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The Realistic Side of the World - Sustainable Development and the Role of Economic and Political Institutions
Student Summit for Sustainability (S3) - Annual Meeting 2009 of WSC-SD
January 25 - February 1, 2009 in Zurich (ETH) / Kreuzlingen, Switzerland
Registration still open!
The Student Summit for Sustainability (S3) - the Annual Meeting 2009 of the World Student Community for Sustainable Development (WSC-SD) - will be held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Alliance for Global Sustainability (AGS). S3 will aim to give its participants a better understanding of today’s economic and political institutions in relation to sustainable development: their functioning, the logic supporting them and the driving forces behind them, with the objective of understanding their implications for the goals of sustainable development.
Please register to attend through this link.
Access the Call for Papers and Posters, as well as further information on the Structure & Schedule and Topic & Aims. Visit the FAQ section to answer all your queries or contact the summit organisers directly. Registration will open shortly.
About
Today’s global economic and political institutions do not promote sustainable development. Indeed, huge efforts have to be made to achieve what are only very minimal levels of sustainable development. Why is this so?
The conference thesis is that today’s institutions do not provide the necessary incentives but that the latter even work against sustainable development. Many technologies and concepts have been developed that would help achieve sustainable development but they are not implemented at a significant scale.
Yet, the way the institutions of the world function is not a given natural law, but the product of many decisions taken during the last decades. Our conviction is that global institutions could and should set the right incentives such that sustainable development will be the result of motivations intrinsic to the system.
60 to 80 students from around the world are expected to attend the conference, which is also open to academic staff from AGS and other universities.
Partners
WSC-SD | About the World Student Community for Sustainable Development (WSC-SD)
The WSC-SD is an international network comprised of nine student member communities, four student partner communities and a growing network of individual members. The fundamental purpose of the WSC-SD is to give motivated students who are passionate about sustainability, opportunities to learn from each other, collaborate and to take action. The primary strength of the WSC-SD lies in its multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural approach in solving some of the pressing issues facing the world today.
AGS | About the Alliance for Global Sustainability (AGS)
The Alliance for Global Sustainability (AGS) is a unique, international partnership between four of the world’s leading and renowned science and technology universities - the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH FIT?), The University of Tokyo (UT), Chalmers University of Technology, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Created in 1997, the AGS today brings together hundreds of university scientists, engineers, and social scientists to address the complex issues that lie at the intersection of environmental, economic and social goals. The AGS encourages research partnerships with business, government, and nongovernmental organizations, and the sharing of research results.
[project 21] | About [project 21] - Student Organisation for Sustainable Development at ETH and University of Zurich (p21)
p21 is a platform for students interested in the area of sustainable development that offers the opportunity to connect, exchange ideas and realize projects. p21 is a founding member of WSC-SD, works in collaboration with the AGS and is the organizer of the Student Summit on Sustainability 2009 in Switzerland.
Contact [project 21]
ETH Zentrum
Leonhardstrasse 15
8001 Zurich
Switzerland
Email: s3zurich@project21.ch
Phone: 077 428 83 53
