Get off the Grass
Kickstarting New Zealand's Innovation Economy
Published on 1. August 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
248 pages
978-1-86940-762-9 (ISBN)
Description
In this book two of New Zealand's leading thinkers tell us to get off the grass! - and explain how we might do so. Shaun Hendy and Paul Callaghan argue that the New Zealand 'paradox' can be explained by our struggle to innovate. On a per capita basis, OECD countries on average produce four times as many patents as New Zealand. Why is this? What determines a country's capacity for innovation?
Shaun Hendy and Paul Callaghan take a quantitative look at how innovation works both in New Zealand and around the world. They show that economic geography plays a key role in determining rates of innovation and productivity. If New Zealand is to grow its economy more rapidly it must overcome geography to build nationwide communities of innovators, entrepreneurs and businesses. It must get off the grass and diversify its economy beyond the primary sector. Hendy and Callaghan pose deep challenges to the country: Can New Zealand learn to innovate like a city of four million people? Can New Zealand become a place where talent wants to live? Can we learn to live off knowledge rather than nature? Are we willing to take science seriously?
In a brilliant intellectual adventure that takes us from David Ricardo and Adam Smith to economic geography and the science of complex networks, Shaun Hendy and Paul Callaghan pose the tough questions and provide some powerful answers for New Zealand's future.
Shaun Hendy and Paul Callaghan take a quantitative look at how innovation works both in New Zealand and around the world. They show that economic geography plays a key role in determining rates of innovation and productivity. If New Zealand is to grow its economy more rapidly it must overcome geography to build nationwide communities of innovators, entrepreneurs and businesses. It must get off the grass and diversify its economy beyond the primary sector. Hendy and Callaghan pose deep challenges to the country: Can New Zealand learn to innovate like a city of four million people? Can New Zealand become a place where talent wants to live? Can we learn to live off knowledge rather than nature? Are we willing to take science seriously?
In a brilliant intellectual adventure that takes us from David Ricardo and Adam Smith to economic geography and the science of complex networks, Shaun Hendy and Paul Callaghan pose the tough questions and provide some powerful answers for New Zealand's future.
Reviews / Votes
Science is the compass on the voyage we must all make into the twenty-first century. - Sir Paul Callaghan, 2012 Callaghan and Hendy have highlighted a critical issue--decades in which we have underinvested in both public and private sector investment in technological research and innovation. This is a welcome and timely contribution to the critical debate on how we are to become a more wealthy and healthy society. - Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, Chief Science Advisor to the Prime MinisterGet off the Grass is a must read for entrepreneurs, business people, CEOs and policy makers. It goes well beyond Wool to Weta to give a Thomas Friedman style overview of the issues we face but the opportunity within our grasp. As Hendy asks in the book's final sentence: Shall we get on with it? - Peter Griffin
Science is the compass on the voyage we must all make into the twenty-first century. - Sir Paul Callaghan, 2012
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Auckland
New Zealand
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 140 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-86940-762-9 (9781869407629)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
11/2013
Auckland University Press
€37.99
Available for download
Persons
Professor Shaun Hendy FRNZ is a Professor of Computational Physics at Victoria University of Wellington and an Industry and Outreach Fellow at Callaghan Innovation. He was the Deputy Director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials & Nanotechnology from 2008 to 2012. Shaun has a PhD in physics from the University of Alberta in Canada and has research interests in nanotechnology, complex systems and innovation. He has published more than 80 articles in scientific journals. In 2010 Shaun was awarded the New Zealand Association of Scientists Research Medal and a Massey University Distinguished Young Alumni Award. Shaun writes a blog, 'A Measure of Science' as part of Sciblogs.co.nz, a hub for New Zealand's science bloggers, and has a regular slot on Radio New Zealand Nights as physics correspondent. He is a sought-after public speaker and commentator on science and innovation matters. In 2012 he won the Callaghan medal and the Prime Minister's science media communication prize.
Professor Sir Paul Callaghan (1947-2012) was one of New Zealand's most successful and internationally renowned scientists. Sir Paul was the founding Director of the MacDiarmid Institute and the Alan MacDiarmid Professor of Physical Science at Victoria University of Wellington. He published over 240 articles in scientific journals as well as the books Principles of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Microscopy in 1994 and Translational Dynamics and Magnetic Resonance in 2011. He was also a founding director and shareholder of Magritek, a technology company based in Wellington that sells nuclear magnetic resonance instruments. He was a regular public speaker on science matters and, in 2007, one of his radio series appeared in book form, As Far as We Know: Conversations about Science, Life and the Universe. His 2009 book, Wool to Weta: Transforming New Zealand's Culture and Economy, deals with the potential for science and technology entrepreneurialism to diversify New Zealand's economy. In 2001 Sir Paul became the 36th New Zealander to be made a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. He was awarded the Ampere Prize in 2004 and the Rutherford Medal in 2005. He was appointed a Principal Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2006 and in 2007 was recognised by a KEA/NZTE World Class New Zealander Award and the Sir Peter Blake Medal. In 2010 he was awarded the Gunther Laukien Prize for Magnetic Resonance and shared the Prime Minister's Science Prize. In 2011 he was named the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year.
Professor Sir Paul Callaghan (1947-2012) was one of New Zealand's most successful and internationally renowned scientists. Sir Paul was the founding Director of the MacDiarmid Institute and the Alan MacDiarmid Professor of Physical Science at Victoria University of Wellington. He published over 240 articles in scientific journals as well as the books Principles of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Microscopy in 1994 and Translational Dynamics and Magnetic Resonance in 2011. He was also a founding director and shareholder of Magritek, a technology company based in Wellington that sells nuclear magnetic resonance instruments. He was a regular public speaker on science matters and, in 2007, one of his radio series appeared in book form, As Far as We Know: Conversations about Science, Life and the Universe. His 2009 book, Wool to Weta: Transforming New Zealand's Culture and Economy, deals with the potential for science and technology entrepreneurialism to diversify New Zealand's economy. In 2001 Sir Paul became the 36th New Zealander to be made a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. He was awarded the Ampere Prize in 2004 and the Rutherford Medal in 2005. He was appointed a Principal Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2006 and in 2007 was recognised by a KEA/NZTE World Class New Zealander Award and the Sir Peter Blake Medal. In 2010 he was awarded the Gunther Laukien Prize for Magnetic Resonance and shared the Prime Minister's Science Prize. In 2011 he was named the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year.