Territorial Intelligence for Multi-level Equity and Sustainability  (TIME) Session 1

Abstract: The talk is presenting the CS-DC TIMES flagship. This flagship aims at creating a global ecosystem to give the same equality of chance for any territory to become a ??smart?? territory by using a global market for open responsible innovations linked to the global scientific and technological revolution. This global ecosystem is using the 2nd internet revolution and is devoted to all of these ? scientists of any discipline or experts from territorial governments, NGOs, firms, start-ups as well as ordinary citizens ? wanting to jointly increase social wellbeing, improve the relationship with Nature and to change the relations between science, engineering, politics and ethics. Close

Abstract: The paper will present a personal vision of the difficult years our world is facing, and of the role that the TIMES project can play in it. Our world system, under the pressure of globalization, is hitting a ceiling in which local, regional, bottom-up economic and identity issues are raising populist tendencies exploited by politicians, which is a highly combustible mixture. We need urgently to reduce tensions and arrive at a more balanced approach to the future of our planetary system. Education is a crucial element in that process, and that is where TIMES comes in. Close

Abstract: There are many attempts at deducing smart urban policies from the global models, which aim at managing an ecological transition in human habitat and activities. Here I would like to recall two major insights, which are brought from urban science and could help to improve the efficiency of such decisions. One is about taking care of the tensions created by persistent or growing inter-urban inequalities or divergences in the distribution of wealth and population at world scale, the other is about enhancing the local geo-diversity (in size, morphology and cultural hybridization of technologies) which is an essential driving force in the complex dynamics of cities within systems of cities. Empirical evidence and simulation models will be presented whose developments could be shared within the TIMES flagship proposal. Close

Abstract: It is often assumed in debates about global systemic risks - like those of climate change, financial instability, disruptive inequality and more - that they have ultimately to be resolved through some kind of agreement among the governments of the world. This perspective gives priority to the territorial structure of nation state and leads to the difficult question of whether the world economy can and should be controlled by political means. The global economy, however, is not based on territorial, but on functional structures. They include global markets as well as multinational corporations and border-crossing supply chains. Particularly important are regional innovation systems linked over large distances, like Northern California, South Korea, Taiwan and others. The linkages between such innovation systems would be impossible without the professional networks that are characteristic of what has been called the knowledge society. How to harness the potential of such networks might become a key question for the TIMES project. Close