The only things that seem to be really growing in the UK and US economies these days are hunger and food insecurity. The growth of food banks and other forms of hunger-relief charities is a strong reminder…
One in three professional parents with children under 16 has moved their family to a new area solely because of the quality of its schools – and nearly a fifth have moved to be in a specific school’s catchment…
Childhood obesity prevalence is alarmingly high in many developed countries; in Australia, one in four children is overweight or obese, while in the United States, it’s one in three. But recent American…
Welcome to the The Conversation’s Election 2013 State of the Nation essays. These articles by leading experts in their field provide an in-depth look at the key policy challenges affecting Australia as…
Open health programs create a range of ethical concerns. Some of these are old, and some are new; some need action now, and some need a longer view. Responding to these concerns requires the use of a limited…
The recent Ethnic Business Awards were a celebration of entrepreneurship, pioneering and determination and above all the immense contribution that our migrant population has made to a better Australia…
FUTURE OF HIGHER EDUCATION: We continue our series on the rise of online and blended learning and how free online courses are set to transform the higher education sector. Today, Tim Pitman writes on who…
All we seem to hear about these days is failing teachers in failing schools. Those from business, government and the field of economics have all weighed in, criticising teachers, teacher educators and…
Imagine a field of wheat which has been watered unequally. Some parts will grow to their potential, but some won’t. In the end, it’s bad for the whole field’s productivity. Economist James Galbraith’s…
Kate Taylor, The University of Melbourne and Rob Moodie, The University of Melbourne
A somewhat diverting paper on obesity came out earlier this week. It’s based on a cute idea – looking at what overweight people do to global resource requirements instead of the more traditional approach…
In a widely anticipated forthcoming book, Edward Conard – a former Bain Capital colleague of Mitt Romney’s – has advanced the arguments that investment drives economic growth, and that deregulation and…
David T. Neal, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Lost amidst the chatter about carbon taxes, mining regulation, and the “two-speed economy” is a much more elemental question—at heart, what kind of society do Australians really want to live in? In particular…