Making Change Happen - Conference Week 2021

The Pathways to Sustainability Conference Week Making Change Happen is filled with PtS-related activities, each tailored to specific aims and audiences organized from different areas of expertise, in which there is room for deepening and knowledge exchange. From Gaming to Circular Economy, from Transformation of Cities to Flood Risk Management, Making Change Happen can be experienced in all our sessions. Registration is free of charge and can be done for each individual session.

We conclude the week with a large-scale Conference Day in TivoliVredenburg on Thursday 14 October. We offer you inspirational speakers reflecting on Making Change Happen from different perspectives.

Economist Mariana Mazzucato, advisor to prime-ministers, presidents and governments, argues that an inclusive and sustainable future calls for mission-driven policy making and innovation, redefining the role of the government, the market and the university. What is her advise? This keynote is a cooperation with the Utrecht Science Week. Our honorary doctor and climate scientist Valerie Masson-Delmotte is lead author of various IPCC reports and is closely involved with the social and political side of climate research. Theatre maker and poet Marjolijn van Heemstra shares her explorations of the darkness of the night. In a compelling performance she reveals how we can reconnect to our ‘other half’, contrasting the dominant ‘rat race’ at the time of day to the deep and humbling experience of life at night. Edgar Pieterse is one of the world’s most eminent critical voices in the debate on the future of urbanization. He is founding director of the African Centre for Cities and Professor in Urban Policy at the University of Cape Town. His interests include the theory and practice of imaginaries to make cities in the Global South more just, open and experimental. Moderator Lynn Zebeda is co-founder of Dr. Monk, an international innovation think tank with a global network of young people committed to a just, clean and beautiful world.

Image of all the speakers at the conference day

We invite you all to be inspired during this week, during which networking and meeting each other live or online again takes centre stage! Some activities are to be held online, others at a venue. Please check out the website, choose the events of your interest and register free of charge! Over the coming months more activities will be listed, so keep an eye on this website and our Twitter account.

Join us in this week of change - subscribe for the waiting list