CONTENTS
FOREWORD Joi Ito, Director, MIT Media Lab
PREFACE Notes from a Practicing Heart
INTRODUCTION What Are Social Laboratories?
What Does It Mean to Be Winning?Playing in the World CupThe Scale-Free LaboratoryA Cascade of Social Labs
1 The Perfect Storm of Complexity
The Perfect ChallengeWhat Is a Complex Social Challenge?The Futile Optimism of OptimizationYemen as a Natural ExperimentToo Big to Fail, Too Big to Jail
Business as UsualThe Expert-Planning ParadigmFlying Autopilot in the Perfect StormA Lack of Genuine Strategic Intent
3 The Sustainable Food Lab: From Farm to Fork
The Race to the BottomThe Multiple and Conflicting Logics of FoodWhat Is Sustainable?Systemic Spread Betting
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