Transforming the Industrial State: The Ultimate Complex System Challenge
MIT SDM Systems Thinking Webinar Series
Nicholas A. Ashford, PhD, JD
Professor of Technology and Policy, MIT
Director, MIT Technology and Law Program
Date: October 17, 2011
Time: Noon - 1 pm
Open to all
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About the Presentation
The most crucial problem in achieving a more sustainable industrial system is lock-in or path dependency due to (1) the failure to envision, design, and implement policies that achieve co-optimization, or the mutually reinforcing of social goals (economic welfare, environmental quality, and earning capacity), and (2) entrenched economic and political interests that game (and gain from) the present system and advancement of its current trends. It is argued that industrial policy, environmental law and policy, and trade initiatives must be 'opened up' by expanding the practice of multi-purpose policy design and that these policies must be integrated as well. Integration can result in stronger, but not necessarily bigger, government. Sustainable development requires stimulating revolutionary technological and institutional innovation through environmental, health, safety, economic, labor-market, and trade regulation. Greater support for these changes must also be reinforce! d by 'opening up the participatory and political space' to enable new voices to contribute to integrated systems thinking and solutions. Societal innovations and transformation are also needed, but they are insufficient by themselves to transcend technical, economic, financial, and political lock-in. Law is key to accomplishing both. Insights from a new book: Technology, Globalization, and Sustainable Development: Transforming the Industrial State (2011, Yale University Press) will inform the presentation.
About the Series
The MIT System Design and Management Program Systems Thinking Webinar Series features research conducted by SDM faculty, alumni, students, and industry partners. The series is designed to disseminate information on how to employ systems thinking to address engineering, management, and socio-political components of complex challenges.