Acting Wild

A look at the surprising similarities between humans and other animals' behavior

THE STORY: In the first section of the play, a Woman enters and embarks on an increasingly frenetic (and funny) recital of the perils and frustrations of daily life in urban America--waiting in line, rude taxi drivers, inane talk shows and the selfi

From a young age, I could lie like a chop in gravy. I loved the thrill of crafting a story. It wasn't until my twenties that I made the connection that lying is a lot like acting . . . For almost 30 years, Lynne McGranger has been entertaining, enthralling and bringing smiles to TV viewers all around the world. A veteran of Home and Away, a popular soap opera syndicated to over 80 countries, Lynne was recently acknowledged as a 'TV actor legend' when she became the longest-serving female cast member of any Australian TV show. Her beloved character, Irene Roberts, has been a font of wisdom, good humour and unforgettable lines for decades. But Lynne's story goes far beyond Summer Bay. From tales of a childhood full of fad diets in the 1950s (tuna, milk and oranges, anyone?), to embarking on a teaching career (before realising that kids en masse made her nervous), to landing a 'guest role' on Home and Away that's lasted 28 years, Away and At Home will have readers laughing out loud and nodding in recognition. From a self-confessed 'accident looking for a place to happen' comes a frank, heart-warming and hilarious memoir, guaranteed to enthral readers everywhere.

A call for a new form of democracy in which “hybrid forums” composed of experts and laypeople address such sociotechnical controversies as hazardous waste, genetically modified organisms, and nanotechnology. Controversies over such issues as nuclear waste, genetically modified organisms, asbestos, tobacco, gene therapy, avian flu, and cell phone towers arise almost daily as rapid scientific and technological advances create uncertainty and bring about unforeseen concerns. The authors of Acting in an Uncertain World argue that political institutions must be expanded and improved to manage these controversies, to transform them into productive conversations, and to bring about “technical democracy.” They show how “hybrid forums”—in which experts, non-experts, ordinary citizens, and politicians come together—reveal the limits of traditional delegative democracies, in which decisions are made by quasi-professional politicians and techno-scientific information is the domain of specialists in laboratories. The division between professionals and laypeople, the authors claim, is simply outmoded. The authors argue that laboratory research should be complemented by everyday experimentation pursued in the real world, and they describe various modes of cooperation between the two. They explore a range of concrete examples of hybrid forums that have dealt with sociotechnical controversies including nuclear waste disposal in France, industrial waste and birth defects in Japan, a childhood leukemia cluster in Woburn, Massachusetts, and mad cow disease in the United Kingdom. The authors discuss the implications for political decision making in general and describe a “dialogic” democracy that enriches traditional representative democracy. To invent new procedures for consultation and representation, they suggest, is to contribute to an endless process that is necessary for the ongoing democratization of democracy.