Cross-disciplinary lessons for the future internet

There are many societal concerns that emerge as a consequence of Future Internet (FI) research and development. A survey identified six key social and economic issues deemed most relevant to European FI projects. During a SESERV-organized workshop, experts in Future Internet technology engaged with social scientists (including economists), policy experts and other stakeholders in analyzing the socio-economic barriers and challenges that affect the Future Internet, and conversely, how the Future Internet will affect society, government, and business. The workshop aimed to bridge the gap between those who study and those who build the Internet. This chapter describes the socio-economic barriers seen by the community itself related to the Future Internet and suggests their resolution, as well as investigating how relevant the EU Digital Agenda is to Future Internet technologists

Rebuilding Corporate Leadership: How Directors Can Link Long-Term Performance with Public Goals

This report examines how efforts to build public trust and long-term value have coalesced to encourage many large, global corporations to pay greater attention to their longer-term interests by striking a balance between short-term commercial pursuits and such societal concerns as the environment, labor standards, and human rights. Many companies have also found ways to turn such concerns as the effects of climate change and other environmental damage into profitable commercial opportunities. This report also explores how all corporate boards could take a more active part in considering such issues and improving the reporting of financial and non-financial measures of corporate performance broadly conceived. In our view, directors could do more with their current authority to motivate managements to greater innovation, and to support managements in finding long-term value solutions to the numerous economic and societal pressures they face

The Global Risks Report 2016, 11th Edition

Now in its 11th edition, The Global Risks Report 2016 draws attention to ways that global risks could evolve and interact in the next decade. The year 2016 marks a forceful departure from past findings, as the risks about which the Report has been warning over the past decade are starting to manifest themselves in new, sometimes unexpected ways and harm people, institutions and economies. Warming climate is likely to raise this year's temperature to 1° Celsius above the pre-industrial era, 60 million people, equivalent to the world's 24th largest country and largest number in recent history, are forcibly displaced, and crimes in cyberspace cost the global economy an estimated US$445 billion, higher than many economies' national incomes. In this context, the Reportcalls for action to build resilience – the "resilience imperative" – and identifies practical examples of how it could be done.The Report also steps back and explores how emerging global risks and major trends, such as climate change, the rise of cyber dependence and income and wealth disparity are impacting already-strained societies by highlighting three clusters of risks as Risks in Focus. As resilience building is helped by the ability to analyse global risks from the perspective of specific stakeholders, the Report also analyses the significance of global risks to the business community at a regional and country-level

Social Learning and Networking : How multiple actors can learn through joint analysis, dialogue and co-creation

We are facing complex societal problems such as climate change, human conflict, poverty and inequality, and need innovative solutions. Multi-stakeholder processes (MSPs) are more and more seen as a critical way of coming to such innovative solutions. It is thought that when multiple stakeholders are able to meet, share experiences, learn together and contribute to decisions, new and innovative ways of dealing with problems are found and turned into action. Still, much remains to be understood about the role and effectiveness of social learning in multi-stakeholder settings. This report summarizes the deliberations of the seminar “Social learning and networking: How multiple actors can learn through joint analysis, dialogue and co-creation”, which was held in Wageningen on 16 September 2010

Global Risks 2014, Ninth Edition.

The Global Risks 2014 report highlights how global risks are not only interconnected but also have systemic impacts. To manage global risks effectively and build resilience to their impacts, better efforts are needed to understand, measure and foresee the evolution of interdependencies between risks, supplementing traditional risk-management tools with new concepts designed for uncertain environments. If global risks are not effectively addressed, their social, economic and political fallouts could be far-reaching, as exemplified by the continuing impacts of the financial crisis of 2007-2008

Gender equity in disaster early warning systems

Capacities of societies, communities and individuals or a social-ecological system to deal with adverse consequences and the impacts of hazard events define the resilience. New and innovative Emergency Communications, Warning Systems (ECWS) technologies and solutions improve resilience of the nations. Research shows that different types of systems (e.g. decision support, resource management, early warning, communications, and inter-agency) are highly valued in emergency and disaster events reducing live losses. As many individuals have online access today and young women have increased their online communication and young men tend to explore technology resources, the potential of using user friendly third revolution digital technology such as semantic features and devices (e.g. SMART phones) have the potential to improve the access to early warning/risk in-formation supporting community decision making saving lives. These personal and social relations that reflect gender dimensions can certainly be examined improving resilience making communities more prepared for disasters with proactive decision making for early warning. Fostering awareness about gender equity which is the recognition of women and men as active participants in development can tailor made within the context of resilience and more specifically within early warning systems saving lives of the people at immediate risk including the dependence of mother’s care (children and older people). In this context, this paper attempts to synthesis literature on the topic of gender equity within disaster early warning systems