front cover of Tapping the Riches of Science
Tapping the Riches of Science
Universities and the Promise of Economic Growth
Roger L. Geiger and Creso M. Sá
Harvard University Press, 2009

Can university-based scientific research contribute to the economic development of a region? Can it generate wealth for the university? American universities are under increasing pressure to maximize their economic contributions. Tapping the Riches of Science offers a rigorous and far-sighted explanation of this controversial and little-understood movement.

Just how do universities contribute to innovation in industry? How have state legislatures promoted local university commitments to economic relevance? And how has the pressure to be economically productive affected the core academic missions of teaching and research? Drawing from a range of social science analyses, campus interviews, and examples of university-industry partnerships, Roger Geiger and Creso Sá reveal the ways that economic development has been incorporated into university commitments.

Noting enduring cultural differences between the academic and business worlds, Geiger and Sá deflate both suspicious and overconfident views. They show how elusive success can be for embryonic discoveries with as-yet-unclear applications. Warning against promising—and expecting—too much, Tapping the Riches of Science nonetheless makes a strong case for the long-term promise of practical uses for academic research.

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front cover of Technology, Institutions, and Economic Growth
Technology, Institutions, and Economic Growth
Richard R. Nelson
Harvard University Press, 2005
This volume mounts a full-blown attack on the standard neo-classical theory of economic growth, which Richard Nelson sees as hopelessly inadequate to explain the phenomenon of economic growth. He presents an alternative theory which highlights that economic growth driven by technological advance involves disequilibrium in a fundamental and continuing way. Nelson also argues that a theory of economic growth driven by technological advance must recognize a range of institutions, such as universities, public laboratories, and government agencies, in addition to business firms and markets. He further argues that growth theories that focus on an aggregate measure of growth, such as GNP per capita, are blind to what is going on beneath the aggregate, where differing rates of advance in different sectors, and the birth and death of industries are an essential part of the growth process. The broad theory of economic growth Nelson presents sees the process as involving the co-evolution of technologies, institutions, and industry structure.
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logo for Island Press
Time for Change
A New Approach To Environment And Development
Edited by Hal Kane and Linda Starke
Island Press, 1992
The U.S. Citizens Network prepared this guidebook to help American citizens and organizations understand and participate effectively in the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), an unprecedented "Earth Summit," at which heads of state, individuals, and groups from around the world considered how to balance development pressures with an increasingly imperiled global environment.
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front cover of Toward Sustainable Development
Toward Sustainable Development
Concepts, Methods, and Policy
Edited by Jeroen C.J.M. van den Bergh and Jan van der Straaten; International Society for Ecological Economics
Island Press, 1994

Toward Sustainable Development is a comprehensive and wide ranging exploration of the theoretical and practical aspects of the concept of sustainable development. Internationally known scholars present an in depth critique of traditional economic methods and ideas, and a new framework for analysis of issues of development and environmental policy. The book:

  • outlines the historical development of the concept of sustainable development
  • clarifies the many interpretations of what sustainable development is
  • presents new and detailed assessments of the concepts, methods, and implementation of sustainable development policies

As well as explaining the conceptual and theoretical background, the book discusses methods and techniques, and examines issues of policy and implementation. It offers both critical observations on old approaches, and valuable guidelines for recent innovations.

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