Two globes and a map, in Boston Mass

By Gerasimos Rodotheatos, United Arab Emirates

Since I was a kid, I developed an affection for geography (thanks for that, Mom!). My interest grew stronger during my studies; due to their nature, one could not go anywhere without knowing (and understanding) how geography imposes itself on political realities. Later, I had the privilege of co-authoring a book on geography and international studies, as well as teaching the same course at the Panteion University of Athens for about ten years.

I still carry this passion for geography and its many different branches; thus, whenever I come across a map (or a globe), it immediately catches my attention. I have been lucky to see many of these during the first three weeks of the SUSI 2024 on Economics and Sustainable Development, but three of them will stay with me, lastingly.

The Mapparium Globe (part of the Mary Baker Eddy Library) is, the least to say, eye-catching. The colourful, perfectly round glass sphere is an artistic masterpiece of the Art Deco era. Besides the aesthetic part, the globe is very educative in terms of politics. Some of the countries appear to be extremely big in terms of surface, while many of today’s countries are non-existent (colonialism). Back in 1935, parts of my home country (Greece) were still occupied, while my residency county (the United Arab Emirates) was still part of the so-called Trucial States. Even the US was still two States short way back when.

Fast forward twenty years later, the Babson Globe, a 28-feet diameter rotating engineering marvel, was installed outside the Coleman Hall at the Babson College campus. The spherical installation, dedicated to the United Nations, had its ups and downs and was about to be demolished in 1989 (doesn’t this also happen to countries sometimes?). So, things were completely different in 1955. The world was healing itself from the devastating effects of WWII while many new countries gained or strived for independence. Unfortunately, sometimes you have to take the bad things with the good things. The Cold War era brought out many challenges (political, social, even legal), some of which are persisting.

Unemployment, food security, and climate resilience are some of the topics being discussed in the SUSI 2024 on Economics and Sustainable Development, in and out of class. The map shows the faces of the 17 scholars participating in this program. The threads indicate our nationalities, but the truth is that we have lived, studied, and worked across all continents, thus rendering this map really small to include our knowledge and passion for the contemporary and cross-cutting topics of economy and sustainability. However, our goal has a universal scope, that is, to exchange ideas, to foster cooperation, and most importantly, to bring our experiences back to our classes and institutions.