Pagination
5-15ISSN
1835-5668Language
engResearch statement
This long-form creative nonfiction work was a commissioned essay coinciding with the Australian crisis of the 2019 bushfires, the federal handling of responsibility during this period and community debate which followed. It wanted to know: how can we reconsider the notion of leadership and what framework would enable this knowledge (as sustainable practice) to be transferable and applied? In conversation with Taoism, yoga and contemporary philosophy, it suggests ways to disambiguate power-over from leading, and offers close analysis of leadership’s demands and service, especially moving towards more challenging ecological conditions, of which the fires were one early example.
Combining anecdote, autobiographical methodologies and theoretical paradigms and literary criticism, it outlines a thinking framework for a model ethical leadership, relevant to a climate crisis moment (‘Black Summer’). This framework involved Six Principles of Leadership that can be applied in various contexts, according to clear ethical considerations. The essay provided examples, and using provocative polemics, sketched complications attending our shared efforts to lead and to select leaders.
The essay responded to an urgent moment where critique of leadership models was salient in across media, and its unusual length (10,000 words) was evidence of the publication editors’ conviction that its approach was a necessary contribution at that moment, and on-going.Publication classification
JO3 Original Creative Works – Textual WorkScale
NTRO MinorIssue
45Publisher
The Lifted BrowPlace of publication
Melbourne, VicSource
The Lifted Brow
