Delighted to have been invited to sit on a panel at the 20th annual GLOBSEC conference, #GLOBSEC2025 in Prague. The conference opened with urgent addresses from Róbert Vass (President and Founder of GLOBSEC) and Petr Pavel (President of Czechia) on the importance of unified approaches to global challenges, and looking at what we mean by ‘resilience’ and ‘defence’ in holistic ways. Directly followed by a compelling and charismatic online address from Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Although the complexity of global challenges are writ large at a summit like this, all the conversations this morning have reflected in some way on “resilience” as a force for hope
This is at the centre of Performing City Resilience. If we do not understand the arts and cultural production (across multiple practices) as strategically important to societal resilience, then we run the risk of losing sight of their power as drivers of hope, as providers of fantastical and innovative solutions to complex problems, and as means of imaging and planning for better new worlds. A utopian idea? Maybe, but our research has evidenced the strategic advantage leveraged by approaching resilience challenges with and through the arts time and again. This is not to say the arts should be put into the service of resilience – quite the opposite in fact: let’s understand artists, culture bearers, and cultural organisations as strategic resilience leaders because of the work they are already engage in… and let’s value that work accordingly.
As part of this, and in response to a fascinating panel on ‘Free Media in Resilient Cities’, I’d argue that we need to think much more strategically about the role of education in how we imagine global security going forward. Indeed, education has only been mentioned once in the panels I’ve been to today, but it must be at the core of all aspects of the questions being asked at GLOBSEC this week. In the context of free media and the challenges posed by dis- and mis-information, AI, and malign representations of multiple kinds do we not need much more carefully to think about the role of education as a critical aspect of resilience development? If we are to think strategically about the future of free media, do we not need to invest much more fully in digital literacy, the development of critical thinking and tools for the analysis of the representations we receive? Disciplines like cultural studies, digital communication, media theory and performance studies (I would say this) need to be part of the fabric of our educational strategies from primary education onwards if we are to provide the skills needed to address the resilience challenges that are posed by dis- and mis-information, state sanctioned propaganda, and unregulated or unthinking development of AI.
While possibly something of a disciplinary/industry outlier, it’s fascinating to be at GLOBSEC25 to represent Performing City Resilience and to bring forms of performance practice and analysis to the conversations here. I’m speaking on Saturday at 9.40am on the panel ‘Cultural Frontlines: An Artist’s Toolkit’ on the Albright Stage – come along if you are at the conference!
