Out of the networking orgy that is the World Economic Forum (WEF) has emerged the Davos Manifesto 2020: ‘The Universal Purpose of a Company in the Fourth Industrial Revolution’. Unfortunately,…
The 2020 Davos Manifesto: A Manifesto for the Past, Rather than the Future
Why does public research money often fail to support sustainable and just food systems?
The European Union and its Member States spend considerable amounts of their budget on supporting Research and Development (R&D) activities. In the summer of 2019, the EU Commission announced how…
Doing digital differently: four innovation lessons from the grassroots
by Adrian Smith, Adrian Ely and Phil Jones When Knowle West residents met with artists Paul Hurley and Caleb Parking in 2016, they had little idea they were at the…
Experimentation to action: how Bioleft is helping to grow an open source seed culture
by Almendra Cremaschi, Patrick van Zwanenberg & Anabel Marin The seed breeding initiative Bioleft has received funding to work with more varieties of seeds in Argentina, and to develop a…
When ignorance does more than you think
Unstudied conditions are avoided as vigilantly as possible—right now, when it matters—by control room operators of large critical infrastructures mandated to operate reliably and safely systemwide. Having failed to fail…
Uncertain futures and the politics of uncertainty
Since writing The Romantic Economist – Imagination in Economics (2009) I have been fascinated by the link between the human capacity to imagine new futures and the prevalence of uncertainty….
A new framework for thinking about technological change
Global development is all about creating change for the better. One thing is certain: if we want to address the climate breakdown while achieving a high quality of life for…
Measles, MMR and vaccines: where do vaccine anxieties come from?
Measles and vaccines are back in the news. The UK has lost its measles-free status, according to Public Health England. The Guardian reports that about 30,000 children are starting primary…
What is revolutionary about the Green Revolution?
The dramatic increase in yields of wheat and rice in the 1960s and 1970s in India, along with many other countries in the post-colonial world, was framed as a technological…
Unpacking the epic narratives of the Green Revolution
by Lidia Cabral, Poonam Pandey and Xiuli Xu Nearly 50 years since its apex, the Green Revolution – a chapter in history associated with rapid expansion in agricultural production driven…