Marie Jahoda Lecture, 2011
Leave a CommentThis annual keynote lecture is usually in my diary. This year the speaker was Professor Luc Soete of the United Nations University- Maastricht. In a previous life, Professor Soete had worked extensively with colleagues at SPRU, University of Sussex (with which my research group shares a building).
Professor Luc Soete
It was an extremely interesting lecture; indeed, I was not expecting it to be so. Professor Soete is an economist. His thesis was unexpected. Essentially he turned on its head Schumpeter’s notion of Creative Destruction whereby economies and humanity move forward, sometimes by the destruction of the old – whether it be products or modes of production. Professor Soete posited the idea that perhaps not all innovation was good (a bizarrely accepted phenomenon). So what we were presented with, alternatively, was Destructive Creation. Professor Soete focussed on the financial crisis, but equally, this destruction is taking place in the public sector with any number of services being destroyed by cherry picking private sector companies being invited in to leave the state with rump services all in the name of innovation, entrepreneurialism and economic development.
In terms of policy responses, Professor Soete offered a number of familiar initiatives; notably rearming the regulators so that they can tackle the abuses by private sector utilities in particular. These are old hat. States are not particularly interested in rearming regulators in our interests. We’ve all seen how regulators are routinely disarmed by policy makers (all readers of this blog should see Inside Job by Charles H. Ferguson). There was no suggestion that perhaps the system was broke and needs replacing (not fixing).
Professor Soete had one interesting policy suggestion. Because children are going to bear the brunt of this Destructive Creation, perhaps they should have proxy votes in elections. What form these proxy votes should take was not clear. But I think it is a good idea providing the proxy is not the very same people who have brought us to this nadir.
Latest publication
It is almost four years since my last journal publication. There have been and are many in the pipeline, but the printed version has
been elusive. So, finally, my name is back in print. Writing with colleagues, the first instalment of An Innovation Perspective on Design has just been published in Design Issues (Volume 27, Issue 4 – Autumn 2011). The second instalment is due before the end of the year.
Even better is the fact that we share an edition with Per Galle, a fabulous design theorist (as well as architect and computer scientist amongst other things). Reputation by association suits me.
Düsseldorf
Munich is always expensive at this time of the year. It is – or was – Oktoberfest. The British seem to love it. Consequently, air fares to Munich are prohibitively expensive.
We searched this year for an alternative German city. easyJet offers Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf and Dortmund. We chose Düsseldorf because the air fares were very cheap – as were some of the hotels. Indeed, we stayed at one of the Lindner conference hotels in the Niederkassel district of the city. There are a few branded hotels parked in the middle of a technology park; though well connected by tram. Good value at the weekend.
The city is not the most attractive, but the beer is good. The local speciality is Uerige served in small glasses.
Fortunately. It is rather strong and drinkable. Be careful. The system by which it is served is, apparently, the following: when standing at the bar and seeming being ignored, point one’s finger at the bar and hey presto, Herr Ober appears and sells.
The Rhine is always fascinating as a working river. The barges negotiating its bends and the idiot skijeters negotiating the waves they generate provide some entertainment. The weather was sublime this weekend, so spending plenty of time by the river was a must.
Breakfast we recommend Bastions (Bastionstraβe). A big basket of different breads with butter, Marmelade and Honig is a must. The coffee is okay.
Towards the south side of the Rhine is the Medienhafen. It is home to the region’s media and still under development. Frank Gehry came a few years ago to build three of his signature blocks (pictures to come when I get them processed).
The airport, also, is interesting. It is pretty modern and clearly aspirant. One is transported from the terminal to the railway station on the Skytrain. This is clearly modelled on the famous Wuppertal transit system. The carriages are suspended from a track – for want of a better word. There is no driver. An interesting experience. The picture is taken from inside the Skytrain looking at the track.
New Vivaro
The beloved white Escort van had to leave the road. I have replaced it with a beautiful 5 year old Vauxhall Vivaro. Here it is. Travel just got easier and fun.
The Autumn has arrived
So, now we know why the British Government was so keen to intervene in Libya. Fools like myself believed for once that the reasons were truly humanitarian; i.e. to avert a massacre in Benghazi. But no. The British had used Gaddafi’s facilities for rendition – a consequence of that warming of relations between our nations (see http://tinyurl.com/3b8cakb). On seeing the tide flowing against Gaddafi and towards the ‘rebels’, how might we (the British) make friends quickly? Let us help the ‘rebels’ led by Gaddafi’s former Justice Minister, Mustafa Abdul Jalil. They will control the country and we continue to have a strategic interest in the region, not least the oil. So much for a people’s revolution.
Certainly a massacre in Benghazi was averted. But how many people died in the subsequent fighting in and around Tripoli?
Austra
The Kranhalle, Munich, last night hosted Austra – synth with a voice to complement. Kate Stelmanis heads up the band – playing as a sextet – that simply fill the space and more. The show revolves around their album, ‘Feel it Break’. Songs such as ‘Lose It’ and ‘Beat and the Pulse’ are anthemic in their presentation. It is fair to say that it is difficult to distinguish some of the songs, but these are early days for the band, and frankly they would have been 
mesmerising even if they had sung only one song all night. Kate Stelmanis’ voice is extraordinary. Originally trained as an opera singer, the voice booms, coming to rest only when it hits one’s pelvis. The two backing vocalists are, to some extent, superfluous; but maybe it is easy to say that because they were there. Also on stage, curiously for a synth band, a drummer (Maya Postepski) and a bassist (Dorian Wolf). The keyboard player (and for a short while, saxophonist) dresses exclusively in shorts and vests, from what I can see. That notwithstanding, he looks a shade like Ron Mael.
Endnote Software
I’ve been a user of Endnote bibliographic software for 12 years now. It has always been a bit clunky. Recently I decided to use Endnoteweb instead of having the program on my laptop (mainly because of the complications with licences). But then I got a little annoyed and decided to buy a copy for myself – downloaded from Adept Scientific’s website.
The first mistake was downloading X5 when using Office 2007 (it is not optimised for 2007). I upgraded to Office 2010 after considerable effort to get the Endnote tab on Word 2007. Still the tab did not appear and still I tried the range of fixes offered by Adept on their website and also in personal communication. Finally the penny dropped when I found some of the training videos on Youtube (I recommend them). The Endnoteweb program needs to be uninstalled and then the X5 tab appears as if by magic.
The journey is not then complete, unfortunately; one still has to activate the Endnoteweb program – for reasons which are bizarre. Again, another video guided me through the steps (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BFSFgaD_Ic). Low and behold, it works!
The attack on Hama
1 August 2011
President Bashar al-Assad sent in the tanks to Hama, a non-conforming town to the north of Damascus. Hama had been attacked by his father in 1982 with 10 thousand deaths when the City was literally razed to the ground. The reports coming out of the city today, such that they are, talk of indiscriminate arms firing, tanks and explosions. The story is familiar; however, this time, UK and Nato forces are not there in support of the citizens.
Listening to William Hague, the UK foreign Secretary this morning on Radio 4 was pointless as he dishonestly explained the West’s absence. It is different, of course, but not because the Arab League has not asked for assistance.
This has got to stop
Catherine Pepinster, again, has used her 3 minutes on national radio to defend her religion’s approach to child abuse, in the context the Irish Government’s call for priests to pass details of child abusers in confession on to the police. This is unacceptable, BBC. This is not a ‘thought for the day’; this is pure religious propaganda, and in this case Vatican propaganda. Stop it!
Goran Hadžić
Picked up – the final of the wanted by the International Criminal Court from the Yugoslav conflict. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/03/former-yugoslavia-war-crimes-hunt
Be informed 