The Coronavirus Crisis and Its Teachings

Steps towards Multi-Resilience

Series: 

In The Coronavirus Crisis and Its Teachings: Steps towards Multi-Resilience Roland Benedikter and Karim Fathi first describe the pluri-dimensional characteristics of the Coronavirus crisis. Then they draw the pillars for a more “multi-resilient” Post-Corona world including socio-political recommendations of how to generate it. The Coronavirus crisis proved to be a bundle crisis consisting of multiple, interconnected crisis dimensions.

Before Corona, most concepts of a “resilient society” implied a rather isolated focus on only one crisis at a time. Future preparedness in the 21st century will require a multi- and transdisciplinary risk-management concept that the authors call “multi-resilience”. “Multi-resilience” means to systematically enhance universal resilience competencies of societies, such as collective intelligence or overall responsiveness, being appliable to pluri-dimensional crisis contexts. If the Coronavirus crisis in retrospect will have contributed to implement multi-resilience, then it will ultimately have contributed to progress.

This volume includes a Foreword by Jan Nederveen Pieterse and an Afterword by Manfred B. Steger.

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Dr Roland Benedikter is Research Professor of Multidisciplinary Political Analysis in residence at the University of Wroclaw, Poland, Co-Head of the Center for Advanced Studies of Eurac Research, Autonomous Province of South Tyrol, Italy, and Member of the Future Circle of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) Berlin.

Dr Karim Fathi is a lecturer and policy advisor with focus on Resilience Studies and Interdisciplinary Communication. He is Member of the Future Circle of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and advises authorities, NGO’s and companies in the field of Multi-Resilience.
“This book is an impressive compass for the Post-Corona World. It makes clear that Multi-Resilience is the central answer to the challenges of a sustainable future.”
Professor Dr. Uwe Schneidewind, Former Director of the Wuppertal Institute and Professor for Innovation Management and Sustainability at the Bergische Universität Wuppertal

“Managing global crises-bundles and bundle-crises in the 21st century is in large parts a challenge of transdisciplinary complexity management. This book outlines the concept of societal multi-resiliency as a promising and necessary approach towards systemic future-preparedness.”
Dr. Louis Klein, Vice-President of the International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR) and Dean of the European School of Governance (EUSG) Berlin

“Corona, Lehman and the foreseeable next crises have a common cause: a non-sustainable life form. As long as this development continues, by only focusing on curing the symptoms, the next crises of civilization are pre-programmed. This book offers an exemplary overview of Post-Corona discourses and identifies practical starting points for complexity-adequate multi-resilience strategies.”
apl Professor Dr. Niko Paech, Department of Production and Environment, Faculty of Economics, University of Siegen

“Benedikter and Fathi make a major contribution to one of the most pressing questions of our time: How to re-organize the world after Corona? This book provides one of the most encompassing accounts of – and overview over – the Coronavirus crisis 2019-20 available on the market. It also presents one of the most original and complexity-adequate solution patterns, including an advanced concept of prevention and anticipation branded ‘Multi-Resilience’. A must-read for everybody who wants to be informed in-depth and understand how to prepare for the next upcoming global emergency.”
Professor Dott. Andrea Billi, University Rome I - La Sapienza, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, Director, Sapienza Innovazione (Sapienza Innovation - SI)

“The globe is asking: What will the Post-Corona world look like? The answer is in principle a fundamental hope: A better, more just world. This book contributes to exemplarily sketch the path toward such a different world by undertaking the two indispensable steps needed: first, by carefully reconstructing what happened, including countless examples of the phenomenology of the crisis, its many side effects and ramifications. Second, by providing the practical tools to master transformation positively in order to build a more resilient global society. I can hardly think of one concept, one thought, one aspect that has not been elaborated in this book in a comprehensive, multi- and transdisciplinary way. The Corona epidemic worked as magnifying lens on the state of our planet, and the authors offer a multi-facetted view on several potential futures. Will we forget the lecture learned as soon as we have a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2? This volume tells me that the odds are against this proposition: there is no going back to business as usual. Post Corona est ante majorem proximum angustum.”
Professor Dr. Roland Psenner, Head of the National Committee “Global Change” of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vice President of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna

“In addition to a rich and multifaceted knowledge transfer for a Post-Corona world, the authors describe five principles for multi-resilience. The existing resilience strategies against the Coronavirus pandemic and future emergencies are not sufficient and are therefore not sustainable. The discussion triggered by the Coronavirus pandemic about a reorientation of globalization, i.e. toward re-globalization, is excellently described and illustrated by examples. There is no comparable book in the context of the Coronavirus pandemic, given that this one is committed to a fairer and better world potentially coming out of the crisis with many concrete theses. This book belongs in the hands of everyone who wants to be comprehensively informed about possible progress in a Post-Corona world. It also belongs in the hands of social and political decision-makers and should be made compulsory reading for students.”
Werner Mittelstaedt, futurist, author of many books about sustainable futures, founder and editor of the journal Blickpunkt Zukunft [“Viewpoint Future“]

"Without doubt, the COVID pandemic has shed light on human vulnerabilities and capabilities on a variety of scales. Our humanity, as an interactive system of biological, psychologic, socio-economic, and political domains and dimensions has been affected by, and reactive to both the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and the current structures and functions of institutions of healthcare, public safety, economic stability, and political leadership. The pandemic has been a crisis, in the most literal sense - a time of difficulty, decision, and change. The question remains as to whether, and to what extent, the COVID crisis will evoke change to these regnant systems. Roland Benedikter and Karim Fathi address this question, and its embedded and derivative scientific, socio-economic, political, and cultural issues. To be sure, their invocation to regard, heed and engage the status quo is telling, informative, and rightly provocative. The American historian Daniel J. Boorstin has stated that "...education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know"; and in that light, Benedikter and Fathi provide a stellar education based upon - and responsive to - what the COVID crisis may teach, and prompt - if not require - the world to learn."
James Giordano, Ph.D., Professor, Departments of Neurology and Biochemistry and Senior Scholar-in-Residence, Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, and Senior Research Fellow Biosecurity, Technology, and Ethics, US Naval War College, Newport, RI, USA

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Online conference and book presentation with Roland Benedikter and Karim Fathi. The Coronavirus Crisis and Its Teachings: Steps Towards Multi-Resilience in: eurac research
Foreword
Jan Nederveen Pieterse

Preface

Acknowledgements

List of Figures

Overview and Summary

part 1
The Coronavirus Crisis
1Introduction “Do Nothing” or, an Epochal Crisis

2Systemic Unpreparedness Inducing a Variety of Psychological Reactions

3The Branches and Social Strata Hardest Hit A List to Be Carefully Remembered for the Next Systemic Rupture

4Were Nature and the Environment “Winners” of the Crisis? Disputed “Improvements” and Their Flip Sides

5Children and Relationships

6Labour and the Economy “Generation Corona”

7Corona and Re-Globalisation 1 Sharpening Awareness about the Differences between Political Systems and Their Growing Asymmetries

8A Battle for Values and Transformation Not Confined to Bilateral Competition, but Spanning the Globe

9Unprecedented Penetrative Depth Uplifting Technology, Changing Sexuality, Questioning Science?

10Corona and Re-Globalisation 2 Creating Conscience for National and International Reforms

11Intellectual Rhetoric between Cheap “Humanistic” Appeal and Kitsch

12“Humanised” Technology Instead of a New Humanism?

13A Boost to “Post-human Hybrid Intelligence” Such as Biological Espionage and Sentiment Analysis?

14Striking a Balance Was Corona a Watershed for Western Humanism and the Basic Rationality of the Enlightenment?

15The Vast Variety of Political Instrumentalisations

16Three More Far-reaching Aspects within Global Democracies and Open Societies Confirmation Bias, “Republican” Turn and Re-Globalisation Drive


part 2
The Simultaneousness of Local, National and Global Effects
17An Unprecedented Crisis Accelerating the (Temporary?) Rupture of Advanced Life Patterns – Including Gender Role Models in Democracies

18“Unsocial Sociability” and the Re-shaping of the Global Order Anthropology and Politics Intertwined

19Medical Diplomacy, or: The Great Divide of Principles over and after Corona More “Do It Alone” – or More Cooperation?

20Don’t Forget the Bizarre, the Surreal and the Perfidious From Mona Lisa to Sharon Stone and Global Terror

21Coronavirus Crisis Social Psychology Between Disorientation, Infodemic and the Need to Understand

22Conspiracy Theories Misusing the Crisis for Legitimating the Absurd in Times of “Fake News”

23The Perspective The Real Question is Not about covid-19, but about “the World after”


part 3
The Corona Challenge: Multi-Resilience for an Interconnected World Ridden by Crisis Bundles
24In Search of Examples of Efficient Resilience From the Evolutionary Teachings of Bats to Regional Self-administration within Political Autonomies to a “Flexible” Handling of Constitutions

25Crisis Resistance in the Face of Corona and in Anticipation of Potential Future Pandemics A Short Overview of Different Options of Socio-political Responses

26The Primordial Path to Follow Enhancing Resilience. Basic Philosophical Assumptions and Their Implications for Crisis-policy Design

27Revisioning the Concept of Resilience A Necessary Step (Not Only) after Corona

28Progressing from Resilience to Multi-resilience Two Basic Approaches
28.1 Prerequisites: Relevant Criteria

28.2 Complexify: Multi-resilience in a Systemic Perspective

28.3 Simplify: Multi-resilience in an Action-oriented Perspective


29Five Principles of Multi-resilience
29.1 Principle 1: Fostering Individual Resilience

29.2 Principle 2: Integrating Centralised and Decentralised Decision-making and Implementation

29.3 Principle 3: Problem-solving Practices with Knowns and Unknowns

29.4 Principle 4: Supporting and Enhancing Collective Intelligence through Participatory and Cross-sectoral Knowledge Management and Integration

29.5 Principle 5: Fostering “Resilience Culture” by Stimulating and Facilitating Collective Reasoning and Cohesion


30Summary. Multi-resilience A Crucial Topic to Shape “Globalisation 2.0”


part 4
Requirements for a Post-Corona World
31The Corona Effect and “Diseasescape” Towards Weaker, but More Realistic Globalisation and Transnationalisation?

32The Uncertainty about the Future of covid-19 Short-term Scenarios versus Big-picture Trends

33Technological Requirements Six Trends
33.1 Remote Working

33.2 eLearning

33.3 Telehealth

33.4 E-commerce and On-demand Economy

33.5 Automatisation

33.6 Increasing Use of Immersive Technologies


34Towards a Post-Corona World Seven Upcoming Conflict Lines Open Societies Should Prepare for
34.1 Nationalism versus Globalism

34.2 Freedom versus Safety

34.3 Professionalism versus Populism

34.4 Class: Rich versus Poor

34.5 Ethnicity (Racism)

34.6 Gender

34.7 Generation: Young versus Old


35The Post-Corona World Potentials and Visions for a “Better Globalised” International System
35.1 Idea Potentials: Policy-relevant Contributions by Intellectuals, Ecologists and Futurists

35.2 Universal Basic Income as a Driver towards Better Socio-economic Resilience?

35.3 Post-Growth and Degrowth as Responses to the Economic and Ecological Challenges in a Post-Corona World?


part 5
Post-Corona Policy Design
36Chances and Limits of Resilience The Development Paradox and the Increasing Danger of Man-made Disasters with Multi-sectoral Side Effects

37Towards a Broader and More Integrated Policy of Future Preparedness Contributions from Selected Guiding Concepts
37.1 A Brief Outline of Three Contemporary Coping Concepts: Development, Sustainability, Resilience

37.2 Development versus Sustainability versus Resilience: Similarities, Fault Lines and Potential (Realistic) Complementarities

37.3 Collective Wisdom as the Missing Connecting Principle towards Multi-Resilience?


38Fostering Local, National and International Paths towards Multi-resilience Leverage Points for Interrelated Social Change Bottom-up and Top-down
38.1 Education Programs for Individual Resilience

38.2 Bottom-up Transformational Impulses via Building Critical Masses for Positive Change

38.3 Experimental Prototyping Projects

38.4 Building Bridges between Subsystems

38.5 Methods of Communicative Complexity Management

38.6 Towards the Integration of Standards?


part 6
Recommendations for a Multi-Resilient Post-Corona World
39“Health Terror”? Towards an Adequate Framework for a Post-Corona Socio-political Philosophy “Resistance” and Power Critique Will Not Suffice

40Seven Strategic Recommendations for Pro-positive Multi-resilient Policymaking in the Post-Corona World of Open Societies
40.1 Recommendation 1: Include Competency Development to Become a Crucial Part of the Education System

40.2 Recommendation 2: Strengthen European-Western Simulation Methodology and Strategic Foresight

40.3 Recommendation 3: Strengthen Future Anticipation Capacities and (Potentially) Their Integration. From the Futures Cone and the Futures Diamond to Futures Literacy

40.4 Recommendation 4: Improve Communication through “Complexity Workers”

40.5 Recommendation 5: Refine Multi-level Governance

40.6 Recommendation 6: Expand and Improve International Cooperation

40.7 Recommendation 7: Sharpen Global “Crisis Automatisms” and Interconnected Responsibility Patterns on the Way to Global Governance


41Recommendations for Global Post-Corona Policymaking in an Increasingly Multipolar World
41.1 Five Policy Trajectories Proposed by the University of the United Nations – Leading to the Key Concept of “Futures Literacy”

41.2 The Forgotten Perspective: Instilling a More Encompassing and Trans-systemic Concept of Health and Healing?


part 7
Outlook. The Coronavirus Legacy: A “New World” Ahead – or back to Business as Usual?
42The (Productively) Ambiguous Post-Corona Vision A “New World” Ahead?

43“Corona Positivism” The Global Pandemic as an Unprecedented “Chance” for Radical Transformation – or Even as the Epochal Example for What (Social) Art Should Achieve?

44Corona as a Driver of Re-globalisation towards Post-Corona Globalisation

45A Post-Corona Core Task Re-positioning the Open Systems of Europe and the West by the Means of Multi-resilience

46An End to Geopolitical Rivalry? Not Likely – Despite Some Positive Signals

47Back to Business as Usual - Systemic Improvements at the “Evo-devo” Interface?

48Integrating the Obvious Post-Corona, Multi-Resilience and “Futures Literacy”: “Bring Together What belongs Together”

49Corona and Emerging New Responsibility Patterns

50Outlook: A Post-Corona World in the Making Towards Difficult, but Feasible Innovation – for the Sake of a More Pro-positive Re-globalisation

Afterword
Manfred B. Steger


Bibliographic References

Index

All interested in the global, glocal and societal dimensions of the Coronavirus crisis and the Post-Corona-discourse, as well as anyone concerned with the concept of “resilient societies” in the face of multiple, complex crises. Particularly apt for teaching and civil society debates.
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