intrepid knowledge for the present and...

Intrepid Knowledge for the Present and Future

Olivia Bina ICS-ULisboa

INTREPID Knowledge, Final Conference, ISEG ULisboa 27-29 March 2019

Bina • ICS-ULisboa

knowledge for the Present and Future

29/III/19 Bina • ICS-ULisboa

knowledge for the Present and Future


do we have one?

29/III/19

High living standards are associated w

ith unsustainable environm

ental pressures (EEA 2016)


‘All change’ The art and science of system change


https://www.intouchcrm.com/

‘A future’

is not for granted

INTREPID Journey:

are ‘we’ part of the problem?



Science policy & funding

Inter (& Trans)

disciplinary research

29/III/19

From science policy & funding

Back to ‘the source’: the University

The

Human

Potential

(re)Thinking the “Future of U” INTREPID London workshop and report

Set out to map the debate around Futures of Universities


(re)Thinking the “Future of U” … in 9 steps

•  RE-THINKING CURRICULA: Ljubljana Workshop (Dec 2018) Re-imagine Urban Curricula (a needs assessment)

•  GLOBAL COMPETITION ON FUTURE SPACES AND PLACES OF LEARNING: NonArchitecture global digital competition (Oct 2018-Jan 2019) Learning: Alternative designs for universities

•  EXPLORING SPACES AND PLACES OF FUTURE UNIVERSITIES: Newcastle’s workshop (January 2019): Univer-city: the future space and place of knowledge,

•  WRAPPING UP AND MOVING FORWARD: Lisbon, Final Conference (27-29 March 2019) INTREPID Knowledge and the Future of Universities.

•  EXPLORING THE TERRAIN: CHALLENGES, QUESTIONS, APPROACHES: London’s workshop (March 2017): Universities and Knowledge for Sustainable Urban Futures: as if ID and TD mattered

•  GATHERING VIEWS AND PERSPECTIVES: Lüneburg’s conference session (September 2017): Thinking about the Future of Universities

•  APPLYING THEORY U TO THE QUESTION OF ACADEMIC FUTURES: Barcelona’s training school (March 2018): The future of university as if sustainability mattered: A co-creation experience through Theory U journey

•  EXPLORING TENTATIVE PATHWAYS: San Sebastian’s training school (September 2018): Shaping the future of universities

•  KEYNOTE: ‘Universities: can we re-imagine ourselves’ addressed at the Mistra Urban Futures Annual International Conference, Cape Town (7 November 2018)


Are we part of the problem?


Are we part of the problem? The illusion of Cornucopia

•  'Despite the deteriorating global outlook universities largely remain caught up in the earlier instrumental growth paradigm that brought us to this extremity in the first place' (Slaughter 2012). • Our disciplines and ethos -

contributing to the Ponzi scheme?


Are we part of the problem?

‘If western civilisation is in a state of permanent crisis, it is not far-fetched to suggest that there may be something wrong with its education… mankind is in mortal danger, not because we are short of scientific or technological know-how, but because we tend to use it destructively, without wisdom.’ (Schumacher 1974)

‘A future’

is not for granted

INTREPID Journey:

are ‘we’ part of the problem?

Participating in the solution a journey begins: six steps


a journey begins:


Can we re-imagine

ourselves?

1 A place to

Question & Expose

2 Maximum Leverage

3 Transformative KLP

4 Role / Function

5 A place to

Envision

6 Whole System Change

Six interdependent steps Work in progress

A place to Question & to Expose 1) becoming a place where to expose and question assumptions and worldviews 29/III/19 Bina • ICS-ULisboa

'Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced’

James Baldwin

"I Am Not Your Negro” a documentary by Raoul Peck, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson


A place to Question & to Expose

•  "System change involves addressing the mind-set out of which the system arises” • Exposing mindsets is key to

‘system change’ (Meadows 1999)

7/XI/18 Bina • ICS-ULisboa

A place to Question & to Expose

• Expose assumptions that are •  Hidden •  Unexamined •  & flawed (Gopel 2016)

• WHY? •  These assumptions, our values

and individual choices ‘shape futures’ (Slaughter 2010)

7/XI/18 Bina • ICS-ULisboa

Maximum Leverage 2) a place of maximum leverage –after Donnella Meadows- where goals and paradigms are questioned and eventually transcended,


https://www.forexstrategieswork.com/

Maximum Leverage human potential

• What we know and how we think influences •  Beliefs •  Attitudes •  Actions (Wals 2017)

• Shapes •  Who we are •  Our present (experience of) •  Our future


Maximum Leverage human potential


Meadows (1999) proposes a dozen places to intervene in a system ranked by increasing order of effectiveness.

•  The three highest points are: •  the goals of the system, •  the mind-set or paradigm out of

which the system—its goals, structure/rules, delays, parameters—arises,

•  the power to transcend paradigms.

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Reid et al 2017

Transformative K, L, P: competences,


3) a place of transformative Knowledge, Learning, Pedagogy – embracing inter and transdisciplinarity

Transformative K, L, P T Learning definition


Two broad areas • Competencies and capabilities &

How to know • Content + … knowing what matters

•  Transformative Learning (Mezirow 1991): effecting change in a frame of reference •  Habits of mind •  Points of view •  Biases and assumptions •  Ways of interpreting experience

Transformative K, L, P K beyond boundaries


Inter disciplinary

Trans disciplinary

Embodied?

Transformative K, L, P K beyond boundaries


More: Diversity &

Plurality

Less: Conformity,

homogeneity and uniformity Licence

to fail

‘Science is at its best when it dares to be human’ Plait 2018

Transformative K, L, P SDSN 2017 – UNESCO 2017


Key competencies for sustainability

• Self-awareness competency: the ability to reflect on one’s own role in the local community and (global) society; to continually evaluate and further motivate one’s actions; and to deal with one’s feelings and desires.

Unlock human potential Ultimate driver of social change Loci of change itself

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Transformative K, L, P: competences, content &


3) a place of transformative Knowledge, Learning, Pedagogy – embracing inter and transdisciplinarity

https://graphicriver.net/item/sketch-geometric-shapes/6660334

connected


Transformative K, L, P: Competences, CONTENT, &… what matters


What Matters: ethical turns CCCB “Humans+ The Future of Our Species” http://www.cccb.org/en/exhibitions/file/human-/129032


'questioning the systemic aspirations of economic development and efficiency: a system that desires

machines with human intelligence and humans that can perform like machines'

(Whose Utopia, Cao Fei, 2006)

What Matters: ethical turns ‘we need to talk’

‘Uncomfortable’

Western secular culture has no clear place for moral language, and its use makes many profoundly uncomfortable (Neiman, 2009)


a journey begins:

29/III/19

Can we re-imagine

ourselves?

1 A place to

Question & Expose

2 Maximum Leverage


4 Role / Function

5 A place to

Envision


Six interdependent steps Work in progress

Role/Function: ‘think civic’ 4) a place where the role and function of the academy is primarily linked to a notion of civic university


Role/Function:


Community of thinking

Civic university

See our Newcastle Symposium

A place to envision 5) a space for all society to envision desired futures that can be just and ecologically sustainable


The education of desire

See our 1st Training School

Whole-System Change 6) and a place capable of learning itself, in order to embrace whole-system change


Can we re-imagine

ourselves?

1 A place to Questio

n & Expose 2

Maximum

Leverage

3 Transformative

KLP 4 Role / Functio

n

5 A place to Envision


See our Policy Brief

‘has yet to occur’ UNESCO 2014

Whole-System Change UN DESD

•  ‘“[i]f higher education sector is to be transformative, it needs to transform itself” (Tilbury 2011) •  the global transformation of

higher education towards sustainable development has yet to occur’ (UNESCO, 2014)


Intrepid Knowledge for the Present and Future

Olivia Bina ICS-ULisboa

INTREPID Knowledge, Final Conference, ISEG ULisboa 27-29 March 2019


Can we re-imagine

ourselves?

1 A place to

Question & Expose

2 Maximum Leverage


4 Role / Function

5 A place to Envision


29/III/19

The FutureCan only be INTREPID:

characterized by "resolute fearlessness, "

fortitude, and endurance

Thank you

intrepid knowledge for the present and...

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