Diversity and Culture in Knowledge Creation:The Story of the Tower of Babel Revisited

Thank you very much for kind introduction. Ni men hao. An-nyeong ha-shim-ni-kka. Good morning ladies and gentlemen. I am very honored and pleased with this great opportunity to speak at this 17th conference of Association for Cultural Economics International in Kyoto today. It is my understanding that this is the fi rst ACEI conference in Asia. My presentation is entitled Diversity and Culture in Knowledge Creation: the Story of the Tower of Babel Revisited. In speaking about the importance of culture and diversity in knowledge creation and sustainable development of human society, I believe there would be no better place in Japan than Kyoto. Indeed Kyoto is one of the best examples of cities where innovation and sustainable development has been achieved over 12 hundred years, absorbing diverse culture initially from India, China and Korea and later from European countries and from America, while developing its own unique and rich culture. But about Kyoto I will talk later.