Cosmolab is a series of conversations and webinars with philosophers, scientists and research practitioners on the question of how to approach the complexity of the Dutch and European relationship with China. The lab is organized by the China Knowledge Network, a collaboration between all Dutch government ministries and hundreds of experts and academics. Cosmolab departs from the notion that engagement among diverse worldviews bridges political divides in our fragmented world. Understanding the relation between China and The Netherlands requires research approaches sensitive to its complexity. But what does that mean for research? How can we think about complexity?

This conversation is a co-production with the Filosofische School Nederland ([ Ссылка ]). FSN promotes practical wisdom in culture, governance and science by offering post-academic philosophical education for policymakers.

René ten Bos ([ Ссылка ]) holds the chair in philosophy of management sciences at Radboud University Nijmegen. He works on concrete philosophy for public challenges and has written on subjects including extinction, the anthropocene and bureaucracy. His prize winning Bureaucratie is een inktvis ([ Ссылка ]) translates in English as ‘Bureaucacy is an Octopus’ but is actually translated in French (as Bureaucratie: encre, paperasse, et tentacules). An overview of his works in Dutch you can find here: [ Ссылка ]

Other references
In this half-hour video, [ Ссылка ], David C. Krakauer of the Santa Fe Institute for Complexity introduces complexity science. In The Complex World, [ Ссылка ], he describes how complexity science offers an approach to understanding and surviving in the complex world we live in. The world is increasingly connected, evolving, technological, volatile, and potentially poised for catastrophe. And yet we continue to treat the world as if it were simple: linear, unchanging, disconnected, and infinitely exploitable.


00:00:00 - 00:05:23 Interweaving narratives
00:05:23 - 00:07:11 Casting a shadow on political claims
00:07:11 - 00:19:13 We negotiate probabilities, beyond analysis and management
00:19:13 - 00:33:03 Prevent, don't cure
00:33:03 - 00:36:25 Convince with narratives, not hockey-stick curves
00:36:25 - 00:40:45 A diagnostic effect
00:40:45 - 00:45:56 Entangled approaches
00:45:56 - 00:52:00 Truth and psychology
00:52:00 - 01:01:32 Authoritative policymakers think and don't run a program
01:01:32 - 01:11:16 Out of the forest with public trust, la grande randonnée
01:11:16 - 01:16:44 Policymakers need to be challenged
01:16:44 - 01:23:01 Embrace postalgia and skepticism
01:23:01 - 01:31:45 Post-Cartesian, democratic policymakers

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