Using complexity science to make sense of and navigate interesting times

Webinar Presented By:  Professor Vanessa Schweizer, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo

Speaker Bio:  Dr. Vanessa Schweizer is an Associate Professor of Knowledge Integration at the University of Waterloo in the Faculty of Environment.  She is also a faculty member at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and Director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation.  Her research focuses on the integration of qualitative and quantitative knowledge for constructing socio-technical scenarios as well as computational, complexity-based methods for ‘discovering’ scenarios.  Her work has focused primarily on climate change and the low-carbon energy transition.

Abstract:  Historically, "interesting times" have referred to times of social upheaval, especially wartime.  What makes now such an interesting time is the simultaneous management of acute and chronic global crises, namely the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change respectively.  This talk highlights the complexities of such problems, which simultaneously span global and local scales.  Scenario analysis will be introduced as a method that surfaces possible alternative futures to make sense of them and navigate between them.  A complexity-based scenario method, cross-impact balances, will also be introduced as a powerful way to engage diverse, multidisciplinary perspectives to make sense of and navigate interesting times.

Date and Time:  October 5, 2021 | 1:00 p.m.

Location:  Online

Free Event | All Welcome | Register Here

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