Rewiring progress - A Next Era seminar

June 7, 2017 at 8:00 am - 10:00 am
Demos Helsinki office, Mechelininkatu 3d, Helsinki, Finland
#nextera, #wcef2017

Click here to watch the seminar recording.

The seminar is currently expecting a maximum amount of registered participants as set by the venue capacity. Registration remains open for waiting list.

You are warmly invited to initiate discussion with us on how to rewire the idea of progress in the post-industrial era.

All developed societies are undergoing major transformation. In the coming decades, a hyper-connected and technologically advanced world is likely to create unprecedented amounts of wealth. However, we risk displacing large groups of people and jeopardising our planet’s capacity to sustain life. The fundamental promise that the economy will grow and make the lives of people better is wavering.

Key questions to be addressed in the seminar include:

How do we perceive societal progress beyond the current transformation?
What is progress if it is no longer merely defined by improvement in our material conditions
What if we increasingly think of progress as growing capabilities and improving the justness of this hyper-connected world?

Programme

8.00 Coffee

8.30 A new pluralistic view of progress, Aleksi Neuvonen, Co-founder, Demos Helsinki

8.55 Comment, Scott Vaughan, President and CEO, International Institute for Sustainable Development

9.15 Panel discussion:

Simo Grönroos, Executive Director, Suomen Perusta -ajatuspaja
Sini Ruohonen, Executive Director, Ajatuspaja Toivo
Riikka Suominen, the editor of Vihreä Lanka

9.45 Comment and wrap-up, Eeva Luhtakallio, Associate Professor, University of Tampere

The seminar will also launch the Rewiring progress memorandum for drafting a new pluralistic view of progress.

The Rewiring progress memorandum is part of The Next Era initiative by The Finnish Innovation Sitra and the Nordic think tank Demos Helsinki. The culmination of The Next Era project at the end of 2017 will be the presentation of a new progressive societal vision that seeks to reconcile human well-being with the ecological boundaries of the planet.