The year 2016 gives one pause. The attacks of January 2015 in Paris were directed against free speech and religious tolerance; they failed: Charlie Hebdo sales are up, and opinion polls show that overwhelmingly, the French have positive views of Muslims, Jews and Europe. The attacks of November 2015 in Paris and July 2016 in Nice however succeeded in destablising through fear: people changed their daily routines or vacation plans. The elections in the UK and US are more difficult to characterize because this time, in the West, fantasy defeated fact, emotion triumphed over reason.

Please find featured below and attached the Summer 2016 issue of the newsletter Ripples, from the Australian Learning Communities Network (ALCN):

In September Marius Ventus informed the PASCAL Board that the Africa Centre has appointed a number of PASCAL Associates in South Africa.

The motivation for this is that a stronger credibility will lead to a greater network in Africa because each South African Associate brings a whole “Africa” network with him or her.

Today, we highlight three of the New Associates and link you to their profiles:

The PASCAL Observatory Africa Centre for Economic Development is building a network of PASCAL Associates with the aim of developing a larger set of connections within Africa. The Centre is also commencing work on two ‘learning city’ projects.

I am one of the lead authors of the Education chapter for the International Panel for Social Progress (modelled on the International Panel for Climate Change).  The whole report is now out for consultation and so if you can spare a bit of time the IPSP team would love to hear your thoughts on the Education chapter or any other chapters that interest you.