Tag Archives: sustainability

The unsustainable innovation

There’s a lot of talk about innovation lately. A lot of people seem to regard it as some kind of religion: innovate, for innovation can save us. David Lane and Sander van der Leeuw, on the other hand, suspect that the innovation race of our present society might not be sustainable. They would like to discuss this intuition with the technological and social innovators: so they are giving a talk on Monday, September 27th at 11 a.m. at The Hub Milano, via Paolo Sarpi 8, and they are very curious to meet the Milanese technical and social innovators, and get their opinion on the matter.

David Lane looks at innovation as an economist. He is a member of the Science Board of the Santa Fe Institute for the study of complex adaptive systems, which means his approach is very>/em> cross-disciplinary. He now teaches at the university of Modena and Reggio Emilia. Sander van der Leeuw looks at it as an archaelogist – which means his temporal perspective encompasses the last couple of million years, not so usual for innovation experts. He is now the Dean of the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University.

Do yourself a favour and show up. I heard David lecturing many times, and every time I’come out reeling for the intellectual overstimulation, but energized. I have not met Sander, but the video above is breathtaking. I’ll be there.