Rapid Social Change

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Summary

Industrialisation and modernisation have had a profound impact on the way we live and our environment. The relationship between nature and culture has been transformed fundamentally in the past and is still being transformed in all developing societies.

This round-table symposium aims to explore ways to respond to the challenges of diminishing space, environmental pollution, the search for energy resources and the collective management of common goods.

Economic historian Dr Peter Lyth will examine the ways former societies have defined and realised sustainability, focusing on the question of transport and mobility. Also, Dr Robert Lambert will explore the history of the idea of sustainability and how this sheds lights on the complex and changing relationship between Nature and People over time.

Professor Matthew Humphrey will discuss the problems of democratic governance when it comes to asking citizens to change their lives for future generations. Dr May Tan-Mullins will show – with the example of fishing communities in the South China Sea – how questions of economic development, better living and environmental intervention are intermingled.

Full details of the programme can be downloaded here.

Keynote speakers