don't bother Afrikaas

As the economist Paul Krugman once said, “productivity is not everything, but in the long run, it is almost everything”. Productivity is among the most important sources of social and economic welfare, but innovation is also the most important source of productivity growth. The difficulty with the innovation processes is that they are evolutionary; we do not know exactly where they are going, and we cannot predict them.

To understand how innovation works, the Systems of Innovation approach has emerged – a perspective with strong roots in the Schumpeterian and Austrian schools of economics. Putting this approach into practice, however, has been difficult. One of the most recognised experts in this field, Dr. Charles Edquist from Lund University, has worked on a model that could provide guidance: the holistic view of the innovation policy. In this podcast, we ask Charles about how this approach to innovation can enable us to understand innovation better, what are the determinants of innovation processes and how they can strengthen innovation systems, especially as the basis for good policymaking.

Innovation Matters

Innovation Matters: Holistic Innovation Policy and the Governance of National Innovation Systems

Joining us from Lund University where she teaches at the Graduate School 2030, Jesica López is a Bogotana on a mission to investigate and share how we can work together to understand land transformation and halt deforestation in the Amazon.  The overarching aim of of Lopez' study is to improve our systems' approach understanding the mechanisms behind the land use transformation. More specifically, the cumulative effects of extensive cattle ranching into tropical forests in protected areas, in order to implement effective and integrative land use planning in the northwest of Amazon region of Colombia.  We discuss the power behind the cattle farming union, Chiribiquete and why it is so important, some of the good news being done on the ground and how we can start to make this all part of the normal conversation for conservation not only in Colombia but also in Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru as well.  Colombia News Brief by Emily Hart.

439: SOS Amazon

Dr. Maria Wall, Lund University in Sweden speaks about Theme 6 of the SWC 2017 and SHC 2017 theme "Solar Architecture and Building Integration". www.swc2017.org www.shc2017.org

SWC2017 / SHC2017 -Dr. Maria Wall - Solar Architecture and Building Integration

Beyond Crisis: Rethinking Refugee Studies 
RSC Conference 2017

16-17 March 2017 
Keble College, Oxford

The Refugee Studies Centre hosted this major international conference in March 2017, 35 years after the RSC was founded. Its purpose was to reflect on the role that Refugee Studies can play in the world. In the context of profound changes in the nature of forced displacement, the conference assessed what kinds of knowledge, evidence, and concepts are needed to understand and respond to contemporary challenges.

Conference programme available at: https://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/files/downloads/conference-programme-final_web-1.pdf 

Thursday, 16 March
Session II, O’Reilly Theatre: The Need for Solidarity and Responsibility Sharing in Global Refugee Protection

Presentations:
Madeline Garlick, UNHCR: From rhetoric to practice: operationalising solidarity for refugee protection after the NY Declaration [not included in the podcast]
Constantin Hruschka, University of Bielefeld: Solidarity as fairness: are there alternatives to the distribution model in the Dublin IV proposal?
Eleni Karageorgiou, Lund University: Solidarity as a value in refugee protection? Swinging from formal international law to capricious national politics
Violeta Moreno-Lax, Queen Mary Law School: Solidarity as a legal obligation and its role in international refugee law
Lilian Tsourdi, European University Institute: Solidarity at work? The prevalence of emergency-driven solidarity in the administrative governance of the Common European Asylum System
Discussant: Stephanie Motz, University of Luzern
Chair: Violeta Moreno-Lax, Queen Mary Law School

RSC Conference 2017 | Session II, O'Reilly Theatre: The need for solidarity & responsibility sharing

Coming together at the UKSEM conference in London, Professor Lars Engebretsen (Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center and IOC medical commission) talks to Dr Richard Frobell (Lund University, Malmo, Sweden) about his work on return to exercise after ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injury.

Dr Frobell describes the evidence already on this issue, and his recently published randomized trial on whether surgery or rehabilitation improves pain, symptoms, function in sports and recreation, and knee-related quality of life post-injury

See also:
A randomized trial of treatment for acute anterior cruciate ligament tears http://bit.ly/rrS51Y
The BJSM Warm up about this injury http://bit.ly/tBNdiu
Our 2010 interview with Richard Frobell and coauthors of the NEJM paper above http://bit.ly/99leZd

SWC2017 / SHC2017 -Dr. Maria Wall - Solar Architecture and Building Integration

International Solar Energy Society