TEDx on Resilience
Created from the TED talks mission ideas worth spreading , the independently organised TEDx at Uppsala University aims to provide a platform for people from various disciplines and backgrounds to share their creative ideas. The conference has a tight five hour programme, with eight speakers ranging from globally renowned scientists to thought leaders, and an audience chosen by a special committee.
Many in the audience are engaged in projects related to the ideas of the speakers. One of them is Anna Nilsson, project officer at Energy Crossroads, a forum for sustainable energy solutions at CEMUS.
– For me, resilience is about sustainability. During this day I hope to get inspiration and new ideas, and I am especially looking forward to the talks from Johan Rockström and Anders Wijkman. They are heroes within sustainability research, she says.
Ecological sustainability, economy and democracy, and the need of these three elements to interact in order to face today s challenges is a reappearing theme in a majority of the talks. The economist Timothée Parrique says in his talk Revolutionising economics education that the ways in which we teach economics today are narrow minded and based on one-sided ideologies.
– To construct resilience of economy, we need to deconstruct the resilience of todays economic studies, he says. nbsp;
He explains that economics are interlinked with all aspects of society, and so the study of economics must be more interdisciplinary. We need to cultivate diversity of thoughts to encourage critical thinking. He says it is a question of democracy and points out the need for knowledge in history, philosophy and physics as essential to fully understand economics.
The sustainability scientist Johan Rockström and opinion leader Anders Wijkman follows the same line of argument in their talks about bankrupting of nature and how to avoid it.
– When we think of the biosphere we often think of limitation of growth. I think of perspectives of growth without limitations, but within our given boundaries, says Johan Rockström.
– We need to develop in a different economic direction, where quality is put before quantity, Anders Wijkman continues.
Lina Thomsgård PR consultant and founder of the social media innovation Rättviseförmedlingen explained in her talk Crowdsurfing gender equality how the overrepresentation of men in media is a democratic problem which affects everyone.
– I like counting, and counting is something that I have done a lot, she begins. nbsp;
She continues by saying that if you count all the people represented in media, which analysts have done, you see that 80 percent is men. Media is reproducing stereotypes by saying that they want women but cannot find them.
Through Rättviseförmedlingen anyone can help media by providing contact with alternative people to the ones that are easiest to find. A woman who is an expert on boxing, or the opposite – a man who can talk about nursing kids.
A question which Lina Thomsgård does not ask explicitly, but which I and probably many with me in the audience think of when giving her the day s biggest applause, is whether today s TEDx organisers would have needed help from Rättviseförmedlingen when finding speakers. When counting them, only 2 out of 8 are women.
During the breaks the speakers and people in the audience take the chance to share reflections and opinions among each other. Many are students or researchers from abroad who are currently at Uppsala or Stockholm university. A big screen is set up for anyone to write an idea down, or to pick and share with others. Sometimes during the day the mingling turns into a think tank – which is the main purpose of the event.
The host of the day, Ruben Brunsveld, dares to say that this is not the last time Uppsala will hold a TEDx event, and many are certainly already looking forward to the next one.
