Me & the Blog
I work during the day at the South Australian Council of Social Service looking at policy responses to the symptoms of an unfair socio-economic system. That is important, but it is only after dinner that I get to do bigger picture thinking about political economy – which is what this blog is about.
But this blog’s title also reflects the famous quote from The German Ideology that in a different society one could “hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, [and] criticise after dinner … without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.”
Which is to say that I am a generalist, not an academic specialist – although I do have a PhD in political economy from the University of Adelaide and over 20 years experience in policy and advocacy for various non-government organisations (see below).
Beyond the Blog
For a list of my writing beyond the blog, go to my publication list.
My background
After “failing to achieve my potential” (whatever that means) in leaving school, I began my working life at a small manufacturing business making axles. After six months that workplace closed, and the job next door at “repetition engineering” did not work out. I then worked as a clerk, before going to Wollongong University – where I began to make sense of my life and my work experience.
A BA later and with experience in political organising, I began what would turn out to be a career in the not-for-profit sector. I worked for Community Aid Abroad (now Oxfam), before returning to university (now in Adelaide) for a Graduate Diploma in Labour Studies. A year in the public service was more sociological experiment than career defining, and I suspect my learnings were not what I was supposed to take away from my “graduate intake year”.
Mid-1990s, I was back in Adelaide for my PhD. That was nearly derailed by a bridge to Hindmarsh Island, before I did nine years campaigning work at The Wilderness Society – a job which grew from part-time amateur to responsible adult at the front of confronting national environmental issues. Then there was burn out, and ten years rebuilding work and political interest at the South Australian Council of Social Service.
In my best moments throughout (and in some of my worst), I reflected, analysed and wrote. You can see the list of what I think are my best thinking/writing here, but probably the two biggest collections of (different sets of) my words and thoughts are:
