Désirée Driesenaar, Connector of Dots: on Regeneration and Nature Based Innovations
04/11/22 • 74 min
Désirée Driesenaar is an innovation activist, blue economy specialist, storyteller as well as external expert for the European Commission. After years of working in the corporate world as a commercial manager and B2B marketer, in 2014 Desirée went for a holistic shift and became an entrepreneur for a regenerative future.
In search of purpose and sustainability, she developed a worldview of systems thinking in a quest of restoring ecosystems by building bridges between technology and nature by applying different business models and innovations. Desirée’s methods include action, storytelling, systemic narratives, and co-creation with a particular focus on the idea of regeneration – a driving factor in establishing truly sustainable and connected solutions.
We are pleased to have Desirée talking to us today about concepts that are key in both her professional and personal life such as regeneration and sustainable ecosystems weaved in and through the world of technology.
How can one work with technology and AI while staying in close mental and emotional affinity with all that is nature? What are the methods, principles, and approaches that Desirée has been exploring in her collaborations which help set up bridges between these two worlds? We are curious to hear how would a technology in tune with nature would look like in Desiree’s imagination. Join us on this episode to reflect on the inspiring possibilities that nature-based solutions can bring.
Désirée Driesenaar is an innovation activist, blue economy specialist, storyteller as well as external expert for the European Commission. After years of working in the corporate world as a commercial manager and B2B marketer, in 2014 Desirée went for a holistic shift and became an entrepreneur for a regenerative future.
In search of purpose and sustainability, she developed a worldview of systems thinking in a quest of restoring ecosystems by building bridges between technology and nature by applying different business models and innovations. Desirée’s methods include action, storytelling, systemic narratives, and co-creation with a particular focus on the idea of regeneration – a driving factor in establishing truly sustainable and connected solutions.
We are pleased to have Desirée talking to us today about concepts that are key in both her professional and personal life such as regeneration and sustainable ecosystems weaved in and through the world of technology.
How can one work with technology and AI while staying in close mental and emotional affinity with all that is nature? What are the methods, principles, and approaches that Desirée has been exploring in her collaborations which help set up bridges between these two worlds? We are curious to hear how would a technology in tune with nature would look like in Desiree’s imagination. Join us on this episode to reflect on the inspiring possibilities that nature-based solutions can bring.
Previous Episode
Kathleen Asjes, UX researcher: Democratizing Research
Kathleen leads Research & Insights at Dreams, a Fintech company built on behavioral science that boosts financial wellbeing. She is a Dutch national currently based in Stockholm and has worked with UX research for over a decade. Her main interests are innovation and technology with social impact, always trying to connect the dots between people off- and online. Besides working at Dreams she also hosts user research training and coaching. While teaching, mentoring & breathing research she does not try to learn about users and their behavior, but mostly makes sure that the product teams themselves gain this knowledge first hand.
We are pleased to be having Kathleen with us today talking about her passion, UX research, and the ways to teach and empower teams to do it themselves. Kathleen questions the skills that a UX researcher is often expected to have and shares her insights into what she believes makes a good researcher. We explore together some of the practices she engages in in order to democratize research. Kathleen gives examples of projects where she led teams through a learning path with research and shares some lessons learned. Listen to the episode to hear all about it.
Mentioned in Podcast:
Art of hosting, https://www.artofhosting.org/
U-lab, https://u-lab.nl/nl
Insight Bonanza https://uxinsight.org/when-research-democratization-becomes-an-insights-bonanza/
Social Media:
Kathleen’s LinkedIn
Next Episode
Vito Laterza, Anthropologist and Political Analyst: on the importance to foster analogue forms of life in an age of Pervasive Digitalization
Vito Laterza is an anthropologist, development scholar and political analyst. He holds a MPhil in Social Anthropological Research and a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge. Vito is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Global Development and Planning, University of Agder, Norway, where he also leads the Digitalization and Sustainability focus area at the university’s Centre for Digital Transformation (CeDiT).
His interdisciplinary orientation spans two main areas: political economy & ecology; and digitalisation, new media and communication.
His approach is characterised by a systemic integration of ethnography, macro-level structural analysis, and epistemological & reflexive inquiry, in the tradition of “big ideas” social science and social theory. He writes regularly for national and international media, such as Al Jazeera English, Boston Review, Foreign Affairs, Africa Is A Country, and Daily Maverick.
Today’s conversation engages us in many big questions that are also characteristic of Vito’s approach to work and life.
How do we interact with our physical and virtual environments and how do we communicate with algorithms?
How can we have green transitions that work socially and politically for people across the world?
How can we safeguard analogue life in the midst of accelerating digitalization, and what is the role nation states should play in ensuring a healthy equilibrium between analogue and digital forms of humanity and sociality? How does Vito feel about the digital “metaverse” and what kind of power and economic relations are at play in this project? Vito talks about the public engagement blog Corona Times and the grounded approach to the Covid-19 pandemic social scientists were able to offer in their blog posts. He speaks about individual freedom, self-restraint and care for others in the context of Covid-19 and shares insights going forward. Vito offers not only answers, but also more questions we should ask ourselves. Join us in this rich conversation.
Mentioned in Podcast:
Public engagement blog Corona Times
Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
Vito Laterza, «Human-technology relations in an age of surveillance capitalism:
Towards an anthropological theory of the dialectic between analogue and digital
HUMA - Institute for Humanities in Africa[VL1] ,
University of Cape Town
Social Media:
Vito’s LinkedIn
Vito’s academic publications[VL2]
[VL1]This is the full name of the centre, HUMA comes first, as it is the
main brand.
[VL2]Most of my research is available open access here
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