Science, Environment and Development Group

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25 September 2003
Knowledge Systems for Development: A Survey of Core Questions and Answers
William Clark, Harvey Brooks Professor of International Science, Public Policy, and Human Development, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
11:45 am - 2:15 pm, Perkins Room (E-415), 4th Floor, Eliot Building, KSG (Map)

Biography:

William C. Clark is the Harvey Brooks Professor of International Science, Public Policy and Human Development at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Trained as an ecologist, his research focuses on the interactions of environment, development and security concerns in international affairs, with a special emphasis on the role of science and technology in shaping those interactions. Clark is co-author of Adaptive Environmental Assessment and Management (Wiley, 1978) and Redesigning Rural Development (Hopkins, 1982); editor of the Carbon Dioxide Review (Oxford, 1982); and coeditor of Sustainable Development of the Biosphere (Cambridge, 1986), The Earth as Transformed by Human Action (Cambridge, 1990), Learning to Manage Global Environmental Risks (MIT, 2001), and Environment magazine. He is a member of the U.S. National Research Council’s Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability and its Coordinating Committee on Global Change. He co-chaired the recent study by the U.S. National Research Council on Our Common Journey: A Transition Toward Sustainability, and chairs the Heinz Center’s program The State of the Nation’s Ecosystems: Measuring the Lands, Waters, and Living Resources of the United States (Cambridge University Press, 2002). Clark directs the Sustainable Development Program at Harvard’s Center for International Development as well as the Knowledge Systems for Sustainable Development (KSSD) Project, an effort to promote systems that motivate and harness relevant research and development work in support of problem solving and decision making activities for sustainable development. Clark is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He is a recipient of the MacArthur Prize, the Humboldt Prize, and the Kennedy School’s Carballo Award for excellence in teaching.

Presentation slides:

Clark, William. "Knowledge Systems for Development: A Survey of Core Questions, Tentative Answers." PowerPoint presentation from Knowledge for Development Seminar, 25 September 2003, Center for International Development, Harvard University.

Background documents:

Bell, David E., William C. Clark, and Vernon W. Ruttan. 1994. "Global Research Systems for Sustainable Development: Agriculture, Health, and Environment." Chapter 14 in Agriculture Environment and Health: Sustainable Development in the 21st Century. Edited by Vernon W. Ruttan. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Clark, William C. 2003. "Research Systems for a Transition Toward Sustainability." Chapter 37 in Challenges of a Changing Earth. Proceedings of the Global Change Open Science Conference, 10-13 July 2001, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Edited by W. Steffen, J. Jaeger, D. J. Carson, and C. Bradshaw. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

The World Bank. 1999. World Development Report 1998/99: Knowledge for Development - Summary. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.

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