"Sidelights"

Julian K. Agyeman told CA: "My motive in being an academic and writer is, quite simply to change the world. I want my books to inspire possibilities, to unleash human potential. My past, present and future research, in effect my life's work, asks three questions: how can we improve the quality of people's lives now and into the future? How do we do this in a just and equitable manner? How do we do all this while living within the capacity of the planet's ecosystems? As an academic and a scholar, writing is our currency, it's part of how we communicate our ideas, how we persuade people and how we progress in our profession. For me writing is pleasurable, but for some it isn't. For me it is like being an artist. I have an idea; I play with my concepts and words (my paint); I rip up my idea and start again and eventually I begin to see...