Coronavirus Crisis and Its Teachings

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.

• ForewordJan Nederveen PietersePrefaceAcknowledgementsList of FiguresOverview and Summarypart 1The Coronavirus Crisis1 Introduction “Do Nothing” or, an Epochal Crisis2 Systemic Unpreparedness Inducing a Variety of Psychological Reactions3 The Branches and Social Strata Hardest Hit A List to Be Carefully Remembered for the Next Systemic Rupture4 Were Nature and the Environment “Winners” of the Crisis? Disputed “Improvements” and Their Flip Sides5 Children and Relationships6 Labour and the Economy “Generation Corona”7 Corona and Re-Globalisation 1 Sharpening Awareness about the Differences between Political Systems and Their Growing Asymmetries8 A Battle for Values and Transformation Not Confined to Bilateral Competition, but Spanning the Globe9 Unprecedented Penetrative Depth Uplifting Technology, Changing Sexuality, Questioning Science?10 Corona and Re-Globalisation 2 Creating Conscience for National and International Reforms11 Intellectual Rhetoric between Cheap “Humanistic” Appeal and Kitsch12 “Humanised” Technology Instead of a New Humanism?13 A Boost to “Post-human Hybrid Intelligence” Such as Biological Espionage and Sentiment Analysis?14 Striking a Balance Was Corona a Watershed for Western Humanism and the Basic Rationality of the Enlightenment?15 The Vast Variety of Political Instrumentalisations16 Three More Far-reaching Aspects within Global Democracies and Open Societies Confirmation Bias, “Republican” Turn and Re-Globalisation Drivepart 2The Simultaneousness of Local, National and Global Effects17 An Unprecedented Crisis Accelerating the (Temporary?) Rupture of Advanced Life Patterns – Including Gender Role Models in Democracies18 “Unsocial Sociability” and the Re-shaping of the Global Order Anthropology and Politics Intertwined19 Medical Diplomacy, or: The Great Divide of Principles over and after Corona More “Do It Alone” – or More Cooperation?20 Don’t Forget the Bizarre, the Surreal and the Perfidious From Mona Lisa to Sharon Stone and Global Terror21 Coronavirus Crisis Social Psychology Between Disorientation, Infodemic and the Need to Understand22 Conspiracy Theories Misusing the Crisis for Legitimating the Absurd in Times of “Fake News”23 The Perspective The Real Question is Not about covid-19, but about “the World after”part 3The Corona Challenge: Multi-Resilience for an Interconnected World Ridden by Crisis Bundles24 In Search of Examples of Efficient Resilience From the Evolutionary Teachings of Bats to Regional Self-administration within Political Autonomies to a “Flexible” Handling of Constitutions25 Crisis Resistance in the Face of Corona and in Anticipation of Potential Future Pandemics A Short Overview of Different Options of Socio-political Responses26 The Primordial Path to Follow Enhancing Resilience. Basic Philosophical Assumptions and Their Implications for Crisis-policy Design27 Revisioning the Concept of Resilience A Necessary Step (Not Only) after Corona28 Progressing from Resilience to Multi-resilience Two Basic Approaches28.1 Prerequisites: Relevant Criteria28.2 Complexify: Multi-resilience in a Systemic Perspective28.3 Simplify: Multi-resilience in an Action-oriented Perspective29 Five Principles of Multi-resilience29.1 Principle 1: Fostering Individual Resilience29.2 Principle 2: Integrating Centralised and Decentralised Decision-making and Implementation29.3 Principle 3: Problem-solving Practices with Knowns and Unknowns29.4 Principle 4: Supporting and Enhancing Collective Intelligence through Participatory and Cross-sectoral Knowledge Management and Integration29.5 Principle 5: Fostering “Resilience Culture” by Stimulating and Facilitating Collective Reasoning and Cohesion30 Summary. Multi-resilience A Crucial Topic to Shape “Globalisation 2.0”part 4Requirements for a Post-Corona World31 The Corona Effect and “Diseasescape” Towards Weaker, but More Realistic Globalisation and Transnationalisation?32 The Uncertainty about the Future of covid-19 Short-term Scenarios versus Big-picture Trends33 Technological Requirements Six Trends33.1 Remote Working33.2 eLearning33.3 Telehealth33.4 E-commerce and On-demand Economy33.5 Automatisation33.6 Increasing Use of Immersive Technologies34 Towards a Post-Corona World Seven Upcoming Conflict Lines Open Societies Should Prepare for34.1 Nationalism versus Globalism34.2 Freedom versus Safety34.3 Professionalism versus Populism34.4 Class: Rich versus Poor34.5 Ethnicity (Racism)34.6 Gender34.7 Generation: Young versus Old35 The Post-Corona World Potentials and Visions for a “Better Globalised” International System35.1 Idea Potentials: Policy-relevant Contributions by Intellectuals, Ecologists and Futurists35.2 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 5Post-Corona Policy Design36 Chances and Limits of Resilience The Development Paradox and the Increasing Danger of Man-made Disasters with Multi-sectoral Side Effects37 Towards a Broader and More Integrated Policy of Future Preparedness Contributions from Selected Guiding Concepts37.1 A Brief Outline of Three Contemporary Coping Concepts: Development, Sustainability, Resilience37.2 Development versus Sustainability versus Resilience: Similarities, Fault Lines and Potential (Realistic) Complementarities37.3 Collective Wisdom as the Missing Connecting Principle towards Multi-Resilience?38 Fostering Local, National and International Paths towards Multi-resilience Leverage Points for Interrelated Social Change Bottom-up and Top-down38.1 Education Programs for Individual Resilience38.2 Bottom-up Transformational Impulses via Building Critical Masses for Positive Change38.3 Experimental Prototyping Projects38.4 Building Bridges between Subsystems38.5 Methods of Communicative Complexity Management38.6 Towards the Integration of Standards?part 6Recommendations for a Multi-Resilient Post-Corona World39 “Health Terror”? Towards an Adequate Framework for a Post-Corona Socio-political Philosophy “Resistance” and Power Critique Will Not Suffice40 Seven Strategic Recommendations for Pro-positive Multi-resilient Policymaking in the Post-Corona World of Open Societies40.1 Recommendation 1: Include Competency Development to Become a Crucial Part of the Education System40.2 Recommendation 2: Strengthen European-Western Simulation Methodology and Strategic Foresight40.3 Recommendation 3: Strengthen Future Anticipation Capacities and (Potentially) Their Integration. From the Futures Cone and the Futures Diamond to Futures Literacy40.4 Recommendation 4: Improve Communication through “Complexity Workers”40.5 Recommendation 5: Refine Multi-level Governance40.6 Recommendation 6: Expand and Improve International Cooperation40.7 Recommendation 7: Sharpen Global “Crisis Automatisms” and Interconnected Responsibility Patterns on the Way to Global Governance41 Recommendations for Global Post-Corona Policymaking in an Increasingly Multipolar World41.1 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 7Outlook. The Coronavirus Legacy: A “New World” Ahead – or back to Business as Usual?42 The (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?44 Corona as a Driver of Re-globalisation towards Post-Corona Globalisation45 A Post-Corona Core Task Re-positioning the Open Systems of Europe and the West by the Means of Multi-resilience46 An End to Geopolitical Rivalry? Not Likely – Despite Some Positive Signals47 Back to Business as Usual - Systemic Improvements at the “Evo-devo” Interface?48 Integrating the Obvious Post-Corona, Multi-Resilience and “Futures Literacy”: “Bring Together What belongs Together”49 Corona and Emerging New Responsibility Patterns50 Outlook: A Post-Corona World in the Making Towards Difficult, but Feasible Innovation – for the Sake of a More Pro-positive Re-globalisationAfterwordManfred B. StegerBibliographic ReferencesIndex

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