autumn 2013 | www.hks.harvard.edu
transformational ideas Emissions trading programs were pioneered to address issues such as acid rain and ozone layer depletion.
safer world The destruction of thousands of nuclear weapons has played a huge role in preventing proliferation.
priority The Kennedy School has always been an incubator for powerful intellectual ideas with real-world application. The Nunn-Lugar legis lation, which helped contain Soviet nuclear weapons following the collapse of the Soviet Union; the idea of community policing, which revolutionized the way police departments operate in the United States; the use of market forces to achieve environmental goals — these powerful innovations are a few among the many developed by hks faculty and researchers. “The Kennedy School will focus on a combination of new ideas that will require not just a new professor at the margin but a collection of people who are interacting and crossing disciplinary and scholarly boundaries,” Ellwood says. For example, today, research into behavioral economics by Kennedy School and Harvard University faculty is helping to change the way countries approach everything, including such fundamental endeavors as saving for retirement, voting, and hiring. Development economists are helping to draw complex maps of countries’ economies and conducting randomized controlled studies to determine the best way to
help finance entrepreneurs. And the school’s cutting-edge study of work in leadership is influencing everything from community orga nizing to crisis response. These advances have come from a community of scholars and practi tioners working across disciplines to bridge the worlds of academia and real-world application. Leveraging this legacy, the school will emphasize three major research initiatives: “Making Democracy Work” will develop thoughtful, practical solutions to the difficulties democracies face, focusing on issues ranging from transparency to engagement. “Creating Shared, Sustainable Prosperity” will tackle challenges driven by rapid economic development, such as income disparities within and between countries. “Harnessing the Forces Reshaping Our World” will address issues raised by an increasingly multipolar world marked by rapidly shifting patterns of power. This work will require additions to the faculty as well as new opportunities and spaces to convene and engage. The school will also leverage its convening power to bring together practitioners and scholars to discuss emerging ideas and test potential solutions.
Generating Powerful Ideas
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Despite improved public management, advancing technology, and capable leaders, many worry that the insitutions of democracy are troubled. hks, with its multidisciplinary approach and convening power, is uniquely suited to bring greater understanding and practical solutions to this area.
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