Future Tense

A little known management theory called Just-In-Time was originally devised to make supply chains in the Japanese car industry more efficient. In the second decade of the 21st century it underpins all economic and organisational activity right across the globe

But a growing number of economists and business management experts believe the Just-In-Time philosophy has reduced the resilience of industry and influenced the casualisation of employment. And in a time of coronavirus, they argue, it now threatens our future economic and social wellbeing.

The global cement industry accounts for somewhere between five to eight per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. It’s vital for construction, but can it be made less harmful to the environment?

In this program we explore a series of material innovations and building techniques designed to make the construction industry part of the solution to global warming, not just one of its causes.

Australia’s decision to increase defence spending is hardly unique. Global military expenditure in 2019 reached a new high at US$1.9 trillion. Experts warn of an increased risk of military miscalculation.

Just as concerning, they say, has been the breakdown of traditional arms reduction and containment treaties. The biggest of them NewSTART is due for renewal early next year, but there are concerns a second term for President Trump could derail the agreement.

When it’s completed the futuristic city of Neom will sit in the Saudi Arabian desert, a US$500 billion dollar metropolis, thirty times larger than New York.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman believes the project will transform his kingdom into the innovation centre of the world, but critics say it risks further widening inequality and dividing the country in two.

Also, what’s to become of China’s “ghost cities”? Built for future expansion, they now haunt the urban landscape.

As Australia’s live music industry has been left decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic and unprecedented damage to venues from bushfires, we’re attending more online concerts, virtual gigs and streamed festivals than ever before.

Technology is evolving at a rapid pace, pushed along by the demand for content and even giving rise to the reality that not all live musicians have to be living.

But what does this mean for the future of live music? Can the digital and physical industries co-exist?

And what does the future hold for musicians, how they’ll be paid and immortalised in digital technology?