Richard Eckersley

This is a great website for resources on young people and the ever changing world we live in. It has some very useful information for both teachers and parents, especially in the area of society and culture.

About Richard Eckersley
Richard is an independent researcher and writer on progress, sustainability, culture, health and wellbeing. He is a founding director of Australia21 Ltd, an independent, non-profit, public-interest research company, and a visiting fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University.

Richard Eckersley is a well published author (both scientific journals and specialist magazines) who poses the questions: Is Life getting better? He explores this question through his research in progress and wellbeing.
 
His published works explore many issues including:
•  measures of progress
•  the relationships between economic growth, quality of life and ecological sustainability
•  social and cultural influences on health and happiness
•  visions of the future, and
•  young people and their world.

Is Life getting better?
The question reflects coherence in our lives, socially and personally, that needs greater acknowledgment. How we answer the question bears on almost every issue on the public and political agenda.

A central tenet of modern culture is the belief in progress, the idea that life should get better. Is this the case? If our answer is ‘yes’, we can continue to assume that human history is on the right trajectory, and needs nothing more than periodic course corrections – the task of governments.

If the answer is ‘no’, then the most fundamental assumptions about our way of life – assumptions that have long been broadly agreed and taken for granted – must be re-assessed.

The task we face goes far beyond the adjustment of policy levers by government; it demands an open and spirited debate about how we are to live and what matters in our lives.

The answer to this question is approached from a perspective of human health, wellbeing and happiness. emphasising the importance of culture, values and stories, and challenge some of our most powerful beliefs about progress, including that we are getting healthier because we are living longer, that the ‘west is the best’ when it comes to human development, and that past life was wretched.
 
Resources on the website include his many published articles in the following areas:

  • Scientific
  • Progress, development and sustainability
  • Health and wellbeing
  • Young people’s health and wellbeing

Writer Helen Splarn.  Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.
Source: Richard Eckersley