Social Connectivity and Sustainability

The workshop will consider how social connectivity is influential in people’s health and well-being and how promoting such connections can contribute to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals agenda. The presentations will draw on current ongoing projects in Japan attempting to build participatory learning, discursive deliberation and different forms of social capital.

Speakers

Trained in economics at Yale University and mathematics at University of Tokyo, Motoo Kusakabe started his career as a Ministry of Finance official, assuming senior decision-making positions in the areas of banking and international finance. The latter half of his life has been devoted to international financial organizations, such as the World Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). During the 2000's, he focused on the development of entrepreneurship using information and communication technology (ICT) to promote connectivity and knowledge sharing among people in developing countries. In the last five years, he has been engaged in developing an integrated information/analysis system to promote social inclusion in both developed and developing countries

Emiko Kusakabe has a PhD in planning studies from Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, and MScs in geography and in human geography research from London School of Economics. Her interests are in governance for sustainability, public participation, and creation of a preventive welfare system for promoting sustainability. She has conducted extensive research in the workings and effects of community social capital networks in targeting sustainable development at the local level. Currently, she is involved in the Community Carte Survey project in several cities in Japan under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.