Thesis outline - resilience and dynamic complexity

by Leon Santen

Title: Creating collective resilience and social innovation in higher education through immersive, communal learning experiences and an integrated understanding of all the sciences

Abstract

Modern science has reached a paradoxical position, in which the international community has acquired overwhelming amounts of knowledge by the means of ever-increasing specialization. However, those insights, oftentimes separated by discipline, leave us with little understanding to fight our current time’s structural disconnects (Scharmer 2013¹). We argue that life in the 21st century is one of dynamic complexity that asks for non-linear and organic thinking to engage in sustainable and effective problem-solving efforts (sustainable development) (Holling 2001²). At Olin College of Engineering, the disruption caused by the 2020 pandemic created a moment of campus-wide reflection that lead to an independently organized micro-campus of 15 students at a family-owned off-grid permaculture farm in North Carolina. This social enterprise showed a need for an integrated understanding of science and served as evidence that immersion into nature, sustainable living, and an intentional community can lead to a better understanding of our ecosystems and social-ecological systems. We see an opportunity in higher education to leverage our collective ability to create change and initiate social innovation by teaching an integrated, transdisciplinary understanding of science and opening up spaces and time for students to act upon emerging opportunities to contribute to and scale-up social innovation.

Introduction

The COVID pandemic has unveiled major systemic issues that regard nation-states as well as the international community. While the emergence of the internet and the digital revolution have strengthened and accelerated communication across the globe and created a stronger sense of interconnectedness, systems on the international, national, and local level have failed to offer social, economic, and spiritual support. Even though our collective ability to be resilient in times of disruption is low, academic disciplines have not failed to point out systemic disconnects that manifest in an ecological, social, spiritual-cultural divide (Scharmer 2013¹).

We are using 50% more resources than our planet can regenerate, and our climate patterns have become irregular leading to a decrease in diversity in our forests. In the United States, the wealth distribution is far from balanced with the top 1% representing a greater collective worth than the bottom 90% (Nicholas D. Kristof, “Equality, a True Soul Food,” Opinion, New York Times, January 1, 2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/opinion/02kristof.html?_r=0 (accessed December 14, 2012). The modern technology and industrial sector outsource their production to the developing world making use of the economic pressure in those countries to catch up with the advancements in the Western world. More than two billion people live on less than $2 per day. This strong social divide has lead to structures that suppress rather than encourage creative actions. (companies don’t listen to their customers; outsourcing results in disconnect between company and situation in other countries; example: facebooks Free Basics program is imperialistic system to exploit need in other countries to catch up) On a personal level, individuals struggle to envision a meaningful, novel future for themselves despite an ever-increasing specialization on the job market. Such a perspective on life opens up little opportunity for change and creative actions, which are desperately needed for social change. Moreoften, responses to those divides come from the technological sector. Oftentimes, those technological band-aids don’t address the root cause and can easily deepen the cut because those implementing and developing the technology are unaware of parts of the system and its characteristics.

Institutions in higher education see the need to respond to those divides but have yet to figure out how to create a resilient society that goes beyond the institution’s walls. STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) institutions have come up with numerous solutions to prevent climate change, but there are no larger social structures in place to engage in a co-creative implementation of those ideas. We argue that the educational approach to understanding and teaching the sciences (physics, chemistry, biology, social sciences, psychology, economics) at institutions of higher education has gotten stuck in disciplinary specialization that fails to draw trans-disciplinary connections between the different fields. Most students start to understand the physical world around them through physics and chemistry classes. Those disciplines offer linear systems thinking as useful tools to predict outcomes and manipulate our surroundings. However, linear systems are rare exceptions in our bio-physical world that is dominated by ever-changing complex systems. [one can’t make predictions about complex systems, only assumptions about possible development]] [[more on the nature of complex systems]. Understanding those complex systems, the biophysical and socio-political world around us, therefore, requires a familiarity with the dynamically complex characteristics of nature. We believe that an integrated understanding of the sciences, treating them as a web rather than drawers, will lead to a more intuitive and constructive engagement with issues occurring in the systems around us.

At Olin College, the disruption and uncertainty of the 2020 pandemic created a moment of collective reflection, in which students, alumni, staff, and faculty investigated needs and opportunities for the Fall semester of 2020. As a result of this campus-community collaboration, the idea of student pods led to a student-organized micro-campus of 15 students at a family-owned off-grid permaculture farm in the Appalachian mountains in North Carolina. The experience at the micro-campus served as strong evidence for a needed integrated understanding of the sciences. As engineers seek to take on a meaningful role in healing our planet, they need to experience what it means to be part of an eco-system and interact with it. A typical streamlined college experience leaves little room to immersive yourself in nature and close-knit communities to even start to grasp the immensity and complexity of life that we are all a part of. However, all this understanding is required to take responsible and effective action in our modern world. While these forms of integrated understanding and knowledge are crucial, students need more than just the knowledge and identity around their field of interest. Students need spaces and time to act upon emerging opportunities that they start to sense. When they sense those opportunities, they can only act upon them as social entrepreneurs when they have the social and spiritual means to do so. Therefore, fostering our ability to live with each other doesn’t only strengthen our inter-personal networks but empowers students to take action when needed because they can make use of their social and creative capital.

Therefore, we see strong evidence that an educational environment that emphasizes an integrated understanding of the sciences and values the interconnectedness of living beings can lead to a more resilient society, improve their wellbeing and consequently make use of the most meaningful capital that we have: creativity.

References

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1. Scharmer, C. O., & Kaufer, K. (2013). Leading from the emerging future: From ego-system to eco-system economies. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

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2. Holling, C. S. (2001). Understanding the Complexity of Economic, Ecological, and Social Systems. Ecosystems, 4(5), 390–405. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-001-0101-5

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