Technology, economic growth and the environment – seeking lessons from 50 years of international academic and policy debate
主讲人：Adrian Ely
Professor of Technology & Sustainability, Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex, UK.
主持人：Yixin Dai
Deputy Director of China Institute for Science and Technology Policy at Tsinghua University (CISTP)，
Associate Professor at the School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University.
时间：27th November 2025 (Thu.), 14:00-16:00
地点：Room 516, School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University
语言：English
The presentation contextualises academic debates (“Limits to Growth” VS. “Techno-ontimism”) within the interational milieu of the 1970s. At that time, Third World solidarity reached its peak when newly-independent states were pushing the United Nations towards a new settlement for post-colonial justice, e.g. the New International Economic Order by UN in 1974 and Vienna Programme of Action in 1979. But these proposals were strongly opposed by the neoliberal counter-revolution of the 1980s. As a result, discussion on science and technology often revolve around topics such as “sustainable development" and “green growth”. Professor Adrian Ely is committed to exploring what lessons these significant debates and political mobilizations at the time have provided for current or future international technology governance?
Adrian Ely is Professor of Technology and Sustainability and Director in Policy Training & Executive Education at SPRU – Science Policy Research Unit, at the University of Sussex, UK. For the last 25 years, he has investigated the links between science, technology and sustainable development across agri-food, health, energy and mobility domains through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary methods. He has edited/ co-authored three books, peer-reviewed for 23 different journals and published in 36.
This talk builds upon a recent collaboration with his SPRU colleague Professor Adrian Smith:
Smith, A., & Ely, A. (2025) From Limits to Growth to Post-growth: The International Politics of Technology in Historical Perspective.Science, Technology and Society, 30(2), 230-258.
https://doi.org/10.1177/09717218251326833
