I spent the last week at the Arizona State University, hosted by the School of Sustainability.

It was refreshing to spend a week just thinking big and long-term with like-minded  people who don’t do “little”.

Practitioners tend to rush from one task to the other one and attend too many conferences that are just good for networking. Radical thinking is rare. They normally have too much on the plate and not enough time to think about the bigger picture.

Instead you need to pose and ponder if what you do makes sense or if you need to change direction.

Moreover, an emerging industry such as social innovation and entrepreneurship needs to be framed within a broader vision: underpinned by data, understood within existing macroeconomic theories to justify its added value for the whole society. Even when you challenge the system you need to understand it. We can’t rely only on lofty values and feel-good stories.

When, a few months ago, I accepted the invitation of Prof Sander van der Leeuw (first picture), Dean of the School of Sustainability at ASU and UN Champion of the Earth 2012, I did not realise the need to take this pause. I met him thank to the European research projects in which I ended up by chance (INSITE and MD). Fortunately Sander persuaded me to fly over for a week and get to know each other. Prof Carlo Jaeger (second picture), world expert on climate and economy, was his accomplice in the operation.

[...]

Travelling across France and Italy reveals something reminiscent of the nature of the cancer: Europe is afraid of a globalising world that neither dominates nor understands anymore, and seeks refuge in a comfortable past. Everything is OK if we shut down from the rest of the world.

What does this have to do with Roberspierre? Maximilien de Robespierre is the symbol of modern revolutions and the end of the status quo at any cost. He did not refrain from sending a hundred thousand people to the guillotine to build a new country. He’s a founding father of modern State and ultimately Europe (although the most sensitive readers would not admit).

However, Robespierre has turned into the champion of the Ancien Regime today protecting the status quo and its beneficiaries ie the sacred cows, at the expenses of innovators ie the black swan.

What shall we do to save Europe and give a future to Europeans? We need to make a U-turn: slaughter the sacred cows, not the black swan.

[...]

‘Most certainly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit’.

[...]

The Resistance, the popular armed movement for the liberation from Nazi-Fascism, is the founding myth of the Italian Republic. Almost all Italian political leaders after WW2 had been partisans or supported the resistance although they lived abroad as dissidents. Italians united for once in their long history of factions and divisions.

Hopefully not so far in the future we will remember Francesco Profumo (Minister of Education and Innovation in the Monti Government 2012 – 13) as one of the first leaders of  the second resistance that turned the tide of recession, austerity and general despair into a new Renaissance.

Despite the crisis he has been championing reforms and public investments especially for young people from the beginning. On Thursday he presented the results of a year of work: La via Italiana alla social innovation.

I was there as a foreign guest speaker and it was an unique experience. For the first time in my life I agreed with the vision of an Italian politician. I was happy to be reunited to my folk.

[...]

After 6 years of daily news on declining economic performance and even gloomier forecasts of the future do we wonder why people are fed up and disillusioned, demonstrating in the streets of European capitals?

Without hope of keeping falling material standards in check, life becomes unbearable and social conflict might return. Shopping is not affordable anymore and society has to resort to sustainable solutions to give direction to people.

I was ruminating on these ideas when I end up watching Django Unchained, the last film of Tarantino. I bought a ticket for Les Miserables but entered another room.

Django is a black slave who becomes a cowboy hero slaughtering whites in southern American. Lincoln or Amazing Grace are feel-good films for white progressive folk, but Django is what a Black crowd needs to feel good and proud. It is just fiction but it’s a good story to energise people who have been portrayed as losers for the last 3 centuries.

[...]

Aliens who have online media as their only source of info must assume that Southern Europe is doomed: sovereign debt, economic stagnation, rocketing unemployment, high taxes combined with generalized tax evasion. No light at the end the tunnel – only the Germans to keep the situation under control with the help of the EU and IMF.

But today those aliens have to change their mind. Even Southern Europe can generate successful stories, such as the Basque case. After decades of conflict, terrorism and economic stagnation 30 years ago, the Basque country found its stride and its course and embraced a balanced development model which combines innovation, solidarity, and sustainability built on the respect of its unique cultural identity.

[...]

Seif is a 22-year-old Tunisian finishing his university degree in engineering and developing a third enterprise at the same time. He loves Arab poetry, believes in God but can stand Islamists.

His family are not of the Tunisian elite. He’s simply smart and hard-working . When I took this picture it was almost midnight and he was still working.

How many 22-year-olds like him do you know in Europe? I don’t know many, and I wonder why.

[...]

Create and Hoxton Apprentice shut down. Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen is in trouble. These are not just restaurants serving good quality food but social enterprises that train homeless and young ex-offenders to get in the job market.

Social enterprises tackled social problems without depending on public funding but the economic crisis is killing them one by one. Running a business is a challenge and training vulnerable groups add extra costs making the enterprise’s sustainability almost impossible in such a economic climate.

When I read the last communication on social investments of the European Commission I got annoyed. It’s the usual preaching to national governments backed by neither money nor legislation. But what made me furious was receiving the press releases of Brussels-based lobby groups cheering up.

Hey Brussels, wake up. Nobody needs your lessons in real Europe, we need concrete solutions. If you don’t have anything valuable to offer please shut up!

[...]

Dear Holy Father,

I was not shocked by the your resignation. On the contrary, I found the choice a sign of strong leadership.

I admire that you publicly admitted that it’s time for you to pass on the baton because you are not able to fulfill your duties anymore.

How many other leaders are ready to take your example? Leaders normally hang on to their position until they are kicked out. In the mean time society suffers for their inadequacy and power struggle.

[...]

I was in Lisbon this week for the launch of MIES, a project that maps social enterprises and innovation in Portugal. This is the most comprehensive example of research I know, combining a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews to profile the needs of thousands initiatives.

In the last 5 years I have witnessed one of the most conservative and challenged  countries in Western Europe becoming a breeding ground for innovators in society.

It’s an inspiration for everybody who strives for change.

[...]