great but it is a lot of work. We have the fair and the end of the farmers market in the next month. Your outline is on my daily list and it gets a lot of my mental time (computer time is pretty scarce right now.) Will be adding my thoughts soon.
Cheers,
B
Look forward to hearing from you.
ciao paul
Been busy with end of summer stuff here. Haven't forgotten about our conversation, just had to move it back onto simmer for a bit. It will be better for the extra slow cooking. Should have things settled here in the next couple of weeks. Then we'll chat.
Cheers,
B
Got the pdf. I'm working through it and the post below. We defiantly have some things to talk about.
More to come.
THE FOUR PRINCIPLES
OF BUSH MECHANICS
1. The Exemplar Project Principle
Learning from the doing of the bush mechanic is
captured and preserved in ‘exemplar projects’. The
bush mechanic’s textbook is learning enacted.
2. Social Holon Principle
The exemplar project is seen by the bush mechanic
as an example of a social holon -- a self-organising
nested system which is simultaneously part and
whole, hierarchically situated yet autonomous,
using fixed rules yet flexible strategies, such as the
heart in the circulation system of our body.
3. Collective Responsibility Principle
The bush mechanic sees herself as a global citizen
responding locally, concretely, participatively, anticipatively
and proactively. Her work blends internal
and external ethics, for example, redefining psychological
markers such as income, status, time
and task etc.
4. Learning Principle
Learning, yearning, earning and concerning together
with all of the above -- including learning from
and within the engagement of establishing the
exemplar project.
BUSH MECHANICS: futuring the Australian way
“This functional structural mismatch in education (action-less conception and concept-less action) has emerged over the past 200 years...”
With the spotlight on Australian values, now is the
perfect time to report the development of a
new approach to futuring that is based on the
uniquely Australian concept of the “bush mechanic”.
Dr Paul Wildman of Brisbane has been working on
this idea since the 1990s, with specific research on
action oriented learning in futures beginning in 2002.
The “bush mechanic”, or artificer approach to futuring
is one that he sees as having immediate practical
outcomes for practitioners and their environment, at
the same time as it develops a body of expertise
that will stand us in good stead in any future emergency.
“In Australia there is a term for someone who links
thinking and doing, and can act forward wisely and
solve problems with what is available while developing
innovations in the field that respond to broader
needs,” he explained in an article in the Journal of
Futures Studies (August 2005).
“A bush mechanic is committed to self reliance and
excellence at her task and is not to be confused with
a ‘backyard mechanic’ who does shoddy work.”
Dr Wildman is deeply concerned about the separation
of learning and practice that has taken place in
western education systems in recent years.
“We have found that, in conventional social innovations,
up to 90% of our energy is absorbed in action
as implementation and compliance rather than
design or (re)conceptualising an idea.
“This compares with up to 90% of the energy
expended in the conventional education process in
action as conceptualisation. This functional structural
mismatch in education (action-less conception and
concept-less action) has emerged over the past 200
years and has been identified and explored by many
educational innovators. But we have not yet applied
the understanding adequately to futures/foresight.”
The “bush mechanic” approach to futuring proposes
re-braiding ideas and action in projects aimed
at improving the future.
“In effect, this is a post-industrial form of what in
medieval times was called ‘artificing’ -- a Middle Age
precursor to today’s technician”, Dr Wildman told
Future News.
“By placing futures, and futures learning, within the
context of practical work we can put thinking and
doing back together again, rebraiding them in a practical
approach to innovation. Ideally the learning that
takes place in these practical approaches will be captured
in a collection of ‘exemplar projects’, equivalent
to the artificer’s ‘master piece’.
“It is my hope that the concept of bush mechanics
will help to demonstrate how such an ancient
approach to futuring can help create a better tomorrow
today -- a future our children can live with.”
With a strong background in action learning -- another
powerful concept developed in Australia -- Paul
Wildman has approached this initiative using
“Grounded Theory”. This differs from other research
because it works from the bottom up. In other
words, Grounded Theory does not test a hypothesis.
It sets out to find what theory accounts for the
research situation as it is observed in the field. Like
action research, its aim is to understand the reality, to
discover the theory implicit in the data.
Another key feature of the “bush mechanic”
approach is that it is specifically located within a conscious
awareness of the “global problematique” (see
page 1), the nesting of individuals and societies within
this global holarchy, and clear recognition of the need
to address problems in today’s world in order to create
a better future.
Paul Wildman is collecting exemplar projects.
Practising members of the Futures Foundation
who would like their projects included are invited
to contact paul@kalgrove.com.
A NEW VIEW OF NEWTON
“It was Plato who introduced ‘the division between those who know and do not act and those who
act and do not know’”, Paul Wildman explained in his article in the Journal of Futures Studies.
“After Plato in the West we have doggedly followed a staunchly mechanist view, identified with Newton,
that ‘The Universe was a mechanical one whose order was maintained by a distant God’. Newton in fact
wrote more on alchemy than mathematics: he saw the universe tinctured and enviviated by emotion and
love. These works remain unpublished. The results of this split are readily seen today in terms of the
specialisation of skills, separation of academia from actual social change projects, separation of producing
from consuming e.g. we are moving rapidly away from being ‘prosumers’ - having our own gardens, making
our own clothes and other bush mechanic type activities. Arendt (1963) claims this is the challenge
for modernity: to re-braid thinking and doing.”
future news September 2005 The Futures Foundation www.futuresfoundation.org.au
Been swamped here on the farm. Love to see what's going on with bush engineering. Always looking outside the box. In fact, I'd like to cut the ties to the box and walk away if I could, but everywhere I go, there it is. Shoot me your pdf and lets have a conversation. (Please understand, I am first a father and a farmer. Life often gets in the way of idealistic passion. But, the ideas are still there, festering and being tested against the world as it is (at least my world as it is). Eventually I will respond.
email - roberts.ecofarm@gmail.com.
If you want a good laugh (or cry, depending on how life is going here, you can check out our farm at http://www.robertsroostecofarm.com/.
Cheers,
B
Keen to keep discussing this - please Paul.
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