We have entered a new geological age – the Anthropocene.  For the first time, human activity is shaping biospheric change and global evolution. For good or ill, we have become the architects of our own planetary future.  

Professor Mark Duffield will explore the implications of using radical interconnectivity and uncertainty as the frame for global events, including natural and human disasters.  He will look critically at the significant shift from attempts to protect from contingency to resilience-thinking with its call to embrace risk as opportunity.

Researchers from the University of Bristol’s Cabot Institute will discuss a social-ecological understanding of society, the built environment and resilience-thinking.

Chair

Professor Judith Squires is Professor of Political Theory at the University of Bristol, where she is also Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences & Law and a member of the Cabot Institute Governing Board.   She is Director of the South West Doctoral Training Centre and a member of the ESRC Training and Skills Committee.

Speakers

Professor Mark Duffield was the founding Director of the Global Insecurities Centre and an acknowledged international expert in disaster politics and the connections between development and security.  He is the author of Global Governance and the New Wars (2001) and Development, Security and Unending War (2007).   He is currently heading a research project on risk management among aid agencies working in the challenging environments of Southern Sudan and Afghanistan.

Dr Jon Bridle has over 16 years research experience on evolutionary and ecological responses of organisms to environmental change.  He is a member of international working groups on ecological resilience and adaptation to global change.

Professor Colin Taylor CEng FICE, was Head of Civil Engineering and immediate past Chairman SW Region of the Institution of Civil Engineers.  He has over 30 years research and practitioner experience in systems performance management of complex infrastructures, such as dams, nuclear facilities, long span bridges, water and electricity utilities, with a special emphasis on natural hazards, including earthquakes, wind and climate change. 

Attendance is free, but places are limited and registration is required. 

Book here (on the right hand side of the page).

This event will start at 6.00 pm and finish at 7.30 pm.

This event also forms part of the University's Thinking Futures Festival