Hi Alun,
Thanks for your correction.
The issue of 'nation' in Australia is not that obvious to those of us who moved there from elsewhere. Australia looks like and behaves like some individual 'nation states' grouped together into a federation. In fact, the legal discourse about the governance at State and Federal levels in Australia is exactly of this form. Informally, however, politicians and plebians alike also refer to Australia as a 'nation'. This complicates the heck out of things - it makes much more sense to refer to the individual States of the federation of Australia as nations.
The difference seems to reflect two different meanings of 'nation': on one hand to refer to 'country', on the other hand, to refer to 'sovereign state'. In the Australian situation, this gets the definitions coming and going in both directions! - complicated further by the indigenous use of the term 'country'.
It suggests, and Derek's comments would be helpful, that the complexity of terms like 'nation' will increasingly need to be addressed in design research, especially in relation to improving the design of countries' policies, strategies and interventions.
Best wishes,
Terry
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<snip> On Behalf Of Alun Price
Subject: Re: Going to school to improve university design education and research
Thank you Terry for your comments on the Senior School Design course in Western Australia. One point to correct, you mention national curriculum and national marking of portfolios; this is of course state not national. The state of WA is however quite large, about 2.5 million squre kilometers, about 3.5 times the size of Texas.
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