Prague | Social Distrust, Entropy, Complexity, and Curiosity in the Digital Age

April 22, CEVro institut
 

The Prague workshop invites participants to critically examine the shifting foundations of social cohesion and institutional trust within increasingly complex and data-saturated environments. As systems grow more interdependent and less predictable, the workshop foregrounds the role of entropy—not merely as disorder, but as a defining condition of modern societies—and asks how individuals and communities can navigate uncertainty without retreating into oversimplification or cynicism. In particular, it addresses the cognitive pressures imposed by constant information flows and algorithmic environments, where overload can impair discernment, deepen distrust, and erode public reasoning. Grounded in interdisciplinary dialogue, the workshop offers a platform for participants to articulate their most deeply held perspectives on today’s challenges, envision the futures they aspire to, and explore actionable pathways for getting there. Central to this process is the cultivation of genuine curiosity as both an intellectual stance and a social practice—one that enables participants to engage across difference and complexity with openness, nuance, and strategic imagination.

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Bratislava | Fear, Hope, and the Future: Security Beyond Borders and Beyond Arms in the Digital Age

5 may, globsec, bratislava
 

The Bratislava workshop invites participants to rethink security not as a fixed doctrine, but as a dynamic, deeply human construct shaped by identity, trust, and collective imagination. In an age where complexity outpaces prediction and threats are as much psychological and societal as they are physical, traditional notions of defense are increasingly insufficient. This workshop explores how fear and hope inform our responses to uncertainty, how values underpin resilience, and how ontological security—the sense of continuity and coherence in our self- and world-perception—can be either fortified or fractured. Particular attention will be given to the cognitive dimensions of living in high-velocity informational ecosystems, where overload, disorientation, and decision fatigue challenge both personal and societal capacities for informed judgment. Participants will interrogate what it means to feel secure in a digitized, interdependent world and will be encouraged to articulate alternative frameworks that prioritize societal cohesion, moral clarity, and adaptability. As with the broader ReDefine Next 100 initiative, genuine curiosity will serve as a cornerstone: an intellectual and civic imperative for navigating complexity with both critical insight and ethical commitment.

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Warsaw | Treading Global Quicksands: Social Justice, Trade, Energy Transition, and the Price of Keeping the World Open

13 may 15:30 - 17:00, OSW, Warsaw
 

The Warsaw workshop addresses one of the most intricate dilemmas of our time: how to sustain openness and global interdependence amid rising economic nationalism, contested transitions, and shifting geoeconomic fault lines. As the world faces overlapping pressures—from disrupted trade flows and critical resource dependencies to the urgent demands of energy and digital transition—this workshop explores how social justice can serve as both a normative foundation and a stabilizing force in a fragmented landscape. Participants will examine the political and psychological dimensions of these transitions, including the fear of loss, the rhetoric of sovereignty, and the perceived trade-offs between security, competitiveness, and fairness.

Particular attention will be given to the strategic ambiguity that increasingly shape policymaking and public debate—where accelerated change, conflicting priorities, and opaque interdependencies blur the line between short-term reaction and long-term vision. Against this backdrop, the workshop offers a space to interrogate how just transitions—grounded in equity, inclusion, and long-range thinking—can become prerequisites for keeping the global system open and resilient. Through interdisciplinary dialogue and reflective engagement, participants will be encouraged to ask not only how the world is changing, but for whom and to what end. As in the previous gatherings, genuine curiosity will serve as the guiding principle: a means of navigating complexity without paralysis, and of transforming confusion into informed and imaginative agency.

Anchored in GARI’s pioneering Digital Twin of the Globalized World—a comprehensive data ontology designed to model the complexity and entropy of contemporary global systems—the program offers participants a structured journey through team-based competitions, expert-led mentorship, and solution-oriented workshops. 

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SPEAKERS & PARTICIPANTS
Michal Kořan, Founder & President, Global Arena Research Institute
Jakub Jakóbowski, Deputy Director, Center for Eastern Studies (OSW)
Moderated by Odessa Primus, Director of the Global Arena Research Institute
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IF YOU'D LIKE TO JOIN THE DISCUSSIONS - email odessa@globari.org

If you'd like to join the discussions in a more active role as a partner, speaker, or collaborator, please contact odessa@globari.org.​​