Trends to consider in policy-making – What to pursue

The emergence of the platform economy has created powerful non-state actors that have far-reaching influence on communities around the globe. In this new nexus of business, technology, and society, we need to rethink policy-making to blend innovation policy with foreign policy from the start. In contrast to the previous post, here I'll focus on four promising ideas we could pursue further.

Trends to consider in policy-making – What to avoid

The emergence of the platform economy has created powerful non-state actors that have far-reaching influence on communities around the globe. In this new nexus of business, technology, and society, we need to rethink policy-making to blend innovation policy with foreign policy from the start. Today, I’ll offer some thoughts about ongoing developments and look for outcomes we should try to avoid.

Innovation and foreign policy

At first glance, innovation and foreign policy seem worlds apart. Researchers, entrepreneurs, and business people on one side, ambassadors, diplomats, and policy makers on the other. But they have more in common than first meets the eye. And more need to collaborate than ever before.

Innovation is a hostile act

For many good reasons, innovation is widely appreciated as a positive force, as the driver for progress and prosperity. But make no mistake: innovation has serious downsides, at least for some, at least sometimes. Even though these negative impacts are far outweighed by the positive effects, they are the source of considerable push-back and utter resistance to innovation. And it would be too easy to dismiss justified concerns as irrational, dump, backwards-oriented, or fear-mongering. It's time to cast some light on the hostility even the best intended innovator might be faced with. It's time to acknowledge that innovation itself is a hostile act. Here's why.

Reinventing time

The times they are a-changin'. This Bob Dylan song has a deeper meaning than we usually realise. For our sense of time, of the pace and direction of its flow, transformed several times in human history. And this perception is undergoing significant changes again today. So here's a short story about our sense of time, how it evolved, and how it shapes our liberties and certainties.