STEPS SYMPOSIUM: INNOVATION, SUSTAINABILITY, DEVELOPMENT

By Julia Day

We live in a time of transformations. The collapse of the Washington “consensus”, the financial crisis, the rise of China and other emerging economies and, of course, the threat of global climate change call for a rethinking of existing institutions, structures and paradigms. Photo: Lance Bellers

At the same time a renewed democratic spirit is mobilising sections of global civil society with hopes of radical reform. However, the agenda for the Copenhagen climate talks seems to fall short of this goal, and the G8 declaration from Abruzzo leaves many unanswered questions.

Especially unclear is the precise role of science, technology and different forms of innovation in tackling the multitude of challenges, and the ways in which they can be co-ordinated to respond to urgent needs at different levels of society.

In this time of change, the STEPS Centre focused its Annual Symposium on the emerging themes, challenges and opportunities that current reconfigurations present for innovation, sustainability and development. You can have a look at the programme here and the participants list.

We drew together academics, policy-makers, civil society and private sector representatives together to discuss positive reforms at international, national and local levels that will link innovation to the goals of poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability.

The Symposium forms part of the STEPS Centre project, Innovation, Sustainability, Development: A New Manifesto

We thought we would take advantage of having so many interesting people in the same place at the same time and colelct a variety of materials on the day. So we recorded video vox pop throughout the day, and have posted the presentations on our Slideshare site, and photos on our Flikr page.

 

We also had some bloggers at the event – Julian Pineres Ramirez, Sara Wolcott and Oliver Johnson – thier posts will appear here on The Crossing.