Pact4Future: The Future Takes Shape

ITALY NEEDS TO CORRECT THE COURSE OF ITS DEMOGRAPHIC SHIP BUT CHANGE ALSO NEEDS TO START FROM THE BUSINESS WORLD AND NEW POLICIES. A NEW PACT FOR THE FUTURE IS NEEDED, PRECISELY WHAT WILL BE DISCUSSED AT PACT4FUTURE, THE BOCCONI AND CORRIERE FORUM FROM MARCH 25 TO 28, AS PROFESSOR BILLARI REMINDS US IN THE OPENING EDITORIAL OF THE NEW ISSUE OF THE BOCCONI MAGAZINE

Knowledge of the past is an aid to understanding the present and guiding the future. The famous quote by Thucydides, a fifth-century BC Greek historian, aquires a whole new meaning that goes beyond the boundaries of history and reaches all fields of social sciences today, in the age of big data. Today, data amassed in the past, whether about macroeconomics or elections, consumer habits or demographics, is the sustainable fuel of every researcher and policy maker who wants to understand the reality around us and identify the ways, of legal but also cultural nature, to steer indispensable changes.

Thinking about demography, for example, and specifically about Italy, data analysis shows us an aging Italy, an Italy in which new births (400,000, a record low) do not balance for deaths (700,000). An Italy that needs more immigrants – workers as well as new families.

An Italy that needs to adjust the course of the demographic ship through innovative or best-practice inspired policies. An Italy, though, where limited public resources make it necessary that change begins from the economy, from businesses that have to roll out more welfare-related initiatives, including more support to families. A new vision that can have an impact on inequality and ensure integration of immigrants as well as inclusion of new Italians. We need a new pact between all actors of the economic system: foundations, organizations and civil society.

And it is precisely this pact that we want to support and present at Pact4Future, the international forum that Bocconi is organizing with Corriere della Sera from March 25 to 28: 4 days, 9 events, over 80 speakers. We will showcase best practices, meet visionary scientists and entrepreneurs, activists and artists who use creativity to change the world.

We will talk about a shared future between Europe and Africa, dive into the oceans and fly into space because the Blue and Space economies will increasingly provide sustainability for the planet. We will meet refugees who have been able to change their fate and those who helped them do so. We will look at the future through the lens of the past and with a social science approach. We invite you to join us in this alliance and play a part in the change needed to build a more inclusive and sustainable future for all.

by Francesco Billari, Rector of Bocconi University