talking heads

The brainstorming on the linkages between greenhouse policy and urban/land use planning went way beyond expectations, although not in the way I had surmised. There was one moment of potential friction when the climate change denier trotted out his usual line, but he backed off (for reasons I will need to suss out, it wasn't immediately apparent).

The dynamics at the table were interesting. We had two young female students and, of the invited experts, two male and one female. The female (no names to protect the guilty, especially those with blogs - unless you wish to identify yourself;-) ) seemed to enter into a good conversation with the students quite quickly and it took some determined effort on the part of the blokes to make their points. That said, there was a high level of courtesy displayed and when someone started to talk, the others took turns to listen and, where appropriate, respond or add to the points being made. Quite refreshing, really.

Given that all the experts - you don't mind being called that, I hope? - had substantial knowledge of the main issues as well as the related ones that arose - pricing policies, land use, sustainability, ensuring equitable outcomes in a social policy sense, resource use and so on - it was a pretty full-on discussion and I think the students were pretty blown away by the depth and complexity revealed as well as nonchalance (?) with which all this knowledge was delivered.

The lecturer who set the question apparently has a reputation as a hard marker so anything less than a 7 will probably result in several aggrieved people seeking revenge (on behalf of the principals).

Early on, one interesting issue arose in trying to define "institutional infrastructure", the phrase used in the assignment question. Seems it doesn't pop up on Google and while we all agreed it probably meant governance, it was also apparent that the students would need to define it very carefully up front. Apparently that issue has been a trap with this assignment in previous years.

Now the girls have the hard task of making sense of all the stuff and actually doing the assignment, while the rest of us wait with some measure of interest.

All in all a good outcome and it only cost me an arm and a leg for coffees for all (several coffees, in fact). We were all pumped when it was over, and the caffeine probably rated up there with the intensity of the conversation as the likely cause.

Thanks to all.