Simulating growth

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Another famous piece of research from the 1970s is The Limits to Growth, commissioned by the Club of Rome and delivered by a team of MIT researchers led by Donella and Dennis Meadows. The MIT team based their study on a computer simulation of what happens when exponential population and economic growth runs up against finite planetary resources. This was based on modelling five core variables: population, food production, industrialisation, pollution and the consumption of non-renewable resources. Given the compute resources available at the time, this was, apart from anything else, a considerable technological feat. A recent 50-years-on review of the research describes it as a “methodological novelty” for the time.


The Limits to Growth; Dartmouth Collections

While the study was met with strong criticism, its core thesis – that infinite growth with finite planetary resources is non-viable – has endured. (The fascinating story behind this incredible study was recently revisited via this excellent podcast from a former colleague of mine, Katy Shields.)

From focus groups to sentiment analysis
This review features only some of the more popular research list of guatemala cell phone numbers methods used in business today. There are, of course, many others, and new ones emerging all the time.

At FT Longitude, we have a research innovation team that continually investigates new ways to tell stories with data. Emerging alternatives to time-honoured methods, such as the classical literature review, policy analysis and focus groups, that we’re exploring range from social media sentiment analysis through to AI-powered “data scraping”.

Could one of these new methods be a hallmark of the next most influential study to go down in history?