Social and scientific-technical knowledge at the service of Sustainable Human Development

Workshops

When

2016/06/15

Place

DIPC, Donostia-San Sebastián

Organizers

Aguirre Lehendakaria Center, Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa and DIPC

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Special seminar organized by Agirre Lehendakaria Center for Social and Political Studies (ALC) in partnership with the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa and the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), that will take place next June 15, Wednesday, from 10:00 to 12:00 at the DIPC seminar room (*confirmation is required).

This seminar will bring together international academics and relevant public figures such as Juan Jose Ibarretxe (Director, Agirre Lehendakaria Center for Social and Political Studies, University of the Basque Country; former President of the Basque Country), Pedro Miguel Etxenike (President, Donostia International Physics Center), Peter Coleman (Executive Director, AC4 - Columbia University in New York), Joshua Fisher (AC4 Director, AC4 - Columbia University in New York), Armando Geller (Scensei) and Andrea Bartoli (Dean, School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University). General Deputy of Gipuzkoa Markel Olano will take care of the introduction.

During the last three years ALC has been developing several research projects based on the Basque experience around Sustainable Human Development from a multidisciplinary approach that included society, economy, environment and Human Rights.

The outcome of this research work that will be discussed at the seminar indicates that the key to understand what the Basque Country has achieved so far – as well as to construct its own future - lies in the influence that cultural aspects had on the main strategic decisions taken, both in public and private spheres. During the seminar the potential of this "K" to guide our future will be discussed, with a unique, own project that will let us find our own place at the global society.

"With good fortune, we can educate a large proportion of our better minds so that they are not ignorant of imaginative experience, both in the arts and in science, nor ignorant either of the endowments of applied science, of the remediable suffering of most of their fellow humans, and of the responsibilities which, once they are seen, cannot be denied."
C. P. Snow

However, the challenge of fostering Sustainable Human Development in the Basque Country cannot be approached exclusively from Social Sciences. Scientific and technical knowledge should also be involved in this debate, by putting its own means at the service of Human Development.

For all these reasons, this seminar aims to be a meeting point between different types of science, a space for the discussion of Sustainable Human Development and how both could contribute together to this issue.

The seminar will also humbly acknowledge the work of Charles Percy Snow, an English physical chemist and novelist ahead of his time that claimed a "more affectionate relationship" between all types of science and scientist, at the service of humanity (The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution conference, Senate House, University of Cambridge, 1959):

In other and more recent words:

"The practice of scientific research and the use of knowledge from that research should always aim at the welfare of humankind, including the reduction of poverty, be respectful of the dignity and rights of human beings, and of the global environment, and take fully into account our responsibility towards present and future generations. There should be a new commitment to these important principles by all parties concerned". (UNESCO, 1999)

Seminar agenda
1- Pedro Miguel Etxenike. President of DIPC. "The two cultures"
2- Markel Olano. General Deputy of Gipuzkoa
3- Lehendakari Ibarretxe. "The K is the Key"
4- Joshua Fisher. "SHD: Empirical modeling work"
5- Peter Coleman. "SHD. Sustainable peace"
6- Armando Geller. Basque Peace Process Scenarios. "A citizen science research project"
7- Coffee break
8- Main discussion

Agirre Lehendakaria Center
Agirre Lehendakaria Center (ALC) is a UPV-EHU, Columbia University (The Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict and Complexity - AC4), Seton Hall University and George Mason University (School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution - SCAR) collaborative project. We undertake research, innovation and the dissemination of knowledge in order to promote and share the strategic decisions and projects that have enabled Basque society to be internationally recognized as a model of socio-economic transformation, but also as driving force of Sustainable Human Development. Our main goal is to study, whilst also presenting to the world, the strategic decisions that have made this transformation process possible and to share them with other countries and regions that wish to tackle similar challenges in an innovative way.

*Seminar is open to all research community but, confirmation is required. To confirm your attendance: write an email to info@agirrecenter.eus or call 94 601 79 86