Peak of everything

‘Sustainable development,
innovative tourism and creative
knowledge economy:
Our (Croatian) future?
Dr Irena AteljevicAteljevic-Jureta
SocioSocio-Spatial Analysis, Wageningen University
The Netherlands
Peak of everything
• Issues of planet resources - the end of the world as we
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know it?
Financial and economic cataclysm
SocioSocio-political crisis
Meaningless ‘rat race for money’
money’, decline of materialism
and the ‘silent revolution’
revolution’
Sustainable development paradox
Future of work and ethical careers
The growth of knowledge economy and creative class
Global health paradigm
Integrated human/tourism sustainable development:
Towards a new renaissance?
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The end of the world?
• ‘Warning to humanity’ by over 1600
scientists (1992)
• Humanity is in danger of a collective death
and suicide (e.g. Brown, 2006; Ghisi,
2006; Rooney, Hearney and Ninan, 2005)
• we are all citizens of only one country –
the planet earth (Al Gore, 2007)
Consumption and stuff
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P56zWupDcI
• Story of stuff.com
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Consequences
• In the past 30 years, oneone-third of the planet’
planet’s natural
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resources base have been consumed
Behind 1 average bin of a house garbage there are 70
waste bins in the production chain
In the USA, there is less than 4% of the original forests
left
In the Bangladesh capital Dhaka more than 10 million
plastic bags are dumped every day
China produces and discards more than 45 billion pairs
of disposable chopsticks every year and cuts down 25
million trees to do it
In Britain there are around 20 years of landfill left; 30%
increase of rats between 19981998-2001 (60mn)........
World Watch Institute annual reports.
Between May 2000 and August 2005, Brazil lost more than 132,000 square km of forest—an
area larger than Greece—and since 1970, over 600,000 square km of Amazon rainforest
have been destroyed (institute of Space Research, 2008)
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Are people more happy??
• The longitudinal surveys in developed countries show
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national happiness peaked in the 1950s (before the
consumption boom) – BBC series
In the past 45 years suicide rates have grown by 60
percent worldwide (WHO, 2005)
It is now the 3rd biggest cause of death among
people aged 15-34 worldwide
Increasing rates of depression and cancer disease –
one of the key factors behind suicide
While 1 in 5 of the world’s population (800mn) go
hungry every day more than 300 mn people are
obese (becoming an epidemic)
Or engaged with life?
• TIME POVERTY – e.g. working Americans
having an average 2 weeks of vacation
per year;
• Spend average 30years in front of TV
• See more advertisements in one year than
people 50 years ago saw in a lifetime
• Western professionals having an average
50-60hrs working week
• Job insecurities – increasing pressure and
competition
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Economic and social crisis
• Robert Skidelsky – a British economist and the
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author of a award-winning major three volume
biography of J. M. Keynes (new deal approach)
A moral question – the worship of growth for its
own sake rather than as a way to achieve the
‘good life’
(In)efficient market economies and human greed
Uncritical acceptance of globalisation ,
deregulation and financial innovation
Inequalities (top CEO earning up to 360 times
more than the average worker)
The SD paradox
• ‘In essence, sustainable development is a
process of change in which the exploitation
of resources, the direction of investments,
the
orientation
of
technological
development, and institutional change are
all in harmony and enhance both current
and future potential to meet human needs
and aspirations’.
Brundlandt Commission Report (Chapter 2, Section 1, Item 15), United
United
Nations, 1987.
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The SD paradox
The prevalent socio-economic and socio-ecological
paradigms don’t mix - the web of destabilising
feedback loops that tie the economic, environmental,
and social sectors together
The significant problems we have - cannot be
solved at the same level of thinking with
which we created them.
Albert Einstein
A NEW RENAISSANCE?
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The new world?
• “We are living through one of the most fundamental
shifts in history: a change in the actual belief structure of
Western Society. No economics, political or military
power can compare with the power of a change of mind.
By deliberately changing their images of reality, people
are changing the world.”
world.”
(Willis HARMAN Stanford Research Institute, Founder of the “World
Business Academy”
Academy” and a key player behind Silicon Valley)
• “Every few hundred years in Western History there
occurs a sharp transformation. Within a few short
decades, society rearranges itself : its worldview
(paradigm), its basic values, its social and political
structures, its arts, its key institutions. Fifty years later
there is a new world.”
world.”
(Peter Drucker (1993:1) : “Post Capitalist Society”
Society”).
PRESENT AND FUTURE.....
• The paradigm shift in:
• The changing social values of post-
materialism era and the ‘silent revolution’
of cultural creatives (Arnold Toynbee)
• Work patterns – technology and work-life
integration
• Economies – knowledge society and
creative industries
• European dream (Rifkin)
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‘Silent revolution’ of cultural
creatives
• Quarter of the US and EU citizens are shifting towards
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another set of values (research done by EU) (Ray, 2000)
Deeply care about ecology and saving the planet
Consumers of organic and locally produced foods
Relationships, peace, social justice, spirituality and ethics
They are activists, volunteers and contributors to good
causes (66% are women)
Read the most and watch television the least
Like to travel, search for the harmony of the body, mind
and spirit; so their travels often consist of educational
and active trips (eg, retreats, events, workshops,
trekking, camping, etc.) and move into
tourism/creative/lifestyle entrepreneurship
AND SUSTAINABLE TOURISTS!
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A historical phenomenon
• Arnold Toynbee – a famous historian
• the rise and fall of 23 civilisations of the
world history, claiming that when a culture
shift occurs, usually 5% of ‘creative
marginals’ are preparing the shift in
silence
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THE FUTURE OF WORK
Guardian, March 14, 2008
Wave goodbye to the nine to five, and say hello to
virtual enterprise
Executives predict exodus from traditional workplace to more home-working and from
distant locations
'Work-life balance will be superseded by work-life integration'
City workers on their way home at Bank Tube station in London.
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THE FUTURE OF WORK
• Many jobs are never coming back –
clerical workers, sales clerks, bank tellers,
middle managers....
• Young people will refuse meaningless
jobs, will choose ethical careers, not the
rat race – WORK-LIFE INTEGRATION
• Creativity, talent, innovation and
emotional intelligence will be the most
demanded skills (Pink, 2007)
Rethinking the Global
Health Paradigm
• Making the Shift from Managing Disease to
Promoting Wellness (medical insurance systems,
funds pressure, etc.)
• Aging population and pressure on social system of
superannuation
• WellnessWellness- health tourism – a huge opportunity
and growth of a labour intensive industry
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NEW KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY
1. New value creation process
2. New tools of production: Brain + networking
3. New strategy: win-win
4. Power is in Knowledge sharing or creating
5. New measurements of success and
progress: Intangible assets
NEW TOOLS OF PRODUCTION
ƒ 1st Tool of production =Human brain :
Knowledge is produced by human brain
which digests data and information and
creates knowledge.
ƒ 2nd tool of production =Networks :
Knowledge is increased only by sharing
in a network. This is an inclusive
logic.
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ANOTHER SYSTEM OF
MEASUREMENTS
• « Intangible assets » is a new concept
invented by Karl Erik SVEIBY (Sweden)
• They are becoming more and more
important in the knowledge society
• Because the knowledge society is about
knowledge which is immaterial, intangible
and qualitative.
A NEW CONCEPT :
INTANGIBLE ASSETS
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Know how,
Reputation,
Trust in the company,
Structure of the company
Strategy
Relations with personnel
Relations with clients
- Relation with civil society
- Relation to environment
- Relation to our collective future and sustainability
- AND quality of the networks
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GROWING IMPORTANCE OF
INTANGIBLE ASSETS (EU)
80%
70%
60%
50%
Tangible
Intangible
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1980
2006
2010
2020
Ghisi, (2007)
Experience economy and
creative industries
• develop and sell products of experience
based on creative labour
• Their market value mainly depends on
their immaterial value – often a complex
combination of aesthetics, form and
narrative (architecture, design, movies,
computer games, fashion, music, sports,
events, festivals, theatre and tourism
(museums, theme parks, attractions,
cafes, restaurants, bars, etc.)
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Creative class
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Economic and social value
• The OECD is reporting growth rates up to 20% for the
industries they define as creative
• That is 10 times the average in the business world
• PLUS knowledge workers in education and consultancy –
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it is estimated that approx. 40% of the European Union
economy is already in the nonnon-material, knowledge
society
Fostering sustainable human development , cultural
diversity and economic livelihoods
Brazilian festivals
The Bahian festival is a large-scale, popular event characterized by cultural
hybridizations, tradition and innovations.
Indicators of the Bahian carnival, 2007
Duration 6 days
Estimated audience 900,000 people
Occupied urban space 25 km of streets/squares, 30,000 sq m of other spaces
Number of carnival groups 227 groups
Artists involved 11,750 people
Casual employment 131,000 jobs (97,000 from the private sector and 34,000
from the public sector)
Number of tourists 360,307 people (national); 96,401 (foreign)
Hotel occupancy 100%
Accredited press 2,531 professionals
Income generated by tourists $94 million
Income turnover $168 million
Public income from taxation $3.2 million
Private income $95 million
Public expenses $27 million
Source: Emtursa, Relatório, 2006; Infocultura 2007.
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Places and creative networks
• From the creative cities (Amsterdam, Auckland,
Barcelona, Berlin, Bermingham, Helsinki, Hong
Kong, London, Milan, Singapore, Stockholm) to
CREATIVE PERIPHERIES
• NETWORKS while created across the globe
often embedded and visible in places
One example of practice
• The global project of the Transition
movement and transition towns
• From oil dependency to local resilience
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Case 2 Limburg
The Netherlands
•Limburg is one of the 12 provinces – south of the Netherlands, bordered
by Germany and Belgium
•Population Limburg: 1.1 mn in 40 municipalities
History
The economy - dominated by the mining (coal)
industry
With the ending of the mining industry between 19651975 Limburg faced the challenge to compensate
75000 jobs.
Then restructured to the intensive cattle farms and
glasshouse horticulture
TODAY – agriculture , research activities and tourism
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Key Tourism Facts Limburg
(year 2006)
• More than 35000 inhabitants are working in the tourism
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and recreation sector, generating more than 1 billion
euros per year.
Limburg occupies the second place on the domestic
holiday market
The average spending per day per person was 29 euros
2.25 million nights were spent by foreign guests
Limburg has 762 accommodations and 130170 beds
Limburg’
Limburg’s two main international markets - Germany and
the United Kingdom
Plus - Belgium, France, Spain, and North and Latin
America
Tourism Development Strategy
• the Province wants to stimulate new investments and innovations in
the touristic sector
¾ Creating new alliances and networks between companies within the
tourist sector (PMC’
(PMC’s = productproduct-marketmarket-combinations)
¾ Creating an attractive investment climate (physical space and
knowledge)
¾ Creating new networks between the touristic sector and other
sectors. Within this project ‘New markets for Tourism’
Tourism’ initiatives
have been developed:
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tourismtourism-healthhealth-care
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tourismtourism-prevention/wellness
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tourismtourism-living/caring for elderly people
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tourismtourism-local food products/agriculture
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tourismtourism-ICT
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tourismtourism-spirituality
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tourismtourism-living for rich people
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tourismtourism-water/rivers
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tourismtourism-adventure (recruitment, selection & teambuilding of
employees by companies)
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