What are we reading at RSA Global

From the implications of technological innovation and its impact on ordinary individuals, regions and countries to its effectiveness in achieving socio economic targets and addressing global challenges, take a look at a selection of articles the RSA Global team have been reading over the last month.

Education

What will happen if we raised a generation of young makers? This is the aspiration of team behind the new annual Inventor’s Challenge. The Challenge seeks to expose young children to problem solving skills and its real world application in their community. For more on the Challenge read this Stanford Social Innovation Review Article here.

The 2017/2018 UNESCO Global Education Monitoring report will assess the progress made thus far on SDG4 – Sustainable Development Goal 4 – Education and its 10 targets, as well as other related education targets in the SDG agenda. For more details on the report please visit this link.

Is Online Schooling hurting or helping? This is the question posed by this Brookings article which examines the benefits and drawbacks of online schooling among students. For more on the article please visit this link.

Economy

This New York Times article is a searing profile of an American steel worker. Through this profile, we are able to closely experience the sweeping trends in modern life – globalization, automation and the meaning of good work from this unique perspective.

The recent World Bank report explores that challenges faced by policy makers in developing countries in realising the gains in technological innovation. According the author of the report, William F. Maloney, Chief Economist - Equitable Finance and Institutions Practice Group, World Bank Group, "the potential gains from bringing existing technologies to developing countries are vast. Yet developing-country firms and governments invest relatively little to realize this potential. That’s the origin of what we are calling ‘The Innovation Paradox’."

Download the World Bank report on technology in developing countries [PDF, 5mb].

At a recently held Chatham House event – The Creative Partnership of Humans and Technology - Prof Edward Lee (UC –Berkeley) explores the possibilities for collaboration between human and artificial intelligence. Visit this link for more on the event.

Is e-commerce changing our lives for the better or worse? This special report by The Economist says it is doing so mostly for the better.

Public Services

Connecting cities and communities with the Sustainable Development Goals is a publication which provides an overview of how cities can use information communication technologies (ICTs) to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals. It also includes compelling case studies from around the world of how this is put into action.

In his latest book, The New Urban Crisis, Richard Florida, a leading public intellectual on urban studies and changing demographic trends, demonstrates how the same forces that power the growth of the world’s superstar cities also generate major challenges namely gentrification, unaffordability, segregation, and inequality. For more information listen to this recent LSE event.

This piece in The Economist examines regional inequality in rich nations and how globalization has affected many regions of the developed world. This plays into the urban vs rural divide that impacts on the deep political divisions in many advanced economies.

Design

In this SSIR article, Andy Hagerman explores the current trends in design thinking and argues how it has matured by focusing on ownership, application and impact.