Christopher Williams (academic)
Encyclopedia
Christopher Williams (born 1952, London) is an English academic based at the Centre for ‎International Education and Research, University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...

, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. He has also ‎held posts at the universities of Bristol
University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...

, Cairo, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

, London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

 and the United ‎Nations
United Nations University
The United Nations University is an academic arm of the United Nations established in 1973, which serves purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. The UNU undertakes research into the pressing global problems of human survival, development and welfare that are the concern of...

. He is an invited Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...

 (RSA), and magistrate.‎

At school he taught himself to play the trumpet and gained a place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...

, ‎London, aged 16. He then became Head of Brass teaching at Wells Cathedral School
Wells Cathedral School
Wells Cathedral School is a co-educational independent school located in Wells, Somerset, England. The school is one of the five established musical schools for school-age children in the United Kingdom, along with Chetham's School of Music, the Yehudi Menuhin School, the Purcell School and St....

 and a tutor at Dartington College of Arts
Dartington College of Arts
Dartington College of Arts was a specialist arts institution near Totnes, Devon, South West England, it specialized in post-dramatic theatre, music, choreography, Performance Writing and visual performance, focusing on a performative and multi-disciplinary approach to the arts. In addition to this,...

. In 1980 he left the UK to teach at the Cairo Conservatoire
Cairo Conservatoire
The Cairo Conservatoire is the primary music conservatory in Egypt. It was established in 1959 and is located in the same building complex as the Cinema Institute and the Higher Institute for Theatrical Arts, Haram, Giza, Greater Cairo, while the Cairo Symphony Orchestra is based at Cairo Opera...

, Egypt, working with Samha El-Kholy
Samha El-Kholy
Samha Amin El-Kholy was a noted Egyptian musicologist. She published widely about the traditional music and contemporary music of Egypt, including several articles about contemporary Egyptian composers in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.She received her doctorate from the...

, and was ‎principal trumpet of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra
Cairo Symphony Orchestra
The Cairo Symphony Orchestra, , is an orchestra based in Cairo, Egypt. It was founded in 1959 by its first music director and conductor, Franz Litschauer...

. Here he became ‎interested in disadvantage and poverty, and taught at the Al Noor Wal Amal School for blind children. In 1985 he broke the cultural boycott of South Africa ‎to be a principal trumpet with the PACT (SABC) Symphony Orchestra, to experience apartheid. ‎He taught music in the Alexandra, Gauteng
Alexandra, Gauteng
Alexandra or Alex for short, nicknamed Gomora is a township located in Gauteng province, South Africa. It is part of Johannesburg, close to the wealthy suburb of Sandton and is bounded by Wynberg on the west, Marlboro and Kelvin on the north, Kew, Lombardy West and Lombardy East on the south...

 township, and co-founded the Johannesburg-based education NGO for street-working ‎children, Street-wise, with Jill (Swart) Kruger. This became the topic of a PhD, his 'first degree'. He then held Fellowships from the Joseph Rowntree ‎Foundation concerning disability rights, and the Economic and Social Research Council
Economic and Social Research Council
The Economic and Social Research Council is one of the seven Research Councils in the United Kingdom. It receives most of its funding from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and provides funding and support for research and training work in social and economic issues, such as...

 within the Global Environmental Change Programme.‎

‎Approach

Within the tradition of eclecticism
Eclecticism
Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases.It can sometimes seem inelegant or...

 (selecting what is best from various sources or systems) ‎Williams uses Edward O.Wilson's multi-disciplinary consilience
Consilience
Consilience, or the unity of knowledge , has its roots in the ancient Greek concept of an intrinsic orderliness that governs our cosmos, inherently comprehensible by logical process, a vision at odds with mystical views in many cultures that surrounded the Hellenes...

 approach to ‎academic inquiry – a 'jumping together' of knowledge - to understand and address ‎specific problems.‎

Williams has written for a wide range of academic and other public media, including ‎the Korea Herald
Korea Herald
The Korea Herald is a daily English-language newspaper founded in 1953 and published in Seoul, South Korea. The editorial staff is composed of Korean and international writers and editors, with additional news coverage drawn from international news agencies such as the Associated Press.The Korea...

, China Daily
China Daily
The China Daily is an English language daily newspaper published in the People's Republic of China.- Overview :China Daily was established in June 1981 and has the widest print circulation of any English-language newspaper in the country...

, and Times Higher Education, and has appeared on the BBC Radio 4 ‎‎Today programme
Today programme
Today is BBC Radio 4's long-running early morning news and current affairs programme, now broadcast from 6.00 am to 9.00 am Monday to Friday, and 7.00 am to 9.00 am on Saturdays. It is also the most popular programme on Radio 4 and one of the BBC's most popular programmes across its radio networks...

, BBC World Service
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...

 and TV News 24, Australian radio (ABC), and Vancouver ‎Radio. He has been reported in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

, Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...

, The Scotsman
The Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....

, ‎‎The Guardian, Indian Express, Suzhou Daily, Kuwait News, Yonhap News, The Chosun Ilbo
The Chosun Ilbo
The Chosun Ilbo is one of the major newspapers in South Korea. With a daily circulation of over 2,200,000, the Chosun Ilbo has undertaken annual inspections since Audit Bureau of Circulations was established in 1993...

, and Hansard, ‎and has been an invited speaker for the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations ‎University (UNU), UNEP/GIWEH (Geneva), UNESCO/UNU
UNU
UNU or Unu can refer to:* United Nations University* University of Nottingham Union, an obsolete title of the University of Nottingham Students' Union* Unnilunium , another name for the chemical element 101, Mendelevium...

 (Korea), UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

 World Heritage Institute ‎‎(China), National Assembly for Wales
National Assembly for Wales
The National Assembly for Wales is a devolved assembly with power to make legislation in Wales. The Assembly comprises 60 members, who are known as Assembly Members, or AMs...

, and the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.‎

‎Ideas - Human intelligence and human security

Williams' conceptual work explores how and why we learn, don't learn, and behave in the context of the new global threats.

Pertinacity

His book Terminus Brain (1997) explores how and why the human brain is the only ‎part of the eco-system at risk from its own behaviour:'Environmentally-Mediated Intellectual Decline' (EMID) caused by the presence of environmental neurotoxins (e.g. mercury, lead), the absence of vital environmental micro-nutrients (e.g. iodine, iron), and synergistic effects. He identifies 'pertinacity' ‎‎(extreme tenacity) as a distinct human trait which permits infinite 'coin placing' ‎instead of random 'coin tossing' decisions, leading to linear species-destructive ‎behaviour. He also asks whether environmental degradation could lead to regressive brain evolution. ‎
‎"The human brain is now at risk from itself. Like a terminus, it is an ‎endpoint of our environmental mistakes, but it is also a starting point of those ‎mistakes and of their correction.... ‎Our brain is the only thing in the ecosystem that directly jeopardises its own ‎wellbeing, which suggests a unique form of ecological vulnerability. The ‎human brain should logically be a priority of environmental concern, but it is ‎not."‎

‎Brain-lag

Linking evolutionary psychology
Evolutionary psychology
Evolutionary psychology is an approach in the social and natural sciences that examines psychological traits such as memory, perception, and language from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify which human psychological traits are evolved adaptations, that is, the functional...

 and the anthropological concept of cultural lag
Cultural lag
The term cultural lag refers to the notion that culture takes time to catch up with technological innovations, and that social problems and conflicts are caused by this lag. Subsequently, cultural lag does not only apply to this idea only, but also relates to theory and explanation...

, in 2002 he ‎also discussed the problem of 'brain lag' – the inability of our modern but 'Stone Age brain' to perceive the ‎current technological threats that it has created. Risk information needs to be ‎presented as 'enhanced difference' to 'make the invisible visible' by creating 'false ‎norms within false norms'. A related theory of 'social impetus' proposes that analysis ‎of technological development in relation to our evolutionary psyche can help to ‎understand and predict social change.

‎Global leadership

While working with Kennedy Graham
Kennedy Graham
Dr Kennedy Gollan Montrose Graham is a New Zealand politician and MP for the Green Party. He has served in the New Zealand Foreign Service for sixteen years, and lectured at the University of Canterbury and Victoria University of Wellington....

, at the United Nations University
United Nations University
The United Nations University is an academic arm of the United Nations established in 1973, which serves purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. The UNU undertakes research into the pressing global problems of human survival, development and welfare that are the concern of...

 Leadership Academy, he realised that focussing only on the 'down-system' aspect of global learning was ‎inadequate. He contributed to the Club of Budapest
Club of Budapest
The Club of Budapest is an international organization founded in 1993 by Ervin Laszlo to expand beyond the exclusively scientific purpose of The General Evolution Research Group to try to mobilize the full cultural resources of humanity to meet the challenges we face.-Club's mission:“The Club of...

 book Global Survival edited by Ervin László
Ervin László
Ervin László is a Hungarian philosopher of science, systems theorist, integral theorist, originally a classical pianist. He has published about 75 books and over 400 papers, and is editor of World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution...

 and Peter Seidel
Peter Seidel
Peter Seidel is an American architect-planner turned writer.- Background :Before obtaining a MS in Architecture from Illinois Institute of Technology as a student of architect Mies van der Rohe and planner Ludwig Hilberseimer, Seidel worked as a farmhand, factory worker, Alaska salmon fisherman,...

 (2006), ‎about 'Educating world leaders'. This 'up-system' analysis was extended in ‎‎Leadership accountability in a globalizing world (2006), which critiques 'global ‎feuding' and Abrahamist 'retributive accountability', sees an IT-enhanced ‎evolutionary dislike of cheating as hastening accountability, and predicts a shift in ‎moral authority from West to East. It includes a Global Leadership Responsibility ‎Index based on a study for the UN University, ‎Leaders of integrity: ethics and a code for global leadership (2001).
"The weakness of those who abuse their power – the bullies and the cheats, ‎village or global – is that they usually fail to see that their power changes in ‎relation to the changing power and ethics of the population around them. And ‎in a fast changing global world this self-deception will increasingly bring ‎about their downfall."‎

In 2010 he contributed evidence to the Iraq Inquiry. The Researching Powerful People project develops new methodologies for researching power
Political power
Political power is a type of power held by a group in a society which allows administration of some or all of public resources, including labour, and wealth. There are many ways to obtain possession of such power. At the nation-state level political legitimacy for political power is held by the...

, elites and leadership
Leadership
Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Other in-depth definitions of leadership have also emerged.-Theories:...

.

De-linking war and violence

As part of the Society of Friends Preparing for Peace (PfP) initiative he, with ‎Korean scholar Yun-joo Lee, proposes that, whilst war intrinsically entails the use of ‎force, this need not be perceived in terms of violence. They quote Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu
Sun Wu , style name Changqing , better known as Sun Tzu or Sunzi , was an ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher who is traditionally believed, and who is most likely, to have authored The Art of War, an influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy...

 (500BC), from The art of war – "The supreme act of war is to win without fighting…Thus ‎those skilled in war subdue the enemy's army without battle.... They conquer by ‎strategy" - and argue that in the last half century, war in the East, for example in ‎Korea, has been less violent than the 'retributive accountability' wars in the West, notably in Iraq and Northern ‎Ireland. They also suggest that violent political and religious leaders should be viewed ‎as people with mental health problems, and any response planned on the basis of that ‎assumption.‎
"War is made in the minds of men, but in the mind of particular men – those who ‎are leaders. If the idea of war as political force is to change, the minds of those with ‎power must change." ‎

Rehabilitation - (H)abilitation‎

From field-work about humanitarian intervention
Humanitarian intervention
Humanitarian intervention "refers to a state using military force against another state when the chief publicly declared aim of that military action is ending human-rights violations being perpetrated by the state against which it is directed."...

 in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

 he, with Iranian ‎occupational therapist, Farzaneh Yazdani, argues that the term 'rehabilitation
Political rehabilitation
Political rehabilitation is the process by which a member of a political organization or government who has fallen into disgrace, is restored to public life. It is usually applied to leaders or other prominent individuals who regain their prominence after a period in which they have no influence or...

' is often ‎inappropriate. In the context of John Gray's view that western utopianism explains much international political violence, a ‎promise of 'rehabilitation' can represent 'pre-emptive deceit' to excuse and permit ‎creative destructionism. They prefer '(h)abilitation' – to make able.
"Without a concept of rehabilitation, 'intervention' can be an act of wanton ‎destruction…If the rehabilitationist myth is not questioned, our political ‎leaders might become like omnipotent surgeons who will risk any operation on ‎the basis that the rehabilitation therapists can clear up any resultant harm."‎

‎Understanding omnicide

Williams asks, why are human beings set on self-harm and even destruction? What is the "species mental disability" that causes this behviour, and what can be done about it? He sees a possibility that information and education about the acute terminal decline ‎of humanity, possible omnicide and extinction - caused by factors such as ‎environmental change, new technologies, and war - may create ' iatrogenic meaninglessness', which could itself become a threat to ‎human survival and wellbeing.‎
"The dilemma for education is that we are 'dammed if we do and dammed if ‎we ‎don't' teach about the scale and consequences of global self-harm. The ultimate purpose of education is not just to learn, it is to increase well-‎being through learning."‎

‎Children's rights‎

Engagement with the problems of street children
Street children
A street child is a child who lives on the streets of a city, deprived of family care and protection. Most children on the streets are between the ages of about 5 and 17 years old.Street children live in junk boxes, parks or on the street itself...

 and working children included work for the ‎European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....

 in Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...

, Greek and Turkish Ministries of Social welfare, and ‎US Department of Labour in Lebanon.
"Education for underprivileged children is decanted through projects and programmes, whilst everyone else goes to school. We do not call elitist fee-paying establishments 'NGO educational programmes proving residential care for advantaged children.'... To define those on the streets as separate and different poses convenient questions but with unsustainble answers; to recognise and react to them as being like others and part of a coherent educational picture, presents a crucial challenge."

‎Disability rights

His study of Crime and abuse against people with learning disabilities (1995) ‎‎ contributed to the Youth Justice and Criminal ‎Evidence Act 1999, witness support schemes and other policy changes which made ‎the justice system more responsive to the needs of disabled victims.
"Within the space of a few years we have torn down the Berlin Wall, Northern Ireland's 'peace lines', and the barriers of apartheid, greatly enhancing global security. Surely it is not so difficult to see and dismantle the barriers that stand between people with learning disabilities and the achievement of justice, enhancing the personal security of people who have been out of sight for too long."‎

‎Environmental justice

His edited book Environmental victims draws attention to the problem of ‎‎'environmental victim syndrome' and the legal status of the unborn victim. It argues ‎that existing law on poisoning and assault could provide precedents to redress harm caused by pollution, and for a reversal of the burden of proof in environmental cases. In April 2009, France accepted this reversal in relation to people who suffered health problems from nuclear testing in French Polynesia. He also proposed the concept of 'loss costs' when assessing environmental harm.
"Hit a child on the head with a hammer, causing intellectual impairment, and the event is seen as a question of justice, with medicine attempting to heal the damage. Drive a car with leaded petrol, causing intellectual impairment in countless children, and the outcome is seen only as a medical problem, redress being unlikely." ‎

‎Education and global justice‎

He frames 'education and global justice
Global justice
Global justice is an issue in political philosophy arising from the concern that the world at large is unjust.-Context:The broader philosophical context of the global justice debate, in both its contemporary and historical forms, is the issue of impartiality...

', in the context of elites who have, ‎throughout history, constructed their empires and power by 'importing the goods and ‎exporting the bads'. Williams provides a critique of the view that global justice must ‎rely on nation states and modern institutions. He argues that justice is intrinsically ‎global, because a sense of fairness and an antipathy towards cheating are part of our ‎evolutionary psyche. Through educational social networks, such as Islam, visions of ‎global justice have been promoted as a 'global public good
Global public good
A global public good is a good that has the three following properties :* It is non-rivalrous. Consumption of this good by anyone does not reduce the quantity available to other agents.* It is non-excludable...

' for many centuries.
"In the uncertain context of a planet in decline, ‎those who do best will not be those who predicate their survival on exporting ‎‎'bads' and importing 'goods'...the most important personal ‎resources will be intellectual not material. The survival of the fittest will be the ‎survival of the smartest and fairest, not of the fattest."‎

‎Books

  • Researching power, elites and leadership. London: Sage.
  • ‎Leadership accountability in a globalizing world. (2006) ISBN 978-1-4039-‎‎8696-2 ISBN 1-4039-8696-7
  • ‎Endstation gehirn: die bedrohung der menschlichen intelligenz durch die ‎vergiftung der unelt$3, Klett-Cotta: Stuttgart. (2003) ISBN 3-608-91015-8. German ‎translation of Terminus Brain ‎
  • ‎Leaders of integrity: ethics and a code for global leadership. (2001) UN ‎University Leadership Academy: ISBN 9957-424-01-7. ‎
  • ‎Environmental victims: new risks, new injustice, (1998) (Ed.) ISBN1 85383 534 ‎X. 1 85383 524 2. ‎
  • ‎Terminus Brain: the environmental threats to human intelligence. (1997) ISBN ‎‎0-304-33856-7, 0-304-33857-5‎
  • ‎Invisible victims: crime and abuse against people with learning disabilities. ‎‎(1995) ISBN 1-85302-309-4.

  • Enjoy playing the trumpet ISBN 0 19 35349/6 7/7‎
  • Enjoy playing the horn, ISBN 0 19 35349/6 5/8‎
  • Enjoy playing the trombone ISBN 0 19 35349/6 3, Oxford University Press, (1980–85) ‎

‎External links

  • Birmingham University ‎http://www.education.bham.ac.uk/staff/williams_chris.shtml
  • Scribd document store - http://www.scribd.com/chrisunula9210‎
  • PhD 'Street children and education', British library - http://searchbeta.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/display.do?ct=display&doc=BLL01007147205&indx=1&vl(46689851UI0)=any&srt=rank&vl(freeText0)=street%20children%20and%20education&dum=true&mode=Basic&vid=BLVU1&ct=search&vl(43583880UI1)=all_items&indx=1&frbg=&fn=search&tab=local_tab
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