Lake City Sustainable Societies

Some of the most pressing problems facing society in the 21st century relate to sustaining social and economic wellbeing in the face of: growing populations, technologically accelerated fragmentation, increasing urbanization, and geo-ecological disruption.

In the first of a series of retreat-conferences at Lake City, SC, co-hosted by the Santa Fe Institute and the Darla Moore Foundation, we shall explore the intersection of economics, history, and a variety of applied aspects of complexity science. The defining feature of these conferences will be a focus on bringing novel, rigorous ideas from complexity science and related areas face to face with real world problems of practice. We are at a stage when advances in research and data science can be transformative in both local and global governance. The challenge is to create a robust and trusted channel of communication among these communities.

We have chosen Lake City since it is engaged in an ongoing experiment in ecological, commercial, and cultural renewal in an historically complex center of the larger National experiment in social coordination and wellbeing. We believe that situating these discussions in the context of a place that is a historically significant site actively seeking to reconcile a complex history with global forces of change is a compelling way to arrive at valuable ideas and recommendations for sustainable society.

This is why we are not hosting this meeting at a university or a more typical urban conference center. We would like the issues that we discuss to be present in the environment of discussion.

Key topics will include:

1. How to align global patterns of change with local history and local resources
2. Managing ecological and social sustainability and collapse
3. The best use of historical insights for guidance of present and future governance
4. Ingredients of a quantitative local to national strategy of sustainability
5. New methods and data for algorithmic decision-making
6. Coordinating education and certification with the future of work.

 

Generously supported by The Darla Moore Foundation and the Omidyar Network under the Emergent Political Economies grant.