Robert Goodin, Research Professor of Philosophy at Australian National University. Robert Goodin's research focuses on political theory and public policy. Read more about Robert Goodin ABSTRACT According

I am a free-lance writer of non-fiction and fiction. I studied at Oxford (DPhil, Rhodes Scholar), Harvard (BA, summa cum laude), and Alief Hastings High School in rural east Texas. After that, I worke

Ethics and E-cigs. Daniel Wikler on smoking and health

Two letters on electronic cigarettes (“E-cigs”) reached Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization in mid-2014, each signed by dozens of tobacco control specialists. One comm

How do social norms change?

Social norms change all the time, in all societies. But what determines which norms change and which norms do not?

Security Journal, Volume 31, Issue 1, pp 73–92, doi:10.1057/s41284-017-0089-y Abstract The concept of near-repeat patterns illustrates how crimes are clustered in space and time, with a crime event often s

Seminar with Lorne L. Dawson, Professor Emeritus, University of Waterloo, Canada. Register here > Abstract In public and expert judgements of whether an incident of mass violence by a lone actor is an

Partha Dasgupta, professor of economics and member of the Climate Ethics and Future Generations-team at IFFS, and Gustaf Arrhenius at a conference in honour of Dasgupta who is turning 80 in 2023. Dasg

Jonathan Boston, Professor of Public Policy, School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington.ABSTRACTFundamental to good governance is the active anticipation, assessment and management of risBased on this analysis, the paper applies the concept to the policy challenges posed by climate change adaptation, particularly sea-level rise. In this regard, humanity is confronted with a slow-motion disaster that will grow progressively in scope and scale, sometimes abruptly. Societies will face significant uncertainty, multiple and compounding risks, immense costs and difficult intertemporal and intragenerational trade-offs. More specifically, rising sea levels will have a major and increasing impact on the built environment in coastal regions. Globally, hundreds of millions of people could be forced this century to relocate from areas at risk from coastal erosion and inundation, higher water tables, and more frequent and intense rainfall events. Mitigating some of the risks and increasing societal resilience via anticipatory, pro-active, prudent and adaptive policy responses will be politically challenging, not least because of the large upfront costs, the likelihood of powerful blocking coalitions, and the complexities of inter-governmental and inter-agency coordination. This paper outlines how, in the interests of sound anticipatory governance, these challenges might be addressed through the creation of new governmental institutions, funding mechanisms and revised planning processes.

Depending on your perspective, technological development has been saving us from drudgery, or destroying our livelihoods, for centuries. From the very first domestication of animals we’ve been finding

The Swedish response to Covid-19 put in context.