Lost in Postnormal Times

What is it about?

Postnormal thinkers go beyond accepting the loss of what was once considered normal and shedding former ideologies of progress and effi- ciency. They suggest that navigation through the high sea risks of the present requires reliance on the markers of ethics, creativity, imagination and polylogues, if we are to do anything more than survive, and even perhaps improve the state of the world. I use the examples of two very different but historically linked places in the world – one on the European continent and another on the African continent – to illustrate the uncertainty that is characteristic of postnormal times. I put forward the argument of PT theory that artists may have a crucial role to play in exemplifying the polylogues that we need to engage in, if we are to see ahead.

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Why is it important?

Are we lost ‘just’ because the complex, even chaotic, larger wholes to which we belong generate uncertainty? What are the uncertainties faced by real people in real places, and what broader contexts can play a role? If PT thinkers count on ethics, creativity and imagination for navigating postnormal times, and elect a special role for artists, then how do artists embedded in specific local communities actually contribute to the much needed adjustment (or shattering to bits) of manufactured normalcy?

Perspectives