Wellington author, Roger Ellis, launched his new book to an appreciative Johnsonville audience of 40 people at St Johns Church Hall. He spoke for around 25 minutes about the growing divisions in societies both in New Zealand and overseas. He covered some of the underlying causes including the intertwined international economic, social and environmental crises.
Roger Ellis has more than 30 years experience in government, telecommunications, and community not for profit work. In his prepared comments he discussed the role of new technologies in making social divisions worse. He also focused on economic inequalities as an underlying driver of polarisation since the 1980s and 1990s. Mr Ellis discussed the growing level of debt, low productivity and lack of long term strategy – particularly for infrastructure investment in New Zealand.
The new book proposes some solutions to the challenges facing the country. He advocates a localist or distributist perspective emphasising shared values based on human dignity, community, and subsidiarity. Roger Ellis called for a devolution of power and resources to regions and local communities allowing for regional and local variations but building more participatory democracy.
Mr Ellis’s speech was followed by a lively question and answer session covering local government, regional empowerment, and examples of local community initiatives in lower socio-economic areas of Wellington. “On the Brink: Reconnecting communities in an age of division” is available for purchase from Amazon Australia in both e-kindle and paperback editions.
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