This recording is from The City Transformed: Urban life at the end of the world as we know it – Green Institute Conference 2023, specifically the stream entitled ‘Democratic transformation through crisis’ featuring “Campaign Strategy for Transformative Democracy”, with A/Prof Mark Diesendorf;
“Democratic transformation and urban re-imagination during periods of political crisis: Experimenting with a protest “village” in Colombo (Sri Lanka)”, with Dr Rajni Gamage and Anna Carlson; and
“Community Recovery from Covid: regenerative governing”, with Minister Emma Davidson, MLA. Facilitated by Green Agenda Editor Carlos Morreo.

Dr Mark Diesendorf

Dr Mark Diesendorf is Honorary Associate Professor in Environment & Society, School of Humanities & Languages at UNSW Sydney. From 1996 to 2001 he was Professor of Environmental Science and Founding Director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at University of Technology Sydney.

His most recent book is The Path to a Sustainable Civilisation: Technological, Socioeconomic and Political Change (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023).  He enjoys bushwalking and kayaking. 

Dr Rajni Gamage

Dr Rajni Gamage is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore since July 2022. Her research focus is on elite politics and the politics of development in Sri Lanka. Previously, she worked as a researcher in Sri Lanka and in Singapore.

She graduated with a PhD in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Queensland, Ausralia, in 2022. She holds a MSc in International Relations from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Relations, NTU, Singapore and a B.Soc.Sc. in Political Science from the National University of Singapore.

Anna Carlson

Anna Carlson is a white settler living and working on unceded Yuggera and Turrbal country. She is a community organiser, radio producer, illustrator and researcher, who has recently submitted a PhD at the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland.

Her PhD research examined the relationship between state surveillance and liberal reform in Queensland to understand the role of this relationship in fueling settler colonial nation-building.

Her broader and political and intellectual work is concerned with the entanglement of colonisation, racial capitalism, and heteropatriarchy, and the operation of changing regimes of incarceration, enclosure, and liberal “inclusion” in enabling the persistence of colonial power relations into the present.

Emma Davidson MLA

Emma Davidson MLA is a Member for Murrumbidgee, elected in 2020. A member of the ACT Greens, Emma is the Minister for Disability, Minister for Justice Health, Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Seniors and Veterans, and Assistant Minister for Families and Community Services.

She has a wealth of experience, having worked in the community sector for many years. She has previously been the Convenor at Women’s Electoral Lobby, a Woden Valley Community Council committee member and Secretary at Pearce Community Centre. Emma has worked in social research and advocacy at the Women’s Centre for Health Matters and at Equality Rights Alliance, managed online communications for the Australian Medical Association, been Director of Information Management at Navy, worked in private sector software development, owned and managed a small retail business, and spent seven years working at Centrelink.

She is committed to making sure we have the right infrastructure for our communities as the population grows and the climate changes.