People usually say “Life starts at 40”…
Taking a first look, this may sound quite presumptuous or a simple nonsense. How could someone consider that all these long years could be suddenly simply ignored? Well, certainly, that is not what people imply by this popular saying, and thinking about the SPRU 40th Anniversary, we should reflect a bit more about its meaning...

It is clear that history matters. The numerous stories shared during the conference shows the key role of individuals and the SPRU community as a whole in developing a new field and laying down the foundations of a discipline. Of course, this wonderful trajectory cannot be ignored. It must be transferred to younger minds in a way to inspire and guide further development of the field.

At the same time, a number of reflections about the current state showed signals of a healthy mid-life crisis. The “golden age” when the community was quite small and the individual academics could keep track and contribute to most of the main developments of the field seems to be over. By its own multi-disciplinary nature, the discipline requires more and more specialisation as it starts to promote a dialogue with the different technical and social sciences that gave its origin. The challenges and opportunities are more and more complex following the empirical nature of the enquiries that the community addresses.

Nevertheless, there were some new streams emerging from these 40th Anniversary celebrations. A sense of an emerging discipline that is broad and energetic and certainly not restricted to the buildings in the University of Sussex. A sense of purpose, as the evolutionary dynamics that shape the future of our society becomes more and more multi-constituency in nature. A sense of culture and values underlining the social network of academics, policy-makers and practitioners that searches for responsible and innovative answers towards a better future.

Well, I am still not sure if life starts at 40…From what I have seen during the last days, SPRU manages to keep a great balance between traditional and renewal. Actually, most important, the conference brought together numerous new ideas that guarantee lots of fresh starts after 40!

No doubt, this is a good reason to celebrate!

Happy 40th Anniversary to all SPRU community!

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