Please distribute to others who may be interested... You are hereby invited to a seminar in our twelfth interdisciplinary series on Evolution, Complexity and Cognition <http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/108> (ECCO 2017-2018) <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marjoriikka_Ylisiurua>
Time: Friday October 19, 14h-16h Place: *room * *CLEA*, Krijgskundestraat 33, 1160 Brussels VUB ------------------------------ Cosmology Episodes: Social System Dynamics between Crisis and ResilienceTjorven Harmsen, Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space Abstract: It is impossible to ever steady the dynamics of structures – this might be their most universal feature (cf. Oevermann 2016: 93). Still, the observer is bound to reducing complexity, to drawing distinctions, to breaking up paradoxes: until a myth of steadiness emerges (ibid.). As the observer’s *cosmology* (Weick 1993), this myth provides a set of explanations, of identifications, names, calls, all directed at ordering ‘world’. At times however, the set can get severely disrupted, and the observer falls back again to the origin of its constructed nature: the seemingly paradoxical simultaneity of the moment. This disruptive process surfaces as *crisis* within social systems (Luhmann 1996). It becomes manifest in a phase of sense-losing, which triggers a search for new sense for the system to regain connectivity. Both sense-losing and subsequent sense-remaking can jointly be referred to as* cosmology episode *(Weick 1993, Orton & O’Grady 2016). The presentation aims at introducing such process by reconstructing the empirical case of the ‘Pallas’ average in the German Wadden Sea, 1998. The case is used to illustrate how the activation of social *resilience* and the emergence of a new social structure, both defining the phase of sense-remaking, are driven by the situational dynamics released in the course of crisis. Particularly in cases of environmental crisis – as is the ‘Pallas’ average – the process outcome might need to be assessed not only by socio-internal, but contextual criteria. The presentation seeks to stimulate discussion about if and how such criteria for an ‘environmentally adequate’ social resilience can be found and utilized. *Works Cited:* Luhmann, N. (1996): *Social Systems*, Stanford: Stanford University Press Oevermann, U. (2016): ‚*Krise und Routine’ als sozialwissenschaftliches Paradigma *[*‘Crisis and Routine‘ as Socio-Scientific Paradigm *– TH], in: Becker-Lenz, R. / Franzmann, A. / Jansen, A. / Jung, M. (Eds.): *Die Methodenschule der Objektiven Hermeneutik*, Wiesbaden: Springer, 43-114 O’Grady, Kari A. / Orton, J. D. (2016): *Cosmology Episodes: A Reconceptualization*, Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion, 13:3, 226-245 Weick, K. E. (1993): *The collapse of sensemaking in organizations: The Mann Gulch disaster*, Administrative Science Quarterly, Dec 1993, 38, 4, 628-652 -- Cadell ECCO Group (VUB) <http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/1> Email: [email protected] Website: https://cadelllast.com
