Lectures 2014
YSSP Lecture Series
YSSP cross-cutting workshop: Water–Energy Nexus Slides
YSSP cross-cutting workshop: Population–MAG Slides
Manuscript Preparation Workshop Slides
Invited Speakers
A New Technological Revolution Needed: A Five-fold Increase in Resource Productivity
Prof. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Dean of the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California
If 7 billion people had ecological footprints like the US American or the richest strata of the world, we would need five planets Earth, but we have got only one. Now we have to choose: either reduce population fivefold (macabre!) or force the rich to become poor (unrealistic, and also brutal) or increase resource productivity five-fold. The good news is that this is technically feasible. But it requires elevating prices for resources so as to make it profitable. Also that is politically feasible!
Researching Real Life: Reflections on 30 years of Action Research
Prof. Peter Checkland, Emeritus Professor of Systems, Lancaster University
This lecture will describe the 30 year programme of action research at Lancaster University, UK which led to development of the approach to dealing with the kind of ‘wicked’ problems which all managers face: Soft Systems Methodology. This is the work which established the distinction between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ systems thinking.