On 16 March, I had a one-hour dialogue with Prof. Vandana Shiva from India – organised by Dr. Alfred Strigl (Vienna) and Alexandra Wandel (Director of the World Future Council). The conversation took place at the 7th Pioneers of Change Online Summit, and was themed “Future Visions & System Change – WHERE TO?”. A recording […] more…
Joe Fensterle, Professor at the HSRW in Kleve, talks to Prof. Dr. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker about climate change and sustainability, the Wuppertal Institute, science communication, tradable CO2 budgets, and how important initiatives like FridaysForFuture are. more…
The Swiss Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute came up with a new ranking of global thought leaders using infosphere parameters. An initial selection of over 200 thinkers from all disciplines and from throughout the world were measured in terms of their influence, centrality and networking in two different environments: the blogosphere and the Wikisphere. The influence was […] more…
There is one unchallenged parameter for quality rankings of universities: publications in peer-reviewed journals. The same holds for quality measurements of candidates applying for professors’ chairs at ambitious research universities. Peer-reviewed publications typically have a rather narrow disciplinary scope. more…
In my role as Chairman of the parliamentary Select Committee on Economic Globalisation I learned with a degree of surprise that the term globalisation was brand new. It began to play a role in public life not earlier than in 1993. The strongest reason for the sudden appearance of the term globalisation has been the end around 1990 of the Cold War. more…
Over 200 years ago, when Adam Smith set about forming his moral ideas of the free market, he made it clear that the wealth of nations requires a strong state, not a weak one! At least three conditions need to be granted by the state: External peace, a reliable legal frame, and a healthy infrastructure that benefits all competitors but would not be paid for by any individual actor. more…
Globalisation is a new phenomenon. The very term “globalisation” appeared in the languages of the world around 1993. The strongest reason for the sudden appearance of the term globalisation has been the end of the Cold War. We all, I am sure, were glad about many things that happened in this context. more…
When I began preparing this address on the Old and New Europe in their transatlantic relations, I saw with a degree of relief that hundreds of wise men and women had already written or spoken about the subject in recent months. So my task looked like a pretty easy one, just to summarise what wiser people than myself have said. more…