Group items tagged

"Economics in universities is narrow, uncritical and detached from the real world. It is dogmatically taught from one perspective as if it is the only legitimate way to study the economy. There is no room for the critical discussion and debate that is essential for any student to engage with real world economic problems. Seminars are focused on memorising and regurgitating academic theory, whilst exams test how well students can solve abstract equations.

"Lines in the Mind, Not in the World "

During the last three decades, a new conception of life has emerged at the forefront of science. It is a unified view that integrates life's biological, cognitive, social and ecological dimensions. At the very core of this new understanding of life we find a profound change of metaphors: from seeing the world as a machine to understanding it as a network. This new science of life is now being developed by outstanding researchers and their teams around the world. I have integrated their concepts and ideas into a single coherent framework - a unique synthesis, which I will teach for the first time in this online course.

"The World Climate Simulation, from Climate Interactive, the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative, and U-Mass Lowell's Climate Change Initiative, is an in-person role-playing exercise of the UN climate change negotiations. Through the simulation, participants get to explore the necessary speed and level of action that nations must take to address global climate change. At the heart of the experience is the use of our interactive computer model C-ROADS, which is used to rapidly analyze the results of the game play. All the materials and tools for the game are available for free in multiple languages. "

Feeding The World--With Math http://ift.tt/2aQVpxH

Reinvent gathers top innovators in important conversations about how to fundamentally reinvent our world. We connect up a mix of smart, knowledgeable, innovative people from a wide range of fields to work on solving the big challenges of our time.

Post Carbon Institute provides individuals, communities, businesses, and governments with the resources needed to understand and respond to the interrelated economic, energy, environmental, and equity crises that define the 21st century. We envision a world of resilient communities and re-localized economies that thrive within ecological bounds.

"Social design is the future. Explore a simple start to what social design means and how you can engage in it. We're trying to build a platform for young people to engage in social design and help them design the world they are about to inherit - check out the platform here www.socialdesigncares.com. Learn. Engage. Empower. Collaborate."

Aspiration's mission is to connect nonprofit organizations, foundations and activists with software solutions and technology skills that help them better carry out their missions. We want those working for social justice to be able to find and use the best software available, so that they maximize their effectiveness and impact and, in turn, change the world.

WHO is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends.

Land: A New Paradigm for a Thriving World is a book about a scientific economic solution rooted in a recognition of humanity's interconnectedness; it offers a template that, if applied, could solve many of today's social and economic issues at a root level.

The Presencing Institute (PI) is an awareness-based action research community for profound societal innovation and change. The presencing process is a journey that connects us more deeply both to what wants to emerge in the world and to our emerging, higher self.

Since our founding as a multi-partisan and non-profit organization in 2005, The Davenport Institute (formerly Common Sense California) has worked to engage the citizens of this state in the policy decisions that affect our everyday lives. It is our firm belief that, in today's world of easy access to information, and easy connectivity to others, California's municipal and education leaders are seeking ways to involve the residents of their communities in the important issues they confront. Done legitimately, this new kind of leadership produces better, more creative policy solutions and better, more engaged citizens committed to the hard work of self-governance.

"Participatory Budgeting is perhaps the greatest innovation in municipal governance in the United States in the last five years, and it has grown rapidly. Originating in Porto Alegre, Brazil-where 20 percent of the municipal budget is now allocated this way-PB has spread quickly throughout Brazil and Latin America over the past two decades. It's currently in place in roughly fifteen hundred municipalities throughout the world, but U.S. municipalities have been late adopters." This is one of the best community empowerment tools out there. Trouble is most communities aren't empowered enough to implement it.

Whether we are struggling to generate fresh ideas or staring at problems with no solutions in sight, the spark of creative genius often seems out of reach. In this audio lecture from Stanford Social Innovation Review's Nonprofit Management Institute, Stanford Professor Tina Seelig discusses how we can unlock our creative genius through a set of tools and conditions we each have in our control-our "innovation engine." Based on real-world examples and a dozen years of experience teaching courses on creativity and entrepreneurship in the Stanford School of Engineering, Seelig challenges traditional assumptions about creativity to show us how we can seek out the right resources and environment to fuel our innovation engines. She contends that just as the scientific method demystifies the process of discovery, there is a formal process for unlocking the pathway to innovation.

The mission of SA2020 is to catalyze the entire San Antonio community into passionate, focused, and sustained action to achieve the shared goals that will transform San Antonio into a world-class city by the year 2020 in eleven key vision areas. SA2020 acts as a steward, connecting San Antonio citizens to opportunities that contribute to their aspirations for their city.

Technology of Participation is an integrated set of facilitation methods, tools and approaches that foster authentic participation and meaningful collaboration. From rural villages to global corporations, people want to participate in making choices that affect their lives. We want our efforts to make a difference in the world. Changing expectations are morphing the hierarchical triangle into a circle. Leaders of the future will foster authentic participation.

California will soon launch its cap-and-trade program, which uses a market-based mechanism to lower greenhouse gas emissions. California's program will be second in size only to the European Union's Emissions Trading System based on the amount of emissions covered. In addition to driving emission cuts in the ninth largest economy in the world, California's program will provide critical experience in how an economy-wide cap-and-trade system can function in the United States.

There is growing evidence showing that place impacts people's health on multiple scales. From obesity and chronic disease to depression, social isolation, and increased exposure to environmental toxins and pollutants, the world faces very different health challenges today than it has in the past, and many of these challenges are directly related to how our public spaces are designed and operated.

Volans works to catalyze breakthrough change and to redefine the market rules for business. As a certified B Corporation, we aim to be the change we want to see in the world.