there are either early morning, afternoons, or evenings. Welcome back after our summer break to this webinar series of our TransPath Plan project. I've heard many of you had really enjoyed their times in Mexico during the workshop. That's nice to hear. I already heard some good stories from Leon himself back in office. But it's also nice to see each other online again and thank you Leon for picking up the glove and starting this webinar series again. Let me then also take this opportunity to invite you all to go to the shared document in which we have a schedule for the webinars. Currently for next month, 18 September, we have Patricia and later in October, Ana Mica and Mimica already scheduled. But further, I think for this year and early next year, we are still looking for your contributions. So that being said, I'm now just going to read the title, how it is in my screen. So Leon, you are going to share your wisdom and insights with us with the title Power and Empowerment in Transdisciplinary Research, Insights for Joint Problems Structure. Thank you. And then let's the floor be yours. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I think I came up with a really nice title, didn't I? Let me share my screen and my slides and then start presenting. Is it okay like this? Yeah. Yeah, okay. Yeah, so thanks, Jep, and thanks everybody for joining. Yeah, I thought I'll just share some of my own experiences with transdisciplinary research around transformations with a focus on problem structuring and problem framing, since that is also the phase that I think we're currently in most of our projects in the transformation pathways planning project. I don't expect that I have mind-boggling new insights for most of you, but maybe for some of you there is something new and I hope that for everyone it is useful to maybe just once again be reminded of some of these issues and questions that require attention. And I do hope that I managed to finish well in time to allow for quite some discussion to see how this plays out in our own project and in our own cases in the various notes. So yeah, with that being said and sort of the rough outline here on slide alongside a picture of the Dijkwerker, a Dijk worker in Friesland along the Wadden sea coast, which is part of one of the Dutch case notes, work in progress let's say, let's start. Maybe let's start by just briefly reminding ourselves of what we sort of set out to do in our project based on our proposal as we also developed it, but also discussed it not now in various meetings, but especially if you look here at what we called stream one around these activities in the various notes. I guess that our initial plans are still more or less intact and that that also means that we really want to do transdisciplinary research and starting with a proper sort of problem diagnosis problem framing for our case as part of our project and in Mexico we did not in detail revisit this kind of planning, but I think we still benefited from what we did discuss around our so-called theory of change when we had our first inception workshop in Delft, which actually also was where this part around the cases and the activities in the notes and what do we want to do and to achieve there was actually also supported by Lakshmi and Patti so I think we have some basis to build on and maybe it's just good to remind ourselves of that before I continue to share my views and my experiences on these types of activities in our project, but then returning to transdisciplinarity. This is a picture for my I think one of the most cited papers at least when it comes to sustainability and then what are types of applications on transdisciplinary research and what it basically depicts is that typically there are indeed different phases in a transdisciplinary process which start with problem framing and team building I guess the stage that we are still in but hopefully well progressing in that phase but then it is about co-creating solution-oriented knowledge and then of course seeing what happens if we apply that knowledge and if we can sort of integrate it both in practice and in science so on the left you see the sort of societal practice column and on the right you see the scientific practice column and and those are indeed sort of the two the two axes that that matter for transdisciplinary research and after Mexico I had one more interesting workshop to attend to before I started my holidays and that was in Berlin it was part of the closing sessions of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences and there we also came to talk about transdisciplinarity and that that sort of triggered me to think about it in this kind of quadrant but it's really based on that societal relevance which is at sort of the vertical axis at the societal column that that we saw in the previous picture and the scientific relevance sort of the scientific column in the previous picture which is here on the horizontal axis and and what we really want to do what what our aspiration and ambition is with transdisciplinary research is really to co-create knowledge and to co-produce transformations so to be in in in the space in this figure that is both relevant for society and for science because at the end of the day we are trying to either get a PhD or a successful postdoc or or or another sort of scientific contribution as well as as a societal contribution to to transformations and when when you discuss transdisciplinary research or when you review it you you also sometimes encounter either anxieties that hey we're we're not consultants had that that was a bit the the anxiety that I heard in Berlin with some of the hydro hydrology colleagues not all but some were saying but why are we doing this we're we're scientists we're we're not consultants and in detail if we don't get it right as scientists then maybe we are being societally relevant but we are maybe indeed producing a nice sort of consultancy type of analysis but not scientific knowledge and then um on on sort of the scientific dimension we would um we would feel um the the other hand is is some something that you hear scientists being concerned about less often at least in in scientific conferences and journals but it is of course equally concerning because that is also not what we aspire to if we really want to do transdisciplinary science we want not just to have something nice for the scientists but actually we do want to also um co-produce societally relevant solutions or or or contributions towards transformations and of course we can also utterly feel but let's maybe ignore that for now but I thought that this quadrant might might be useful for us in in designing our casework both to be sure that it is still scientifically relevant and and producing something novel while at the same time producing societally relevant knowledge towards transformations um yeah so so that's that's that's what we aspire to and it's not easy I think many of us have experienced that before or by now do realize it and and my my own experiences which I wanted to share here a little bit are um um from previous research but but especially a paper that that came out of a previous research project in which we focused on um power and empowerment in transdisciplinary research because that is one of the complications that you do get when you do want to produce science uh with and for stakeholders in society um and in that in that paper we we did start with reviewing transdiscipline some of the transdisciplinary literature and identifying the challenges and sort of the coping strategies that that are identified in the literature for dealing with those challenges and that results as you may expect in in long tables but if we focus on on problem framing and team building let's say that the first face of trans disciplinarity um very commonly mentioned and experienced challenges are um lack of problem awareness or insufficient problem framing and I think many of the discussions that that we had in Mexico or or online when the others were in Mexico were really about um also these kind of challenges how do we get to um a problem framing that is shared by everyone and where the awareness of of several dimensions of the problem are also um yeah sufficiently shared by by different types of stakeholders um unbalanced problem ownership have still in transplant planning we we are trying and then we have involved not just scientists but also NGOs civil society organizations and at the same time that might still lead to an unbalanced problem ownership to especially the organizations that are currently already active in our project and how do we get uh an ownership of our efforts that is not confined to our project teams and that that relates also to the to the legitimacy of the team and we by ourselves and alone cannot pretend to to to represent also different societal stakeholders but even if we engage different societal actors also they need to have a sufficient legitimacy and sufficient um be sufficiently representative of the different actors and their stakes that are involved in this problem and those are really typically challenges at at the early phases of transdisciplinary research um how we how we tried to tackle those in that previous um project was by combining science with um empowerment through something called the negotiated approach which was brought in by um um an NGO called called called both ends and the idea was that as I think we are also trying in our trans path project and in all the nodes to to prepare the process really together with all the stakeholder representatives and that means understanding past initiatives and but also being careful and being conscious in in how we select participants to our workshops and and to our to our teams um to also make the the process design a sort of collective agreement and make sure that that is based also on a good understanding about the situation where we are trying to do our transdisciplinary work including um the the the possibilities and the limitations that that exist in context poses and then I think um after that a joint situation analysis and the joint fact finding things that are known to to be helpful in sort of negotiation types of situations and to foster mutual understanding and and and joint learning um this is um the project from which um we have those experiences it was called shift in grounds um some of you are maybe familiar with it and um Anamika in fact has been part of it for a relatively short period um and and we we there focused on peri urban water security especially ground water management in peri urban villages near Kolkata in India and near Kulna in in Bangladesh and it was really similarly designed maybe as as as many of our trans path nodes so with phd and postdoc researchers focusing on different aspects of these cases but next to it really a column here under the negotiated approach which was led by our civil society partners our NGOs to really make sure that that we would connect well with um the stakeholders in these peri urban villages and that proved to be a very worthwhile but also not so easy effort and of course the the success was um partial and limited as I I guess often with transdisciplinary research but but but very useful I think and I hope for everyone who was involved also to to support future efforts in my case lie like this one in trans path planning um and it means that um yeah all these steps would be done not just um by scientists or scientists and maybe some some high level policymakers or high level representatives of NGOs and workshops but also really together with in this case community representatives of the villages and also including efforts to to include groups that and and in that sense empower groups that would automatically not be necessarily included in these kinds of efforts and that really took a huge additional effort that in designing a scientific project we easily underestimate I think and and sometimes even overlook um now what I I hope that this all um yeah sounds sounds familiar and and like something that that we all would want to do also in this project but I thought it is good maybe to to really and remind ourselves of that but I also wanted to combine that with something else that we did use indirectly in in the shifting grounds project something that I think we are using also in um trans path planning project but that also um can can be explained more explicitly as part of of existing approaches or methods and in my case as a as a policy analyst I am familiar with with these kind of activities as being part of a of a policy analysis approach this is a picture from a textbook that we use in teaching in delft both at a tu delft and at ihg delft in policy analysis classes on on policy analysis of multi-actor systems and and it depicts actually really the first stage of of a policy analysis process um with where you start with sort of an initial problem perception and hopefully and with sort of a framed problem and and a plan of action but that plan of action could be the plan for um transdisciplinary research done together and um what what you would typically do is is look at the system from different angles different aspects try to understand the the the causal influences in sort of a system analysis for some people it might be also a dip sear analysis or or a causal loop diagram but also look at the actors and the institutions involved and look at the the the future scenario analysis which also in Mexico we have seen with that really nice exercise that I think Lakshmi facilitated at least for the people no I think it was also for the online colleagues using using one novel technique for those scenario analysis but but based on that you would come up with a sort of a richer problem description and um yeah see where are your maybe your interesting scientific gaps but also sort of follow on activities not just for science but also for for society so I think that's maybe a useful yeah diagram to share with you all also just to to give some structure to what I guess everyone is doing in in the case notes already and what I would like to do now is I would not want to go through all these sort of separate approaches because they can be done in various ways and I think we have some tools available or maybe future webinars to to look in some of them or to share experiences with some of them here but what I would want to do in in this in this in this last part is explain a little bit what the initial problem perception would entail for a policy analyst and I think that's useful because if we're looking at transformations we are looking at collective collective action problems and in that sense the the lens of a policy analyst I think can can come in handy and I think is applicable also to settings that are maybe more informal or more bottom up organized but that do involve this notion of a collective issue requiring some collective action so that the the problem for a policy analyst starts with with five key key elements that actually should be present to to say that we have a worthwhile policy analysis problem and those elements are a problem owner a gap actions or action ability agency if you want but then also trade-offs and or a dilemma and of course the presence of multiple actors so let me let me very briefly go over each of these main elements with you so the problem owner is really key very important and we have had some discussions in in previous meetings and and and workshops on positionality how what is our position as a scientist and and of course with that also comes the question do we consider ourselves as as sort of maybe concerned or engaged scientists or sometimes scientists as activists do we consider ourselves to be the problem owner or do we consider another actor or stakeholder to be the problem owner and if we consider another actor maybe a local community or maybe a government agency that that's that we are trying to support are we are we really checking that our idea of what the problem is is is really also their idea of what the problem is and realize that being explicit about your problem owner is important because actors stakeholders people will worry really about different problems maybe the overarching issue of a wetland or of circularity or or of a trans boundary river that needs to be carefully managed maybe at that level there is agreement that that issue is of joint importance but what more specifically is is really the problem or maybe the most important problem and a promising solution that that will really different differ from from one stakeholder to another and where we start our intervention or even are working with these stakeholders really also depends on on what problem we take as our starting point and whose problem this is who is the problem owner connected to this problem the second one is is the problem owner has a problem if if there is a gap and that gap is typically a gap between the current situation or maybe the future situation as it is expected in sort of a business as usual scenario something a lot occurring in in climate change related discussions so between that current or that expected situation plus the desired situation where we would actually want to be in a situation where there is sufficient secure safe water for for everyone or where we do not deplete our our water resources unnecessarily and that gap is is really essential to to speak of a problem if there is no gap there is no need to to take action but for a policy problem and I think also for our transformation types of problems it also needs to be actionable if we frame the problem in a way that it is just bothering us that we cannot actually do anything about it yeah then it's not very interesting I would say for a policy analyst but also not for a transdisciplinary researcher because whatever we do it will not make any difference and sometimes that that that is just a matter of making sure that we frame the problem correctly and and and the example I often use as a very simple example for this is we can frame the the problem of of the weather as as a problem of of of hey it's it's it's it's raining if that is our problem at least on the short-term local level you can't do anything about it it's it's it's whether either raining or it's not raining and if it's if it's raining then well too bad but if we frame it as getting wet from the rain then it becomes actionable because then there are lots of things we can do about it we can take an umbrella we can decide to stay indoors and all kinds of other things to to prevent ourselves or or reduce the extent to which we get wet from the rain so so that is important in in framing the problem in also an actionable way even if if the action is is is short of a complete solution for the problem because with transformation issues and and typically with complex problem problems really solving them maybe too high an ambition may be even impossible but we should feel that that we can have an influence for the positive and I think that's also very much the philosophy behind our project had not just to have these transformations occurring to us or to or to the stakeholders we tried to work with but really to to empower a little bit to to to have at least an influence towards more sustainable trajectories or more equitable or just trajectories and then if it's interesting this solution should not be sort of self-evident but there there there will be some dilemmas things that are good for one maybe bad for another or things actions good on the short term may not be so promising on the on the long term in that very urban project that that I talked about before if it's about securing water supply for villagers you can immediately imagine that there is a call for more and deeper wells and indeed on the on the short term that that can be a solution and on the longer term a groundwater researcher can can really help to see how sustainable or how long such a type of solution might be expected to work and and that might sometimes be shorter than than you hope so it it should not be evident that this is what we need to do because if that is evident then it's it's may be still a sort of a problem but it's more a problem for for action and and not and not for analysis or research but I think almost all problems upon a second look or all solutions upon a second look to our types of of water related problems do involve trade-offs and dilemmas and then finally it's important to realize this all takes place in in a multi stakeholder setting so the problem is perceived differently but it can really only be resolved if different stakeholders play a part or do not sort of actively obstruct it but also analyzing understanding and acting on the problem should be a a collective effort and yes sort of as an analytical tool that that brings in stakeholder analysis or institutional analysis network analysis types of instruments so so with these elements you could say that hey then then we have a problem worth solving and and I think also in our in our projects it would be good to be explicit about what these elements are for our for our cases the cases that that we want to to work on in the notes um to to then maybe move on um something um that yeah so so these are a bit more the the next steps the more the more detailed analysis although there there would still be maybe exploratory and partly conceptual in nature and of course the question of how we how we connect although all those parts and and just reminding ourselves that that we do this not in in a straightforward linear mechanical way um but that that is really sometimes a puzzle and and and a puzzle to yeah for us and and the people that we work with to to decide on on what the story is what what the picture is that that emerges from these from these parts so not to present this as an overly mechanistic process and and I think this is one set of methods and one overarching approach I think there is a lot of similarity with other approaches and and methods and definitely including the the T-Labs approach that our colleagues in Mexico are very familiar with but also I think some of the the partners in Kenya are familiar with so there there is not just one good way to do this and I think many sort of similar approaches are available and and are there out there for us to to really use and and benefit from and this one shared I think also earlier by by Lakshmi and and Patti is is definitely a good resource to use for these kind of analysis together with stakeholders yeah and and I think that that leaves us with some some some questions maybe for for also discussions if if if we think as a on our trans path project okay so then where are we um I think we have some initial problem frames to start with in in all the in all the countries and maybe we are at different stages as to how we have discussed them and co-developed them co-created them as starting points for our projects together with the societal stakeholders but what would be maybe interesting to just have a bit of exchange on these kind of questions um against and that is the last slide this this slide that um what was was developed by by colleagues in in Berlin also also present at that conference in Berlin with this transdisciplinary working group that that we had in that hydrological society and and making the notion of closing up and closing down kind of opportunities for transdisciplinary research distinguishing sort of different components of of knowledge methodologies which which maybe are closer to to academic and scientific activities to to the problem framings that that I have been talking about and to then actually do things at the interventions I thought it made I thought it would be nice to close with this slide as it also just raises a lot of questions around transdisciplinary research but also questions I think that maybe are good for us to to ask ourselves now so with that I would like to I would like to stop the the presentation part and see if there is someone who wants to respond or or share or or ask something yeah thank you uh lay also are there immediate questions from you uh it it's not a question uh it just that when you were presenting one thing that comes to my mind is that uh it seems that problem framing is really very very important and in your last slide you also mentioned scale and who are there with you when you are framing the problem as well so given our own work our own research that we are doing in this project it looks to me that we still have a lot to do if we are if we plan to follow exactly how it is because it may take a lot of time even to frame the problem because that also requires us to invite many more stakeholders and not just us because like you mentioned who is the owner I mean for whom are we are are we not a part of that problem also right so yeah so I mean like I said it's not a question but it's something that probably we need to further think about that how do we frame it correctly each of our cases yeah I I would agree with your comment or your observation on Amica including the fact that that we are a stakeholder ourselves as well and then in that sense we also have have a have something to say in in that problem framing and and I don't think it is even sort of necessarily bad if we if we maybe start with looking out for who who connects to to what we consider that the the problem framing because if you would do all these things completely out in the open then maybe going to the same communities or the same stakeholders we work with but in some cases maybe water is not even the first thing on their priority list and still that is for us of course one of our boundaries so it is really about indeed also playing and and maybe negotiating a bit the boundaries but one thing that that we did encounter in in the shifting grounds project is that that at some point it became very difficult to keep the some of the science really connected to some of the developments in the villages and if that happens I think it's also not necessarily bad but but if we can try to start together and then then then we are often on a good start and and it may also require us sometimes to do some things that are not directly relevant for science but that that we can do as scientists and as sort of part of the group to to support other stakeholders as we expect them to support us by participating maybe in our data collection or in our workshop type of activities may I yeah please second yeah sorry I just tried to join our meeting sensitively because I already scheduled another meeting before yeah so very happy to see you again especially to hear Neon digitalization yeah I think generally is I think also very much our interest here especially we try to let's say to make more impacts or translate science into into practice where we try to work it especially with local government to develop policies but also to some particularly industry or enterprises yeah yeah so I think I think this is it's really interesting of course I think this also very challenging because at least now from university perspective we see quite a gaps really between uh difference from university to to practice thing that's the when when for example we try to to do something more scientifically like and then write some papers but we cannot really give people those papers and even yeah sometimes we see uh to talk with with with the government or with with the company the consulting firms that are doing maybe maybe better job even they don't really need to go to insight on scientific understanding yeah so that that's what we're trying to to to work now is to collaborate with consultants some others yeah and I'm just wondering because really for example now I'm trying to work on a look on some framework to really to work on these collaborations for example we've been looking at the triple helix where academy governments and industry but also some other helix the quick uh I think the quintums or some others where people can uh really to work uh together yeah so when when when when we're talking about this chain basically uh what type of the models or I mean kind of approach or something similar that you're getting we we can we can uh we can learn or we can we can look like furthers yeah that there are also in in literature on transdisciplinary there are some of these sort of models and uh I'm not sure um exactly about their names but but one that that that has sort of this this picture that is often used it has that picture that that that looks a bit like maybe the triple helix type of picture where three types of of stakeholders being involved and I think in in in the in the type of work that that maybe you do now with your institute in Vietnam it's it's it's maybe quite common that you work in a business environment so that maybe your societal component is is also involving industry and and and businesses and then maybe consultants if you work more on on local level community issues like like maybe in in Mexico or Kenya then then maybe it's it's more that you work with with NGOs or civil society or conservation groups and um but but in any cases I think if you look at it from a sort of narrow efficiency perspective transdisciplinary science does not fit sort of the the efficiency type of of thinking it it would fit better than the thinking of in in science maybe maybe at least for me of sort of slow science um but but thereby also maybe meaningful science because indeed you as a scientist I can write a paper much more efficiently if that is my main goal without engaging with with other stakeholders just doing maybe a good literature review or model study that is the most efficient way for me probably to write a paper but but because the interaction and and the communication with others takes takes time but I guess it also sort of enriches and and deepens your your understanding and I think the the the idea behind transdisciplinary science is that that that not only enriches and deepens the understanding of the scientist but also of all the other sort of parties involved who also each for themselves maybe more efficient in in in a in a narrow idea an NGO can maybe really efficiently sort of advocate and get media attention by by not get getting into dialogue with others consultancies can probably also produce reports quite efficiently by by not having a real dialogue but um but but I think that the in that sense the the the transdisciplinary science comes with an yeah maybe an investment in in dialogue that that pays off in a depth of understanding and and just maybe a broader contribution to to science to society than just our immediate key performance targets let's say but but it but it does create a lot of tensions between each of the players including us as scientists we do need at some point to produce papers if we want to make a promotion or if we just want to get a PhD yeah let's say also the expected outcome of the transdisciplinary projects is this like a policy recommendations or everybody's really the key output of of the transdisciplinary project yeah if we if we talk about it as transdisciplinary science then I think a part of the output at least to be in that sort of quadrant should be scientific outputs and that can be papers that can also be just other maybe methodologies but but in the scientific world eventually being put forward for peer review and then scrutiny in in in publications and papers or at least presentations but what those are can be quite can be anything it can it can be like it like in shifting grounds a better understanding of the hydrogeology of certain systems it in that same project another PhD produced an approach a participatory approach to develop games together with community stakeholders so the and then the postdoc researcher produced papers on a sort of a multi-dimensional index that that could inform policy decisions on underwater water groundwater security and and similarly I think on the sort of societal sides the these in these hoped for outcomes can can really differ depending on what what the cases and then what those stakeholders are are looking for yeah and and what one of the one of the big boundaries and transdisciplinary that that is that is known is that we tend to work on sort of project or program basis a few years and that is not the the the the the time spent in which you often in in which you really produce lasting outcomes both both science I think takes takes a longer time than just one one four or five years study but definitely also societal transformations yeah thank you the question just oh yeah I see in the in the in the chat you want to unmute to to to to ask a time well I feel a little bit sleepy you know I thought I'm just asking the question would work but yeah I was wondering about that because in my experience it's pretty difficult not to do transdisciplinary research per se which is as you said hard but you know I found many institutional barriers so I was wondering what was your experience yeah I I think I also found quite quite quite some barriers one one thing that makes in in Delft that the the institutional environment slightly more sort of conducive to to this type of research is that for IHE Delft it is always already a part of sort of its its its mission it's it's not just to to produce science and and to educate people via MSc's and PhD education but also to to contribute to to let's say real-world capacity development and and water issues so that makes it a little bit easier at at TU Delft Delft University of Technology that that is of course also still part of the mission to contribute to society but but really as it is I guess at many universities meaning really nice to do and if we can get nice publicity with it we should do it but it's not what what what we typically sort of fund so there it it is already a bit more difficult and I found it also a bit more difficult in in in the past in the earlier years when I started there as an assistant professor but there's still that that is still sort of an engineering university and in that sense sort of engineering universities also still do have the the urge to to design things and to sort of make things in addition to just understanding and and describing things but what I've also really seen and and benefited from is that I guess there there are there are these kind of waves and I guess in in the past maybe you have had sort of at some point maybe a sort of an action research kind of wave but that that definitely finished I guess in the 1990s or early 2000s but what I what I do see now is that this whole notion of transdisciplinarity it does seem to to be gaining a lot of traction actually and and that and that I also see at TU Delft I see people talking about it who have never sort of cared about it before who in that sense also maybe just use it as a as a buzzword but nevertheless that that does help to to do it in sort of the right way and it's it's true that that program that funded shifting grounds it was actually also still one of the few programs maybe that that the Dutch Science Council had for these types of activities but but I think the number is is growing also with sort of the the science funders so yeah definitely institutional barriers and maybe if you really want to it depends also what what you want as yourself as a scientist it's also choices we all make just for ourselves based on what we I guess enjoy and given that I just enjoy it's not just doing science for science but also for society I just also chose to invest in that a little bit even if it was not strictly speaking efficient and it does help a lot in teaching by the way so that's that's sort of a positive thing although also in institutional careers that teaching is not the most highly weighted contribution we make but it is an important part of us as academics and I think the transdisciplinary research does give you more insight in the also in in the practical problems and I think many of our students do not end up in academics so in that sense I think there is also really a positive effect of this type of research yeah okay excellent thank you Haime for your question and Leon for your response I have actually also a question you mentioned that so right you've mentioned well you have mentioned a lot of interesting things but you talked about ownership but also about empowerment and and staples and having those stakeholders then on board yet at the same time I think a lot of this what is promoted as transdisciplinary research is also very much politically somewhat motivated look at our proposal that we take political stance of social inclusions and sustainable justice those kinds of terms we see reflected back so and you talked about positionality um so I'm not sure where my question actually is going but these are I think also relates to to to that problem framing so that we also that transdisciplinary research we create a narrative that that contributes to our problem framing as well of why are we doing research and that we are less let's say the neutral independent researcher in these cases but that we actually with this kind of research want to contribute to a more social just and sustainable development as I said I don't know where the question is going yeah no but those are those are kind of complicating issues that that that you may run into um in in that shifting grounds and in in that paper I think we also describe it of course we started out with with a question and and with sort of a scientific ambition to to look at groundwater issues then we were looking for villages that actually also were sort of experiencing groundwater issues and that seemed to have some some level of organization capable of of of sort of um engaging with us and then um in some of these villages we really started engaging but also to discover that some of the things that from our let's say water science perspective seemed the bigger issues that that we could not basically touch them without upsetting the the entire the entire village so what what we then did to really together with that that that village is was was something a bit a bit smaller realizing that if we would touch the the larger issues which also involved some some local industrialist taking water but also adjusted division within the community about what what they wanted with with their with their drinking water and with the presence of these larger industrialists and these outsiders coming to the village that they they had actually violent clashes about it and that we thought okay we can start meddling with this and then leave again in in three or four years but then then we we we we just start pouring in something that that we can't make any sensible contribution to so we simply agreed to to focus on something much smaller and and probably not um in in at least in my opinion maybe not the the root cause of some of the water issues in that village but plus plus that that sometimes you come into in that case also with that village we came in with a with with one what we thought was a non-political village informal leader who nevertheless later was sidelined and and that that also really affected our activities and how we were perceived and yeah not not trusted by the entire village so we then had to work quite a lot to to to rebuild that and and also with the other groups in the village yeah so we are in that sense then also part of the political process that we don't understand don't know uh and should be really careful with yeah and and um and I think also in our our program when we um advocate for transformations and we we basically already make a stance that transformations that we so well have an idea that transformations are needed yeah although I would also at least for me our project is yeah indeed it's basically the idea that transformation are needed but we could even say if only because they are they are they are happening some transformations I I think are are hopefully recognized by by by several stakeholders as as as happening and as requiring maybe even if it's just a reaction a reactive response but but requiring some some action but indeed the notion would like to pay attention to transformations that we are recognizing which we deem actually to worsening let's say the situation no I think that's part of the of the dialogue right enough the debate and and and to figure out can we actually even agree on the parts of the transformation that that we think we we should support and maybe the parts where we disagree and and maybe that that that clarity even is is is quite difficult to to obtain and of course it becomes easier to obtain if we work with a limited set of stakeholders and especially those that agree with us and that is actually I think the tendency that we all always have but I think that's also the biggest pitfall we can we can step into to to stay within our comfort zone with the stakeholders that tend to agree with us we tend to be especially the nature conservation organizations but that are not the only ones we need really to make that change thank you um are there other questions I see that time here in the Netherlands just as past 4 p.m so that means that we are reaching the hour is there a final question or remark no okay can you have send a presentation later Leon yeah I will I will check what which folder we are using nowadays and then I will make sure to to put it on there and to share the link with with everyone uh yeah thank you at some point we still try to post the recordings on on a youtube channel but that might take a bit longer yeah okay thank you and let me then thank you Leon for sharing your insights with us it was very interesting um and then let me repeat again that um in our schedule we have uh Patricia on the top of Q methodology for next month's schedules and I don't know it again by heart but I thought it is 18 September we're now scheduled um and um so there are still quite some spots open so um we will with every invitation also send around the link to the schedule document in which we schedule the the different webinars so please um uh announce yourself also when you have interesting interesting stuff uh to share um again thank you Leon everybody thanks for being here with us and I'm looking forward to seeing you soon again online yeah thanks maybe also just a final reminder for the ones for the project meeting there that is Thursday I'm now looking at Anamika again as project data okay


Remember when the media told you that the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation? The president has said and you have tweeted that allegations of wrongdoing based on files pulled from Hunter Biden's laptop are Russian disinformation. There is a new book by a political reporter that finds some of the files on there are genuine. Is the White House still going with Russian disinformation? I think it's broadly known and widely known, Peter, that there was a broad range of Russian disinformation. Well, here we have some very stinky evidence that can't be denied. And how many patients are clear or almost clear-skinned in just your targets and blocks of specific source information if you trigger these disinformation? That's nasty. Just ask yourself, how would the media be treating this video right now if that was Donald Trump Jr.?


wake up in the morning I say I will say today's gonna be a great day yes after I walk into a meeting room I straighten my spine nailed it after I put on my construction hard hat at the power plant site I will touch my ears and after I take a sip the first sip of my morning hot tea I will take one deep meditative breath so these are tiny habits that I've had and basically they're quick self-designed behaviors that I've paired with something that I already do I wake up in the morning I walk through doors for a meeting room when I was working at a power plant I was really good about automatically putting that hard hat on for my health and safety and I love my hot tea in the morning white tea especially so the thing about this is the creation of habits is a superpower it's a superpower that I think everyone can have because it's self-designed and is applied improv practitioners that's part of what we do we are creating curriculums and giving people the experience of developing skills competencies and habits are part of being able to form that we help people to also create habits that express their identity I mean often we're you know we're the people who like love the authenticity to shine from those that we help times we create new habits to kind of crush the bad habits that we've had so what's the key to having this habit superpower well here's what it is I am a behavior designer and an applied improv practitioner and I believe that in this first-of-a-kind approach is bringing behavior design and applied improv together and what I'll share with you is how I see that they pair very nicely with each other as well as what behavior design is and what's this tiny habits that I was talking about so for those of us who are applied improvisers those of us who've had the benefit of an applied improv experience and whatever setting I would say inherently we are providing behavior based training coaching teaching and the like right and what we do is we're bringing these curriculums into a specific environment where people get to interact we're giving them different types of exercises and tools where they can also make a variety of choices and of course in every applied improv experience there's just so much joy and celebration so what happens after that improv experience you just every experiencing that joy right as an instructor as a coach as a teacher you see and you do that it's just what we're all about but people leave this environment that they were in with a certain group of folks afterwards they go home to their regular routines their daily lives and maybe something that they were taught in this improv experience was to navigate the workplace so now what do you do are they going into this new workspace their workspace area and being like all right I learned this thing what do I got to do so some of the stuff that happened and people can do that they can figure it out you know depending on how the curriculum is but one of the things I realized as a behavior designer as well as hey there's a way to to bring behavior design into applied improv to help people sustain and retain what they've learned in these really quick simple little ways and so going tiny by practicing make an improv skills stick better I think we all do a job of you know delivering the improv lessons and I think this really kind of neat little tool looking at behavior and looking at tiny habits is sort of a really neat thing to try out so I will share with you about behavior design tiny habits and about where this is being applied this this fall in San Francisco at untold improv so what I'm curious is has anybody heard of behavior design just clap your hands above your head great and how many have heard of BJ fog the behavior scientist professor at Stanford University oh this is great and who has heard of tiny habits before my mentioning it today all right that's that's great that's great that's great here so for the two people who know this might be a repeat for you that so BJ fog he basically shares that behavior happens when three things come together motivation ability and a prompt so if any of those elements do not come together a behavior doesn't happen and he calls that the fog behavior model so again behavior happens when motivation ability and a prompt happen in the same moment another thing about behavior is that it has three components and the three components are this behavior is a type of person doing in action in a specific context so if you're a person pouring water at home at the dinner table it's different from you being the person who's a restaurant server pouring water for a customer same person same action different context so that's kind of the basis of BJ's elements of behavior design so what does tiny habits have to do with this where does tiny habits live in this world of behavior well you remember behavior is motivation ability and prompt B map as it's also referred to in shorthand so this graph is basically the fog behavior model in more than four letters so what you have is motivation where this is a low motivation this is high motivation and it relates to ability where this is hard to do and this is easy to do and all in here are the prompts and you can see that there's an action line that's green and those prompts that you have this space after there that's where motivation ability and prompts come together and that's where behavior happens so the thing about tiny habits is that it lives over here it lives where it's easy to do and where there's like little to no motivation in fact sometimes there's not a lot of willpower there's some mornings I get up in the morning I'm like oh I need willpower but sometimes I just you know step out I'm like today's gonna be a great day it's that kind of experience so about a tiny habit the way I structured it's very specific and we like to call it a tiny habits recipe so you remember after I put on my construction hard hat I will touch my ears and celebrating the heck out of that the thing about that is it's really simple a tiny habit actually just has one and maybe two extra pieces after I do a thing I already do so you already have these things in your life and we call that an anchor you get up in the morning you know you turn the ignition on your car you open your door I will do a new habit so if you have a habit that you're looking at for me it was health and safety for ear protection I have a habit where I wanted to start drinking water same thing I figured out like oh I will touch my water glass and the idea of celebrating is also really important because it helps where you wire the brain to have that positive emotion to this new habit that you're looking to create so again tiny habit lives in this little space here where it's easy to do it's basically where the superpower is so this is where the superpower in the sweet spot is for a tiny habit and my thought about this is realizing hey this little area where I'm doing my health and safety stuff or trying to drink more water this is not too different from bringing behavior design into applied improv we're already doing behavior based work past the 50 percent mark and we work with people who are coming in for their own self-improvement they we can help them self-design their habits with this really simple simple little recipe it's quick it's simple I don't know if you notice but the habits that I mentioned they are like not more than 30 seconds I mean a few of them are like not even I don't know 10 seconds maybe I will say that I do let my hot tea deep meditative breath go on for a little bit longer and I'm okay with that so the point though is imagine we are looking at developing improv mindsets and I suggest let's also look at developing improv habits mindset and have that superpower who's going to have the superpower it's untold improv so I am a community catalyst for untold improv and untold improv is in San Francisco it's a nonprofit improv community that serves improv for people of color and one of the things about our organization is that we are looking to bring this vision of also having improv for social change we have monthly free workshops and we have at this point a seven week cohort that's going on we have two seven week cohorts throughout the year so I'm excited that when I leave here I'll get to share with them my experience here sharing with you about untold improv and the way that we're looking at bringing behavior design and applied improv together it's pretty straightforward and you're probably already doing it you just didn't know that there's this taxonomy of the behavior design language around it so in the in-class and in person experience we're looking at making sure that curriculum development and the cohort engagement and participation is really taken advantage of the motivation the ability and prompts that we could give folks and we give them the space that they need you know maybe they want to opt in maybe they want to opt out it's part of us you know realizing that we're creating this space for our community another way that we're also doing and this is a little bit paired more directly with tiny habits is for the two people that know about tiny habits BJ does have a five-day email free online program where you could just learn how to what a tiny habit is you tiny habits dot com and you can see it and the thing about that is imagine doing the exercise you know go ahead and walk and lead with your chest you know walk like a penguin you know we do these kind of really fun exercises it's like okay how does that translate into my real life well if somebody's looking at confidence or there's a workspace thing after I enter a meeting room I will straighten my spine a little things like that I won't go through the whole list of them I could and you can find me because if you can't see the color of this dress then we'll talk later so but basically the idea is creating these tiny habits for a daily practice now what does this look like in our untold improv community so there's some traditional ones like the ones I was telling you there's a lot of fun exercises and games that we do that can translate the simple types of activities into something that we're already doing into some new habit you know listening is one of them I'll go on so I want to share with you a couple things that are precious to me about untold improv and I came to them because I just love their mission so sorry about that I created my own technical difficulty let me do this okay so I'm gonna have to speed through to the end so basically what I do love about there we go the untold improv that's a little bit different that's sort of this added piece because as people of color there are different kinds of experiences that we have in the world so I'm gonna share with you a couple of tiny habits that actually are habits that we'll kind of explore and untold improv so one of them is after I feel a microaggression toward me I will take two deep breaths I know I use that because I used to just get angry when somebody would do that or call them out and it just helps to be able to realize there's this mindfulness aspect of that there's a lot of great improv applied improv to help that another one is after I feel the need to code switch I will put my hand to my chest just to feel my heart because sometimes it's tough and maybe it's just something that happens having to experience feeling like I'm gonna do this thing I don't even know I'm code switching but I just do it that's what happens I'm like you know what I want to go ahead and be part of learning that so I'm not saying we're doing this necessarily within the context of the untold improv curriculum but what I am saying is you know those are some special ways that you can see where where can we bring improv for social change and find these really simple tiny habits to do where things that happen to us already that we're already experiencing or routines that we have we can just tack on this really fun little you know or helpful or self-improvement moment to see where we can celebrate that we're being mindful and we're being the people we want in the world so I want to say to you I hope I'm getting very emotional I hope you realize this is joyful tears I wanted to say kind of as a tiny habits inspired gratitude for you after I finish this last slide I will thank you for sitting here listening to this presentation thank you very much for giving me the honor to share with you about my experience with bringing behavior design and applied improv and discovering it through untold improv about the power of how habits and applied improv can make the world make each person be the better people that they want to be in the world thank you very much


When it was announced Disney Plus was gonna have a new TV series based around the most boring character from Rogue One, I instantly thought, wow, is it possible to make something lame-er than the book of Boba Fett? If any show can do it, and or can. But then I made like a Jedi and forced myself to watch the first three episodes. And now I gift you my opinion. Let's begin. Some of you might have Disney Plus fatigue, I know I'm suffering from it, so a video like this is really nothing more than to encourage you to give this show a chance. Unfortunately, no, Goofy didn't show up at my house with a briefcase full of cash. Not that he could get it here in one piece anyway, as the guy's a clown. I just genuinely enjoyed this show. Subscribe for honesty. I also like that they gave us the first three episodes because here's what's been happening for me, as of late. I tried watching Miss Marvel. First episode had me on the hook. Second episode, a little worse, but not too shabby. Third episode completely gone. Lost me. I would have video out saying the show's worth watching after the first episode.  Because we didn't finish. The same applied to Moon Knight. So at least with Andorra, I have a little bit more information to go off of and I can say, hey, you know what, it's starting out great and it's staying consistently good. And the third episode was actually the best of the bunch. And as that third episode started to wind down, I found something very peculiar happening...internally. I was feeling things. I was feeling emotion. Something that's been missing in a lot of these MCU properties and in Star Wars properties outside of Mandalorian. That shows a treasure. As the title suggests, the show follows Cassian Andor, not to be confused with Andor. We're that lazy. We can't even come up with unique names. We have to nerf him from planets. I do stand by my opinion that Cassian is kind of a lame character. He's pretty boring. That doesn't mean his life is, though. That doesn't mean his struggles aren't real. And the show does a great job of really letting you connect with this character. And in another sense, it's almost refreshing that this character is different than your standard Han Solo or your Luke Skywalker or these other larger than life individuals. And that's how this show is from top to bottom. It's not like Star Wars properties you've seen before. It's intentionally slow. Not a ton of action. Haven't seen a saber yet. We do have a cute robot. That's, I think, Paramount for Star Wars? And another thing this show is doing that Kenobi kind of tried to do but failed for me is show what's going on from the perspective of the Empire. That stuff's great. That's some of my favorite stuff because we're getting up behind the scenes and how these guys operate. How they're really not that professional at all. There's a young rookie who's trying to make a name for himself. He's over his head. But he's following things by the book. He wants to be the best at his position. One of the sergeants in this outfit is played by Alex Ferns. He's the guy with the really funny voice from the Batman. I instantly recognized him. That voice is so fantastic. I love it. Love him in this. Mandalorian, specifically season one, was a very pretty show. Definitely had high production values and or I think might even surpass that. Beautiful looking TV show. Definitely budgets put into this. The lighting. Everything looks great. Music much like the performance is here. Very subdued in the background. You don't have that bombastic Star Wars theme song. There's nothing very intense going on. I would actually like if the music was a little bit stepped up going forward. I don't know if it's because the tone is more serious or because the tone is so somber. Maybe it's the dusters people are rocking, but I'm getting a Blade Runner vibe from this as well. And that's always a good thing. Again, we are only three episodes deep, but so far I got really no complaints, opportunities in this as well from Harry Potter. Anytime I can see a Potter family member, I'm all in even if it's a trashy one. A lot of good supporting characters coming and going throughout this. Last thing I will say, and this is just an all around observation, don't be fooled by runtimes on Disney Plus. I say this often, but the show will say it's 30 minutes. In Andorra's case, it's like 40, sometimes 45, but you can shave off like 10 minutes. There's like eight minutes dedicated to credits. You have the previously on. You have the intro title sequence, which is a slow reveal of the Andor logo. Very nice logo, but I mean, it takes like freaking 25 minutes to come up. I'm being a little bit over the top here. My point is, show's not as long as you think. You can get in and get out pretty quickly with this one. I would give it a chance. Honestly, this is coming from someone who had no interest. I like Rogue One a lot, but the character is just like, really? This is where we're going? But fantastic show. So do yourself a favor and check out Andor. The Star Wars prequel to Rogue One, which was a prequel to Star Wars Episode 4, 5, and 6, which were sequels to Episodes 1, 2, and 3 that came out later, so technically were considered prequels. And let's not forget that sequel trilogy, 7, 8, and 9. You know what? We can forget that. Hey, thanks for sticking around. If you haven't, maybe subscribe to the channel and like this video. It helps me out, I think. I don't know. Comments might help, too. I'm also on Twitch, playing games and talking movies at twitch.tv slash Adam does movies. You can find me on TikTok. I got a discord where a lot of people are starting to jump in and talk film there. And if you really want to support me, I'm on Patreon at patreon.com slash Adam does movies and I have a brand new merch store set up on Teespring. Lots of fun stuff there. It helps. It really does.


There's no questioning the facts. Rural grass fires can be just as dangerous as bushfires. If you're surrounded by paddocks, reduce your risk by slashing grass or turning bare earth to create fuel breaks. During summer, monitor conditions and avoid using machinery on hot, dry, windy days. And on high-risk fire days, seek shelter in built-up areas. The reasons why are black and white.


This lecture is titled Modern Western Short Story. The lecture is divided into four parts. In the first part, we will talk about the short story and the novel. In the second part, titled The Modern Short Story, we will deal with the short story and the classical and folk tales. We will also talk about new visions by examining the work of Poe and Jekka. Then we move on to the postmodern short story where we would talk about its experimental nature and the notion of anti-story and we will look at the work of Borges. Part four deals with our concluding remarks and we are really committed to this notion of generating creativity and therefore, the concluding part deals with our desire to support your effort towards creative experimentation. Now, let us start with the first part. We do not really take it for granted that you would like everything that has been chosen by us. Indeed you may not like or relate to the sensibility of certain writers, but may suddenly feel a shock of recognition when you read certain other writers. So, you have to allow yourself that kind of pleasure by actually reading lots of writers and thereby discovering your own voice, your own sense of excitement about the content, the theme, the methodologies, everything put together. Now, let us talk about the short story and the novel and as I have clearly indicated we have placed this discussion within the western short story and therefore, I would basically assume that the European or the Eurocentric framework would be kept in mind while talking about these stories because some of these stories are also translated stories. Wherever they are translated stories I will try and mention it, but you know both translated texts as well as original writing in English is part of this rich collection of material that we are going to dip into. Now, the first question that I want to briefly touch on is the connection between the short story and the novel. You may quite obviously feel that this is hardly something that one needs to talk about because the links seem so organic and so very visible, but at the same time I feel that because the short story happened later and the novel was such an overpowering presence that many of the short story writers have tried to establish the distinctiveness of the short story rather you know in strong terms. So, therefore, I think also there are very important differences and let us see how this question has been articulated by at least some of the important writers we have chosen. So, both are of course fictional explorations of historical situations in flux. So, I am stating the obvious and both share the tragic and the comic traditions of writing. Now, here I have in mind what Milan Kundera had said elsewhere about the art of fiction and specially with reference to the European novel he had said that all modern literature descends from either Richardson's Clarissa or Stern's Tristram Shandy. Now, Clarissa was in the tragic mode and Tristram Shandy as you know very well was a comic novel. So, I am just trying to suggest that in you know both though these modes are very important for the short story also just as they are important for the novel form actually they are very important for the for modern drama and I would not go into the lineage because we have already discussed Aristotle and the Aristotelian discourse the you know kind of impact it has had and also the variations and transformations that have occurred in this process. Now, the links actually between the two forms are undeniable in terms of therefore not only the tragic and the comic mold, but also the possibilities of prose fiction in terms of you know later on we will talk about it stream of consciousness technique or the comic and again the comic is a very frequent feel and there are so many variations within the comic, but it opened up new ways of articulating experience and meanwhile of course societies were changing, but Edgar Allan Poe was very very forceful in talking about the short story and its significance vis-a-vis the novel and I like to place this quotation before you. This is from a very very important book on the short story written by or edited by Stone Packer and Hoops which is full of extremely valuable insights and I really like you to read this book very carefully, but let me place this quotation from this particular collection. Edgar Allan Poe considered the short story superior to the novel for Poe the unity of effect or impression was of prime importance, but he felt this unity could be obtained only in works that could be read at one sitting. For Poe the novel does not have this unity, can not achieve the immense force derivable from totality Poe believed that the short story is different from the novel and superior to it. So, is this totality this sense of this tremendous power almost a kind of irresistible artistic force which leads you to create one complete piece and you know helps the reader also read it at one go. So, this is what he has to say this compression, this intensity and a sense of totality that this particular form offers. Well, I think personally we would just keep this important insight in mind and move on in terms of what the other writers have to say or how they have you know what kind of stories they have created. So far as the modern short story is concerned. Let us look at its connection with the classical and folk tales. This is the second part of the lecture and we will also look at Poe his short stories very briefly because we have already talked about Poe earlier and we will also talk about checker again very briefly because we have really extensively talked about checker earlier. To come back to this you know introduction to the short story, one of the key statements that was made by the editors is related to the impulses that make the modern short story very very close to the primitive. I would like to use the word primordial instinct of story tellers and at the same time this is to again quote directly from this statement here. He too and I wonder why there is this persistent he, it should be he or she. The he too would like to be a myth maker that is the modern short story writer would also like to be a myth maker and often is but his problem is vastly complicated. Early stories were vehicles of assertion, modern fiction is one of search. I think it is a very very valid and extremely valuable viewpoint. Early stories spoke for a whole community, modern fiction is the work of individuals called authors. Again we have talked about some of these overlaps and some of these issues earlier in our discussion of folk tales and classical tales etcetera. You can go back to some of that discussion. However, I think the same idea has been very powerfully expressed by Edmund Krusek from the, this is a quote from the writer's workbook where he says we are in a sense made of stories. Every culture in every age has told them and our stories form our understanding of ourselves and of the world. Very very rich and important statement indeed and therefore, I think what perhaps would be beneficial for us is to use some of the ideas we have already discussed earlier instead of starting off you know with new examples within this frame of reference. Then I thought you could go back to Atwood's essay where she in her desire to seek some understanding of the doubleness of a writer's sensibility. She went back to some of the mythic resources and some of the important folk tales and again I would say that in terms of a choice the myth of narcissists for example, the folk tale, the gold children these do establish the theme of doubleness and what is important for us is to understand that whether we are talking about the modern or the postmodern sensibility. But somehow there is this resonance of these mythic sources and also some of the folk sources because they keep circulating in our consciousness and therefore, one can say that there are these hidden roots from the earlier archetypes that seem to again lead to new blends in the modern and the postmodern and in that sense there is always a sense of continuity although the stories of the past they were modes of assertion whereas modern to postmodern are stories of search, discovery, finding one bearings and finding forms that enable the short story writer to express his or her world view in the way it is experienced by the writer. Now that is a very, very radical kind of difference between the two historical phases. In terms of the choices that Etwood has made vis-a-vis the modern short story very clearly within the notion of the doubleness that she was interested in exploring. She is chosen amongst the modernist, she is modern short story writers, Etwood has chosen Edgar Allan Poe's William Wilson with reference to the doppelganger theme and in terms of the postmodern example she has chosen Borges and I. Since I am emphasizing the mythic, the classical, the folk but I think in terms of the mythic I would like to say that myths do pervade our consciousness and they are part of our cultural vocabulary. In the second part now we will look at the modern short story New Visions in terms of Edgar Allan Poe and Chekhov. The growth of the modern short story is located from mid to late 19th century and one of the important things that John Gardner has pointed out in this book that we have discussed with you earlier titled The Art of Fiction, he had pointed out in fact he not only pointed out but he made some very dramatic claims in this book. He says that the day the cast of Amontilado was published the theory of fiction exploded because the story has an end but no beginning and middle and therefore it challenges the earlier notion of energetic plot and in fact William Wilson also is another sort of innovative story within that frame of reference. Now in terms of the cast of Amontilado, the reason Gardner considers it so very important as a milestone is because this first of all apart from the structural propensity of the tale, the tale is totally focused on the internal monologue almost or interior monologue of the protagonist, it is a very eerie gothic tale and it also goes very deep into the consciousness of that character and it is a very very unfortunate theme. It talks about failed friendship and what I would like to do is to just read the first line and the last line so that you get a sense of that story primarily in terms of the fact that there is nothing no structure to it except this kind of outburst of the protagonist. So this is how it begins, the thousand injuries of Archanato I had borne as I best could but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge and finally you know he sort of does some way sinister things by burying this friend alive and covering that particular spot and this is how the story ends. I hastened to make an end of my labour for the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them. So one is not suggesting that the themes are you know sublime or exciting in terms of you know something outstanding that has been done by Poe but Poe was interested in the gothic and he was also interested in many many darker aspects of human consciousness. In William Wilson this takes a very very different and somewhat more of a moral turn when he describes William Wilson and also creates his double also called William Wilson. To begin with the name William Wilson is also a fake identity but then there is this double identity in the story and this is how this story starts. What say of it? What say of conscience grim that specter in my path? And this is these are quotations from Chamberlain Faronida with which the story starts and this is how it goes. Let me call myself for the present William Wilson then he goes on to say the order the enthusiasm and the imperiousness of my disposition soon rendered me a marked character among my schoolmates. My name, sake alone, presumed to compete with me. And finally you know he traces this whole you know biographical in great detail biographical details the sense of these two coming across each other all the time one of them follows the evil path the other one keeps censuring him and finally these are the last few lines of the story you have conquered and I yield yet hence forward are thou also dead dead to the world to heaven and hope in me this thou exist and in my death see by this image which is thine own how utterly thou has murdered thyself. So indeed you know these are extremely you know unpredictable kind of themes and stories although the doubleness of this story again has a long mythic connection but Poe is considered as a very very important figure in terms of the composition of the short story about theory of the short story also and then I think you could read bit of Poe read his theoretical work on the short story and then move on to someone like checker. Now checker wrote in Russian and we are sharing the translations with you. So this you have to keep in mind because the quality of translations that you read you have to ensure that they are really good because I personally have given my choice earlier and you can go back to our discussion of checker in order to understand what I was trying to say about translation of checker but in terms of checker again we would try and keep this idea that the modern writer does not receive his world view he discovers it and this is a statement again from this important study that we have been referring to and extend this idea to suggest that the reader such as person like you or a person like me we also discover the meaning within the story. So they remain very very open ended for us and so we engage with them and discover the meaning. You can reread checker the shemalayan to discover the taut satire implied in that short story because again it may seem like just a you know portrayal of an event but gradually you begin to discover the taut structure and the satire that is implied. You can also read other stories of checker our favorite is the death of a clerk where the clerk is terribly upset after sneezing and you know he feels that he has been very impolite to the general who was sitting in front of him and the whole story deals with his desire to apologize to the general and the general's refusal to accept that apology. Now this particular portrayal of the clerk is rendered ambiguous and I am using this phrase from Octopia of Paz who has said that the comic renders the modern sense of the comic renders meaning ambiguous and indeed in this story the portrayal of the clerk is rendered ambiguous through comic exaggeration. So read this story and see how this plays out for you. Also looking at these two great figures of modern short story very briefly I would say let us now move to the post modern short story which is very experimental in nature and it has been labeled as anti-story too and we will also look at Borges again very briefly. The reason we have maintained this kind of brevity is to retain our focus on the actual words that the writers have used and also on this sense that you know you could pick and choose the stories that you like. The material therefore that we have explored is material that helps you keep your own sense of freshness, your own sense of vocation as a writer very independent from available milestones but without those milestones you would not know the possibilities because many of us get used to a certain restrictive way of looking at literary forms. So therefore now the examination of the post modern short story is extremely important and in this anthology by Stone Packer and Hoops they have made this statement and let me share that statement with you. These experimental writers deserve our careful attention whether or not they express experiences the reader can easily share. For the form of fiction as well as the content the technique as well as the subject matter are vital indicators of what is happening to us and vital purveyors of value. In his important anthology anti-story Philip Stavik has rightfully classified these anti-traditional tendencies as a series of negations. I would not go on to read the full list of these negations but I would really encourage you to read this book again in order to see what Stavik was talking about or to go to Stavik's book directly in order to understand his point of view and see the kind of writers he has included in this very very well known and respected collection of experimental short stories. So we do keep in mind that sometimes the themes the style of writing may be inaccessible you know it may seem like oh you know that it is like an obstacle race but at the same time it is related to the kind of historical experience the kind of value that is associated you know with the kind of form and content that the writer has you know worked out. So in terms of Borges he again is a very tall figure in this field and we had talked about Borges with reference to Atwood's you know sense of the doubleness and let me read this quotation from Atwood when she you know talked about at length talked about the doppelganger theme she says where does it come from this notion that the writing self the self that comes to be thought of as the author is not the same as the one who does the living. So that was the question that she had posed and this equivocal sense of the writer is what she felt was absolutely powerfully captured in Borges and I the piece that Borges has written. I would also like to read the first and the last line from that story this is how it starts. The other one the one called Borges is the one things happened to I do not know which of us has written this page. Let us finally move to the concluding remarks and again as I had said earlier the idea is to generate creative experimentations. We would definitely not recommend the emulation of any particular model but we would certainly like you to critically examine these short stories, enjoy them, discard them if you so desire but finally I think after critical analysis if you undertake this process you would be in a better position you would be a sturdier writer and so we would like to play some more classifications that may be helpful because this particular essay that we have selected it appeared in the Guardian and I think William Boyd had similar instinct in terms of promoting experimentation and freshness in writing and it is with this spirit that he wrote this essay. Boyd's essay is based on the following notion of the short story and let me read that basic statement. He says let us say that the short story is prose fiction's lyric poem contrasted with the novel as its epic. Based on this idea and of course related ideas he went on to offer seven types of short stories the modernist story is influenced by Hemingway's what he describes this as revolutionary contribution to the short story and he says it is spared down, laconic, unafraid to repeat the most common adjectives rather than reach for a synonym and purposeful opacity I think that is the point perhaps that needs to be noted because it is also been said by one of the critics I forget who said this but you know one of the critics I was reading recently has pointed out that in the short story it is possible for the writer to maintain the opacity of the subtext and you know so the causal elements I do not have to surface at all and at the same time the same you know withholding of the subtext in a novel makes the novel very, very tedious. So this may indeed be a quality that you can examine carefully purposeful opacity. The next classification according to him is the poetic mythic story. This is the short story quasi poem and as examples again he quotes Hemingway's contribution so again you have to say which stories of Hemingway would fit the bell which of Dylan Thomas which of D. H. Lawrence because all of them have written such so extensively. So again you have to select but as a writer this will really help you understand the variations and the possibilities and the enormous range that has developed in the modern and postmodern short story. Then the biographical story is another variety which deliberately borrows and replicates the properties of non-fiction, of history, of reportage, of the memorial and who else but Borgia's is the best example of it. You know his everything and nothing is absolutely marvellous biographical rendering of Shakespeare do read that great short story. Finally we present readings of extracts from famous short stories. Can you identify the stories and their authors? The hills across the valley of Ebrole were long and white. On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. Across against the side of the station there was the warm shadow of the building and a curtain made of strings of bamboo beads hung across the open door into the bar to keep out flies. The American and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade outside the building. It was very hot and the express from Barcelona would come in 40 minutes. It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went on to Madrid. What should we drink? The girl asked. She had taken off her hat and put it on the table. It's pretty hot, the man said. Let's drink beer. Those surveys as the man said into the curtain. Big ones? A woman asked from the doorway. Yes, two big ones. The woman brought two glasses of beer and two felt pads. She put the felt pads and the beer glasses on the table and looked at the man and the girl. The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry. They looked like white elephants, she said. I have never seen one. The man drank his beer. No, you wouldn't have. His soul had approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead. He was conscious of but could not apprehend their wavered and flickering existence. His own identity was fading out into a grey, impalpable world. The solid world itself which these dead had one time reared and lived in was dissolving and dwindling. A few light taps upon the pain made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to get out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right. Snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the bog of Allen and farther westward, softly falling into the dark, mutinous, shanon waves. It was falling too upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Fury lay barred. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling like the descent of their last end upon all the living and the dead. Thank you.


So the first game won 1-0, second game 3-0, so you know I'm a professional E-League player and you know I just play here and there once a month and you know I'm very proud of my performance today. You played really really well so I didn't expect that from my E-League player to be honest but gotta be honest here I let him win. It's gonna keep the confidence high for them and I'll do my work tonight. Yeah I think I did well. I think I should be playing E-League. Nah I think it was good, it was a bit nervy at times. Had a few chances, had a few shots conceded so yeah it was a good overall performance. Yeah so being from Western Sydney it's a huge honour. I've always wanted to represent the club and yeah FIFA's giving me a place to represent the club and I'm happy with that. It's been a great experience to represent the club in the E-League. First couple weeks we've got some good wins and I'm lucky with lots of it at times but right now we're going to win last week and looking forward to tonight for being a big matchup against Melbourne City. Yeah it is very cool and yeah good on them to make it to such a high level to play FIFA and it's a game we all love and would like to play so yeah it's good to represent your club and team.


Hi, this is Les Halmes coming to you from Train Fest in Milwaukee. Pretty windy day, but we have some breaking news coming up So stand by Yesterday there was a check that was handed over to the NMRA I'm here with Bud Reese from Bachman. He's also on the board of the world's greatest hobby So I'm gonna ask him exactly what it was and what the reason was behind that. Hi, bud. How are you doing? Fine. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity Right. Could you tell us a little bit about what that $50,000 check was about? Yes The NMRA has been presented with an opportunity in the California State Museum in Sacramento To put a permanent display for model trains They have requested that the manufacturers of support them in pledges to raise the money to get this display in there The Sacramento Museum has actually given us the space so we We as an organization of the world's greatest hobby has pledged $50,000 and we're trying to get the other manufacturers to pledge Same amount so that we can double our money So it's a it's a great opportunity The 630,000 people a year that attends that museum. Wow, that's that's real nice. Right. How do you how do you? Manufacturers have you contacted most manufacturers or we we we're contacting them now of the NMRA is actually running the promotion as to contact the manufacturers to get pledges and they have a certain time period to raise them $250,000 to start the action to get this done I also heard that you can donate some money to the NMRA and then they will double it or something in there Well, they have an anonymous donor that will match what we raise to go with it. Wow, so You know the total amount is more than the 250 but once they get there then they've agreed to go ahead and start with a project It's all hot it's all comes from real greatest hobby The 50,000 yes, and the other pledges come from the other manufacturers and individuals who ever wants to donate It's certainly welcome to do so and we certainly would have solicited that bit of donations Well, thank you very much, but I appreciate it my pleasure here's things up a lot Yeah, so you out there who've got a couple of loose dollars Don't eat the NMRA for this worthy cause