Inclusive well-being : a systemic view of development

![CDATA[In the late 1970s, a group of agricultural scientists at the (then) Hawkesbury Agricultural College on the outskirts of Sydney, set off on an endeavour to explore the application of systems principles to agricultural and rural development in Australia. Their essential motivation was concern at a host of emerging complex and messy issues that seemed to be threatening the sustainability of the well-being both of rural people and of the environments in which they were operating. The initial focus of this work was the design of undergraduate curricula which would use the systems theories and practices of the day as an intellectual framework for helping students learn how these complex socio-economic and bio-physical issues might be improved in an integrated manner. Over subsequent decades, this systemic initiative extended to embrace a wide diversity of practices, in agriculture and beyond, within the rubric of what came to be called systemic development. There are a number of pertinent lessons from this long intellectual, moral and aesthetic journey, that are of considerable relevance to today's discourse about liveability, sustainability and the future of life on the planet.]]