thinking about the future of the built environment
Drivers of Change at TED
As a TEDGlobal sponsor we were invited to hold a workshop for forty TEDsters on the inaugural day of TEDGlobal 2009 at Keble College, Oxford. The interactive session was called “Drivers of Change” and was designed to help TEDsters collectively identify the most important trends and drivers shaping the world over the next 20 years. We were pleased to see how oversubscribed the event was. In the end some fifty participants took part from diverse backgrounds in academia and from the private and public sectors.
To help frame the discussion we used the Drivers of Change cards, a set of which was included in the much sought-after TEDGlobal gift bag. During the workshop we divided participants into the five STEEP categories. We asked each break-out group to eliminate a number of cards before moving on to another STEEP category. Individuals were asked to change STEEP group three times, after which point five drivers had been co-selected representing the most important issues and trends shaping the planet’s future. All participants were then asked to vote on the twenty-five drivers.
The results were fascinating. Of the drivers voted on, peak resources surfaced as a common theme. Specific drivers included resource depletion, plus water access (potable water, as well as access to water for sanitation and crops) and costing externalities. Poverty, hunger and issues particular to less economically developed countries were also seen to be critical over the next twenty year period.
Being TEDGlobal, it was no surprise that technology featured prominently in the most-voted-for list of drivers: ICT infrastructure and R&D received most votes, representing technological and other innovation we can expect in education, health, manufacturing, climate change mitigation and adaptation and elsewhere.
Global governance also received a high number of votes, reflecting perhaps the compelling case that Prime Minister Gordon Brown later made to reform the World’s governance mechanisms in finance, development and climate change. At the other end of the political scale was grass-roots empowerment, another popular vote-winner. An interesting cluster of votes also occurred around the subject of conflict, security and surveillance.
While they didn’t get as many votes, issues relating to food also featured. Food security, hunger, engineered seeds and community self-sufficiency were all included in the master list of twenty five drivers.
The results may at first seem random, but upon close inspection certain strands and threads emerge. Many of these issues are in fact highly inter-connected, especially those that fundamentally relate to resources such as food and water. These basic needs of ours have shaped our history, as illustrated so beautifully by Carolyn Steel in her fascinating talk on hungry cities. They drive so many facets of activity – trade, migration, health, education, security, conflict, governance – and may well continue to shape the coming decades as climate change, population growth and consumption patterns continue along their current trajectories.
All the results from the workshop can be viewed here.
To help frame the discussion we used the Drivers of Change cards, a set of which was included in the much sought-after TEDGlobal gift bag. During the workshop we divided participants into the five STEEP categories. We asked each break-out group to eliminate a number of cards before moving on to another STEEP category. Individuals were asked to change STEEP group three times, after which point five drivers had been co-selected representing the most important issues and trends shaping the planet’s future. All participants were then asked to vote on the twenty-five drivers.
The results were fascinating. Of the drivers voted on, peak resources surfaced as a common theme. Specific drivers included resource depletion, plus water access (potable water, as well as access to water for sanitation and crops) and costing externalities. Poverty, hunger and issues particular to less economically developed countries were also seen to be critical over the next twenty year period.
Being TEDGlobal, it was no surprise that technology featured prominently in the most-voted-for list of drivers: ICT infrastructure and R&D received most votes, representing technological and other innovation we can expect in education, health, manufacturing, climate change mitigation and adaptation and elsewhere.
Global governance also received a high number of votes, reflecting perhaps the compelling case that Prime Minister Gordon Brown later made to reform the World’s governance mechanisms in finance, development and climate change. At the other end of the political scale was grass-roots empowerment, another popular vote-winner. An interesting cluster of votes also occurred around the subject of conflict, security and surveillance.
While they didn’t get as many votes, issues relating to food also featured. Food security, hunger, engineered seeds and community self-sufficiency were all included in the master list of twenty five drivers.
The results may at first seem random, but upon close inspection certain strands and threads emerge. Many of these issues are in fact highly inter-connected, especially those that fundamentally relate to resources such as food and water. These basic needs of ours have shaped our history, as illustrated so beautifully by Carolyn Steel in her fascinating talk on hungry cities. They drive so many facets of activity – trade, migration, health, education, security, conflict, governance – and may well continue to shape the coming decades as climate change, population growth and consumption patterns continue along their current trajectories.
All the results from the workshop can be viewed here.
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