If you want to learn and change the world in the process, you have to network and connect. And that’s exactly what we’ve done for and with this issue. Because we believe that we need to build new networks so that people can educate and develop in such a way that they can change the world.
In the WITTEN LAB future lab Studium fundamentale, we want to meet the infinite variety of connections and connection possibilities of our highly networked world with a diversity of perspectives, possibilities for knowledge and action by building a network of as many, as diverse people as possible – with very different ideas, ways of thinking, skills and experiences that complement, contradict, irritate each other and connect in new ways. So that what we most urgently need can emerge if we want to change the world: Creativity.
We are convinced that increasing diversity and variety in networks is the best way to break up entrenched patterns of thinking and behavior and to experiment with new patterns and solutions. This is because it creates unexpected feedbacks, productive disruptions, instabilities, periods of uncertainty and transitions into the unknown in network systems. And this is exactly what forces us to become creative.
No one can foresee or estimate the dynamics and interactions of the networks we humans have created. The only thing that is clear is that the global interconnectedness between different social, political, economic, technical and ecological systems has reached unprecedented levels. And as this interconnectedness increases, so does the danger that these complex, inherently dynamic systems will lose the equilibrium in which our lives and well-being are possible. Everything we do can spread unstoppably and unpredictably in these networks and have drastic unintended consequences. Therefore, in this confusing, uncertain and risky world, we should learn to recognize and understand how networks work – and in which networks we can become effective if we want to make the connections of our world and the connections between people meaningful, good and worth living. Because with more connections, not only opportunities grow, but also responsibility.
With this in mind, we have called into the networks of this university – and elicited more response than we could manage. And for what we were able to bring together in this issue, we are grateful. Networks – we have learned in the process – are not just the sum of their connections. They represent an infinite variety of linkage possibilities that only become active and effective when we ourselves seek out new connections and muster the energy to activate them.
Students have experienced how easy it can be to make contact with people all over the world who might have answers to their very own questions – and how willing these smart, experienced and inspiring people are to give them answers to their questions. We have experienced that lecturers have directed their enormous knowledge potentials to our topic in order to give us completely new impulses for thinking and to point out connections that can only exist from their point of view. And we got to talk to former students who, from and with their networks, wanted to give us exciting insights into our questions that we would never have had otherwise.
The diversity of thoughts, perspectives, impulses, projects and initiatives that emerged and came together in this way showed us that our network for new learning opportunities is much more far-reaching and global than we had even remotely assumed. As WITTEN LAB Zukunftslabor Studium fundamentale, we want to use and develop this potential in the future to open up new subject areas and create new experimental spaces for education and self-determined learning – breaking disciplines, breaking conventions, crossing borders with social relevance. To invite a diversity of new people from all walks of life and societies to join us, bringing their knowledge, experience, agency, and networks. And to let student learning projects and change initiatives emerge, to promote and accompany them, in which young people can learn already while learning that and how they can change the world.
This booklet is an expression of a lively network of people who have already joined us for this new form of education: Max von Abendroth, Dirk Baecker, Sebastian Benkhofer, Renate Buschmann, Jonas Brockmann, Margaret Ellis, Ursula Endlicher, Jakob Fels, Hans-Joachim Grabow, Gina Graefe, Tereza Havlíková, Maximilian Heimstädt, Martin Henrich, Lars Hinrichs, Alexandra Hofmann, David Hornemann von Laer, Thomas Hübl, Johanna Hueck, Christina Hunger-Schoppe, Alexander Jakobidze-Gitman, Lisa Jasch, Heiko Kleve, Britta Koch, Oliver Köninck, Hannah Kümper, Jens Lanfer, Andreas Lingg, Ali Mahlodji, Kazuma Matoba, Maren M. Michaelsen, Guido Möllering, Günther Ortmann, Anneliese Ostertag, Orestis Papakyriakopoulos, Tabea Rossol, Guiomar Rovira Sancho, Robert Sakrowski, Andre Schmidt, Felix Schwabedal, Alexander Schwitteck, Rebecca Palm, Lara Perski, Giulia Priol, Sibylle Reick, Arist von Schlippe, Manouchehr Shamsrizi, Philipp Sille, Domenik Treß, Klaas Werner, Linda von Velsen, Katja Weber, Carla Weymann, Johannes Wiek, Angelika Wulff, Hannah Zirngiebl and many more. And it is at the same time the invitation to become part of our network and to connect with us. To think together, to act together, to learn new things – and thereby to bring the world together into a meaningful, good and livable change.