A World in Emergency and Emergence

Challenges ahead: how the recent past is shaping the research agenda

Over the last five years, the word ‘emergency’ has been a recurrent term in different domains of human culture and activities. However, this is more than a grim picture on the many critical issues that our societies nowadays need to face. Sergio Altomonte (Université catholique de Louvain) offers a positive interpretation of this state of ‘emergency’, moving forward from its common understanding as ‘an unexpected and difficult or dangerous situation […] which requires quick action.’

Through the sudden chain of events that we have witnessed since 2020, the word ‘emergency ‘has been frequently used alongside another term that has strongly characterised our times: ‘crisis’. Crisis can be understood as ‘an unstable period […] of extreme trouble’ (Collins Dictionary n.d.), although the meaning of this term is fundamentally different from its current use, as deriving from the Greek word κρισις (krisis), whose connotation is actually that of ‘a separation, a decision, a turning point’ (Collins Dictionary n.d.).

Many think that the onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020 marked the turning point of a new era in the Anthropocene, to the point that the acronym B.C. has sometimes been used to refer to the years before the appearance of the Coronavirus disease (before COVID) (Friedman 2020). Indeed, over the last five years, the world has undergone significant changes in politics, climate, technology, healthcare, how we interact and communicate with each other, how we learn and work, how we move around and travel the world.

Politically, a significant rise in populism and nationalism movements has occurred in several countries. This may be due to an unsettled geopolitical landscape, with rising tensions between powers, ongoing conflicts in different parts of the world, and tragic phenomena such as refugees and migration trends. These have led to dramatic humanitarian concerns, increased incidence of extreme poverty, but also to apprehensions regarding international trade and cooperation, disruption in global supply chains, and severe impacts on energy security. Climate change has become an even more conspicuous phenomenon, with higher frequency and intensity of extreme weather events all over the globe. This has led some governments to commit to sustainability initiatives to reduce their carbon emissions and transition to renewable energy sources (e.g. in Europe, the Green Deal and the Next Generation EU recovery fund). However, the lack of progress in emission goal settings and carbon neutrality goals have only emphasised the need for more resolute and concerted action at many different levels (Altomonte & Altomonte 2023).

Yet, dynamic system theory states that when a system (in our case, the global economic, social and ecological infrastructure) becomes stressed or unstable, it is more susceptible to radical developments (Schöner 2009). Critically, as much as the word ‘emergency’ shares its etymological root with the term ‘emergence’ ¹ (from the Latin emergere: ‘to rise up’), not all changes of the post-COVID era have been negative.

The spread of the Coronavirus disease, in fact, might have also served as an engine for innovation.

In terms of technology, progress since 2020 has advanced at rapid pace in areas such as interactive communication, virtual and augmented reality, and the Internet of Things (e.g. due to the rollout of 5G connectivity and smart systems). The rise of artificial intelligence (e.g. generative models) and digital culture, supported by shifts in monetary policy and economic strategies, have been contributing to transform industries and economies, enhancing automation and data analysis. Social media has continued to play an increasingly prominent role in people's lives, impacting communication, collaboration and triggering changes in culture, habits and lifestyles whose roots had been covertly emerging for long. Increased awareness of the relevance of mental health, alongside physical well-being, together with the recognition of the needs for racial and gender equality, have become more prevalent. The social distancing restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus also facilitated the growing use of tele-medicine, allowing patients to receive medical care remotely, while prompting research, international co-operation and data sharing for vaccine development and distribution.

The COVID lockdowns have also served for uncovering new opportunities in education, making it more technology-based than it was before, and in work practices and policies. For example, during and after the COVID pandemic, remote and hybrid work – these terms referring to the combination of multiple working locations, ranging from physical spaces to virtual environments (Lauring & Jonasson 2024) – have drastically impacted the very idea of the office as a workplace. As our society has grown more interconnected, and following the pace of digital transformation trends, employees have acquired new skills on a range of communication technologies and collaboration platforms, while the office – intended as an actual physical space – has started to become merely a location where to develop corporate culture through meetings and social events, and to host clients. Schools and universities have also drastically evolved, with more content being created and disseminated online, asynchronous learning made more adaptable in space and time, and interactive assessments offering added flexibility to students.

Of course, the effects of these recent new practices are yet to be ascertained for personal connections, individual and collective well-being, learning, job performance, environmental impacts and energy use (e.g. for lighting, heating, cooling, mobility, etc.) (Taşer et al. 2023). This calls for a more thorough understanding of the financial, technical, societal, and environmental challenges resulting from the multi-faceted connotations of the post-pandemic era. However, not only are the recent developments we have witnessed leading to lasting changes in socio-cultural and economic dynamics, they are also changing the ways in which we design, operate and inhabit our buildings and cities.

In its acceleration of already-existing trends within the construction industry, the post-pandemic era might have shown that change is possible even in domains of human activity that have traditionally been reluctant to sudden modification and evolution. Not only have innovations been fuelled by the integration in building practices of technological progress and more responsible recognition of the environmental imperatives that our world needs to respond to, but also by shifts in clients’ and users’ demands, evolving regulations, and an increased focus on skilled training and (online) education (McKinsey & Company 2020). Advancements have included the adoption of design practices and building techniques to improve efficiency, collaboration and accuracy (e.g. building information modelling (BIM), parametric software, augmented and virtual reality, drones, etc.), a more targeted focus on renewable energy sources, energy-efficient materials, smart grids and monitoring systems, environmentally-friendly construction technologies, life-cycle analysis, recycling and renovation techniques, as well as an increased awareness of the needs for flexible, activity-based, and adaptable spatial organisations, and the relevance of personal health and welfare. The design and the operation of the buildings and cities that, today and for years to come, mediate our experiences – dictating our environmental stimulations, nourishing the rhythms of our lives, hosting our social and working interactions – are part of a wider set of challenges that we, as a species, are collectively called to address. We do not know what the future holds. Yet, we need to swiftly identify the forces that can push the change forward and nurture progress if we want to keep sustaining our very life and existence on a fragile planet of limited resources.

As the Italian writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1960) famously wrote, ‘if we want things to stay as they are, things will have to continuously change’. These emergencies provide opportunities for the research community to not only distil key lessons but also to shape the change processes, and provide evidence and rationale, to ensure the world thrives in the present and in the future.

Note

1. The concept of emergence can be traced back to Aristotle and its Metaphysics book, and it was used, among others, by philosopher G.H. Lewis (1875: 369) when ‘there is a co-operation of things of unlike kinds. The emergent is unlike its components insofar as these are incommensurable, and it cannot be reduced to their sum or their difference’.

References

Altomonte, S., Altomonte, C. (202)3. COP27: a step ahead or a missed opportunity? [commentary] Buildings and Cities. https://www.buildingsandcities.org/insights/commentaries/cop27-step-ahead-missed-opportunity.html

Aristotle (n.d)  Metaphysics. Book VIII (Eta) 1045a 8–10.

Collins Dictionary (n.d)

Friedman, T.L. (2020). Our new historical divide: B.C. and A.C. — the World Before Corona and the World After. The New York Times.https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/opinion/coronavirus-trends.html

Lauring, J., Jonasson, C. (2024). What is hybrid work? Towards greater conceptual clarity of a common term and understanding its consequences. Human Resource Management Review, 10144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2024.101044

Lewes, G.H. (1875). Problems of Life and Mind. First Series: The Foundations of a Creed. Vol. 2. Boston: Osgood.

McKinsey & Company. (2020). The next normal in construction How disruption is reshaping the world’s largest ecosystem. https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/capital%20projects%20and%20infrastructure/our%20insights/the%20next%20normal%20in%20construction/executive-summary_the-next-normal-in-construction.pdf

Schöner, G. (2009). Development as change of system dynamics: stability, instability, and emergence. In: John Spencer (ed.). Toward a Unified Theory of Development Connectionism and Dynamic System Theory Re-Consider. New York: Oxford Academic. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195300598.003.0002

Taşer, A., Altomonte, S. & Jeanmart, H. (2023). Sustaining the future hybrid workplace. Conference on Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Research for Sustainable Development. Louvain-la-Neuve: UCLouvain, 24 November 2023.

Tomasi di Lampedusa, G. (1960). Il Gattopardo (trad. The Leopard). Feltrinelli.

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