ISSP Public Lecture featured on Videnskab.dk

While others are having "potato" holidays in Denmark, the ISSP team is working intensively on getting the final pieces of Prof. Richard Thaler's ISSP Public Lecture to fit together.

One of our many efforts was to write an Op. ed. which is now online at Videnskab.dk. However, this is just one of the many places that the event with Prof. Richard Thaler gets attention up front. Thus, "Landbrug og Fødevarer"'s online ressource Food & Culture has also brought a small post about it that you may read here, and even Arla Food is now talking about nudging consumers in a more healthy direction.

These few mentionings are, however, just the top of the ice-berg. During the last few days Pelle G. Hansen, Co-director of ISSP, has been talking to a series of journalists. Thus, we know at this point that the newspapers Jyllandsposten, Børsen and Ingeniøren are all running articles about nudging next week. The new radio-station 7/24 will also have a 5-10 minutes snippet about nudging.

Beyond the press
However, this is just the press. The real value and success lies in the fact that October 21 will show that what we sat out to do with the ISSP is actually possible. The social software ISSP-focus group originally choose to work with nudging and establish The Danish Nudging Network because it features both a rich and broad potential for societal impact, while at the same time being controversial and thus in need of public discussion and acceptance.

With the event on October 21 ISSP and the Social Software group has provided the premises for a sound debate on nudging in a unique way. Through the Danish Nudging Network we have succeeded to coordinate the event together with the University of Southern Denmark, the Danish Cancer Society, Aalborg University, DEA, Mindlab, Dansk Kommunikation, Trygfonden and Metropol. Thus, the planning of the event itself has created incredible amounts of trust and social capital between institutions.

That's behind the scenes. In front of it, more than 200 citizens, businesspeople, policy makers, journalist, etc. will be seated. This will mark our achievement at engaging science and research with the broad public. We only hope that we will be able to deliver an experience just as positive and enriching as when we had Naomi Oreskes give the 1st ISSP Public Lecture in 2010.

Policy Impact
However, the ISSP activities on October 21 doesn't end with Prof. Thaler's public lecture. In the afternoon ISSP, University of Southern Denmark, DEA, the Danish Cancer Society, Mindlab, Trygfonden, Dansk Kommunikation, Aalborg University and Metropol have put up a policy hearing about nudging. Despite of the potato holidays approximately 60 central policy stakeholders will attend this venue (we had planned for 50). Our hope is that in this way nudging may be considered as potent new approach in public policy making, while at the same time avoid being hyped.

While we're only a small team, we hope to return next week with a reportage from the event.