Sustainability
Enlightened thinking: creating a centre of extraordinary debate
As today's 21st-century society undergoes fundamental change, the need for enlightened thinking to tackle complex issues has never been more pressing. Heriot-Watt’s Panmure House seeks to be a centre of extraordinary debate, championing insight and influential ideas to lead positive change for a transformative future.
Panmure House is the last home of the hugely influential Scottish philosopher and economist, Adam Smith. A hub of scholarship, research and public engagement, it provides unique opportunities for leading thinkers to enhance understanding of the modern world across the fields of economics and social science.
Its programmes are designed to engage with the big issues that challenge society and to promote nuanced, informed and vital debate at a time when it is very much needed.
With 2023 marking the 300th anniversary of Smith’s birth, it has been an important year for the Panmure project. Dr Caroline Howitt, Programme Director at Panmure House, explains more:
“The significance of 2023 is not just from a celebration perspective. While the year has been a wonderful opportunity to celebrate Smith’s work by hosting special lectures, plays, exhibitions, walking tours and even a new ‘Smith Supper’, it has also seen exciting developments that herald the next phase in the reach and influence of the Panmure House project.
With the appointment of Professor Adam Dixon as our first Adam Smith Chair in Sustainable Capitalism, we are realising a long-held ambition to have our own dedicated research team that will address the biggest economic and social challenges the world currently faces. The intention is that Adam, and his team, will pick up where Adam Smith left off, and lead research at the cusp of the Fourth Industrial Revolution – in much the same manner as Smith and his contemporaries did at the dawn of the First Industrial Revolution. Professor Dixon will focus on the distinct but inter-related topics of sustainable finance, sustainable innovation and sustainable leadership.
Our new in-house research expertise, combined with the leading thinkers we engage with through our external engagement programming, make Panmure House an extraordinary place of influential ideas. As a hub of leading debate, our intention is that no great thinker will visit Scotland without coming to speak at Panmure House and getting involved with our mission in some way.
As we go forward from this milestone year, our focus will be on forging global, future-focused networks and providing world-influencing social and economic debate and research, further cementing our reputation as a valued beacon of new Enlightenment thinking.”
Our focus will be on forging global, future-focused networks.”
Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown making opening remarks at the inaugural Smith Supper
'The Butcher, The Brewer, The Baker and Merryn Somerset Webb' event
Sustainable capitalism for a better future
Professor Adam Dixon Adam Smith Chair in Sustainable Capitalism
As the holder of the Adam Smith Chair in Sustainable Capitalism at Panmure House, Professor Adam Dixon’s role is the first of its kind in the world. An economic geographer and political economist, he brings a holistic and interdisciplinary perspective to his work – just as Adam Smith did in his time.
“I believe capitalism can be a road to sustainability, but it will require the reimagining of how we do things. Tackling global challenges will require the best minds from a range of disciplines thinking as broadly as possible.
Clearly, we need an open and honest debate about what sustainable capitalism is and could be. We should critique and understand the limits of capitalism, but also discuss its potential. It is not about trying to sustain some unsustainable form of economic activity but about pushing into the ‘how?’ of a socially inclusive form of capitalism. One that seeks pathways that are less destructive than what we're currently seeing and addresses some of these problems.
It feels particularly fitting in the tercentenary of Smith’s birth to be inspired by his convening power, and to bring together policymakers, business leaders, and those making serious investment decisions, to think about this in a constructive way.
My role must be to reach as many people as possible to challenge views and stimulate new dialogue for change. I hope to help drive hundreds of conversations that contribute to different practices, different policy choices, and a different understanding of the world that we're in.”
Tackling global challenges will require the best minds from a range of disciplines.”
One of Panmure House’s key aims is to forge global future-focused networks. By joining us, you can benefit from this mission and directly engage with our work.
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Panmure House
In 2008, Edinburgh Business School and Heriot-Watt University undertook to rescue this historic building from dereliction. Following a 10-year, £5.6m renovation, Panmure was formally opened in November 2018. Through dedicated research alongside Enlightenment-style cultural and public engagement programming, Panmure House aims to bridge the gaps between academia, business, and government – bringing together a wide range of voices to energise and influence positive change in the fields that impact us all.
