Technology, environmentalism, urbanization and globalization trends are nothing new, said Ted Abernathy, executive director of the Southern Growth Policies Board, to an audience of business students October 20. Communications technology has evolved over centuries, he suggested. Early examples of globalization include the evolution of the Silk Road and the creation of the East India Trading Company. Environmentalism has been a movement in the United States for more than a hundred years.
The choices we make and the paths we follow – the “tangents,” as he described them –in response to these issues are the key to progress and economic development.
For example, Abernathy said, “Some metropolitan areas have lost jobs, some have gained… Do we concentrate our resources in specific geographical areas, or do we keep spreading our money, hoping everybody gets better? Should we maximize our standard of living at the expense of poor countries?”
Setting energy priorities and policies is a huge challenge, Abernathy said. “Everything we do today uses more energy, and everyone in the world is using more energy... Do we change the way we live? Conserve more energy? Invest enough in R&D to find our way out of it?”
Among the significant changes we are experiencing in our lifetime, Abernathy noted, is the increase in life expectancy. This will affect the future choices of the students in the audience, he suggested: “Will you retire at 65 if you will live to be a hundred?” And, if people are living longer and requiring more health care, “who pays?”
All are issues that have important implications for public policy and therefore are issues about which Abernathy’s organization facilitates discussion and research.
The Southern Growth Policies Board, created in 1971 by governors of 13 southern states, is a non-partisan public policy think tank based in the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. Its aim is to strengthen the regional economy and improve quality of life. Southern Growth focuses on key drivers of economic development – technology and innovation, globalization, workforce development, community development, civic engagement and leadership.
Four advisory councils – the Southern Technology Council, the Southern Global Strategies Council, the Council for a New Economy Workforce and the Council on the Southern Community – guide Southern Growth’s policy work and research. Each year, Southern Growth releases its annual “Report on the Future of the South,” detailing the year’s findings.
Moore School alumnus, and former adjunct professor, Linell Strandine (MACC '90) was appointed to the Southern Growth Policies Board by Governor Mark Sanford and currently serves on the Southern Global Strategies Council.
Strandine says the board holds forums throughout the year with political, business, academic and civic leaders, as well as interested citizens. It also conducts research that will be used to help guide economic strategy in the 13 southern states that compose the board. Entrepreneurship, globalization and economic clusters are among the topics on which Southern Growth has focused and advised states and governors.
View Webcast of Presentation (QuickTime) Written by Gail Crouch
Written by Gail Crouch