Development is understood broadly at the
Centre for Governance of Knowledge and Development.
Development involves removing restrictions on the opportunities of individuals or groups to pursue their goals, as well as increasing the capacities of individuals or groups to fulfil their goals.
For example, sickness, discrimination and corrupt practices
restrict the opportunities of individuals.
The Centre for Governance of Knowledge and Development (CGKD) brings together a group of researchers interested in the ways in which institutions promote, influence or retard the growth of knowledge, especially in the context of development.
Development may also be positively facilitated through education, credit schemes and policies of equal opportunity. Lifting restrictions and increasing the capacity of individuals and groups lie at the heart of development.
The institutional rules of the game that regulate areas such as health, education, trade, scientific research, biodiversity, agriculture, banking, contract, property and so on affect the life chances of individuals. In today's world, the regulatory rules of the game are affected by the process of globalization, meaning that many states follow the regulatory agendas of dominant supranational institutions such as the WTO, the IMF or dominant states such as the US or EU. How well or badly specific national institutions work is partly dependent upon the capacities of those institutions to acquire knowledge about the problems facing them and to use that knowledge to solve problems.
The acquisition and use of knowledge faces two contradictory global trends. First, the stock of knowledge potentially available for use has never been greater and continues to grow. Second, restrictions on the use of knowledge are also spreading (for example, through the globalization of intellectual property norms and the use of encryption technologies).
Studying the links and relationships between knowledge, institutions and development is the special focus of researchers within the Centre.
The Centre is one of a number of centres that constitute the RegNet Program in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University.
The Director of the Centre is Professor Peter Drahos. |
NEWS
Patent offices in developing countries
Prof Peter Drahos has published a CGKD Working Paper which explores patent administration in developing countries operating within a global system
Download a copy of Peter's paper >>
CGKD awarded ARC Discovery Grant
CGKD's Prof Peter Drahos and Dr Luigi Palombi have been awarded three-year funding through a Discovery Grant from the Australian Research Council (ARC) for the project 'The Sustainable Use of Australia's Biodiversity: Transfer of Traditional Knowledge and IP'. The project will look at how patent regulation can be improved to assist Indigenous peoples to use traditional knowledge while maximising potential for Australian researchers and industry.
TRIPS, bilateralism and patents failing developed and developing world
CGKD's Luigi Palombi recently published 'TRIPS, bilateralism and patents: how they are failing both the developed and the developing world and what to do about it' in the Electronic Journal of Communication Information Innovation Health (2007) Vol 1, No 1, 71-81 (available in English and Portuguese).
Traditional owners and intellectual property
Dr Luigi Palombi recently gave a presentation at the University of the State of Amazonia titled 'Equity For Traditional Owners, The Developing World and Intellectual Property' (available in English and Portuguese).
Read more about Luigi's research project>>
CGKD PhD Scholar appointed to Federal Magistrates Court
CGKD's Australian Research Council PhD Scholar Warwick Neville has been appointed as a Federal Magistrate. Dr Neville, who has recently submitted a thesis on the history of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme as part of CGKD's 'Globalisation and Health Project', is one of four new appointments to the court and commenced his new position in Canberra in early July.
Download media release>>
Fair vs free trade
CGKD's Cameron Neil recently contributed to the debate on the benefits of fair trade over free trade on ABC TV's 'Lateline'.
Read the 'Lateline' transcript >>
Find out more about fair trade>>
CGKD launches home page for Director, Professor Peter Drahos
Stay current with Peter's contribution to research in IP, trade and health, as well as free access to electronic versions of most of his published work at anu.edu.au/fellows/pdrahos
CGKD joins MINDS
As part of its commitment to global sharing IP knowledge and research, CGKD is proud to announce its membership of MINDS (Multidisciplinary Inter-Institutional Network on Development Strategies). MINDS is an international
network focused on development strategies and alternative
policy options, targeting a broad audience of
policy makers, international negotiators, CEOs
and academics.
CGKD's new membership of MINDS was forged by Dr Luigi Palombi's recent visit to Rio de Janeiro were he was invited to present at the MINDS Workshop on Intellectual Property Post Graduate Teaching and Research Activities: Building an Interdisciplinary and Diverse Network. Dr Palombi is Director of CGKD's Genetic Sequence Rights Project.
Weaving webs of influence
The growing number of free trade agreements (FTAs) is creating a web of bilateral trade dispute resolution fora, according to Peter Drahos. In the Journal of World Trade (41(1):191-210), Drahos considers how dispute settlement chapters of FTAs may push the trade
regime in the direction of a disorderly mixture of confusing obligations, rule uncertainty and prolonged litigation patterns. More >>
What else has CGKD been up to?
For a brief overview of recent publications, events and activities, visit the CGKD news archive.
More >>
|
Home
Projects
