The PASCAL Outside the Box (OTB) discussion forums website announced at the end of last year has now been launched. OTB is open to all PASCAL users to enter into the discussions.

A sitelink is displayed at the bottom left of every page on the main PASCAL site or you can go directly to:

http://otb.pascalobservatory.org

To contribute to a discussion, users simply need to login using their existing PASCAL account details and complete their thread contribution just like a commenting to a regular PASCAL post. Login help is available through the HELP! link at the top-right of every page.

Anyone wishing to contribute directly to the OTB Themes (i.e. post new topics) is cordially invited to register as an OTB full member.

Questions on the OTB Themes, contributing to the discussions and general site use can be submitted through the Contact us link at the top-right of every page.

OTB comes at old problems from new angles. It is guided by a team who share the monitoring and development of chosen main areas of wide importance. PASCAL Advisory Council (PAC) members Peter Welsh, Balazs Nemeth and Henrik Zipsane are members of this team, together with those named below. 

Seven initial themes have been adopted; others will be added as need arises. The initial themes are grouped as follows.

Development, learning, and the management of place

• ŸDecentralisation of national policy and practice to regional or local levels in unitary and federal nation states; the challenges of devolution Mike Osborne
• The crisis of western democracy and leadership in a media and opinion-poll driven era; national impasse? local solutions? Hans Schuetze

Development and environment

• ŸSecuring active civil society participation in achieving the new UN Sustainable Development Goals from 2015 Bruce Wilson
• Eco-sustainability including a deeper ethical approach to the crises of global extinctions  Steve Garlick
• Food security, local production and sustainability Pat Inman

Development: Where from, where to? From experience and analysis to public discourse

• ŸPersonal stories – narratives and analyses of what worked and did not work in ‘local’ change initiatives designed to create better understanding and stronger community James Powell and Larry Swanson
  
• What changes the narrative? – how to get new understandings to policy-makers and the wider public to alter the discourse and cause change Chris Duke

The overall OTB theme coordinator is Chris Duke, founding CEO-Secretary-General of PASCAL and current Chair of its Advisory Council (PAC).