Generation C – 2020
The 2020 Annual Complexity Symposium entitled – Generation C – took place virtually during the week of June 15.
Against the backdrop of an unfolding pandemic, CfC organized a five-day virtual symposium focused on the profound global impact of COVID-19. and calls for racial justice, including the changes triggered with issues of climate, capitalism, community and complexity.
Participants from 65 countries around the world contributed ideas and expertise from myriad disciplines.
The core of the week-long event was a series of essays organized around seven themes:
Culture & Constructs
Collapse & (re)Construct
Chaos & Control
Contact & Constraints
Crisis & Capacity
Commons & Capital
Compasses & Calibrations
In addition to the above themes, the symposium also included offerings from front-line healthcare practitioners through their reflections and analysis to the frame: 21st Century Structures of Care – How Should Emergency Medicine Transition from Covid? These unique insights, powerfully delivered, exposed the ecology of issues and dependencies; the vulnerabilities and strengths exposed by what Dr. Gina Siddiqui described as the “complex global phenomena” of COVID-19.
Three months prior to the symposium—on March 11, 2020—the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. In his incisive reporting of the crisis, science journalist Ed Yong refers to Generation C as those born into a world that will be “profoundly altered” by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. We chose Generation C as the title of our symposium to suggest the generational changes that will be needed to address ongoing and emergent challenges in structures such as capitalism, climate, and community.
Through the symposium format, CfC assembled a group of thinkers and makers to offer their initial insights about this extraordinary moment in history. This thought-provoking compilation of collective wisdom can be read in it’s entirety on the symposium website – www.generationc.xyz – and as a digital publication (downloadable here).
