Complex Anarchism Symposium, 19-23 May 2025 in Brussels

About

With the upcoming Complex Anarchism Symposium, we will be exploring the intersection between anarchism and complexity science. Anarchy, despite its popular definition as a state of disorder, is rather a mode of being where we organize ourselves voluntarily, that is, without coercion from a central controller or hierarchical system. Such decentralized organization happens to be a characteristic feature of many complex systems -- with their many interacting components, these systems exhibit emergent patterns and self-organized goals. During the symposium, we aim to apply and explore the interplay between these practices and concepts in order to experiment with alternative ways to organize our society.

Below you can find more information on suggested topics, methodology and ways to contribute. In our vision text you can find more background info on the motivations and ideas underpinning this event.

Time and location

Timing: May 19-23, 2025
Location: Brussels region, Belgium. 

• From Monday evening to Friday, we will be staying at 'Den Everketel', a scouting location in Vilvoorde, near Brussels. Sleeping options include a dormitory or tents. Breakfasts are at 8h30, the symposium starts at 9h30 (people can also join from then on).
• On Monday (and possibly Friday), we will spend the day at the Caldarium in Brussels (Wautierstraat 121, 1020 Laken), starting at 10 am. If you can only join for one day, Monday is the best option.

For a description on how to reach those locations, see our How to get page.

It is possible to sleep at the Everketel the night of Sunday to Monday. For other days before or after the symposium, we should also be able to provide a sleeping place with locals - contact us if needed (by first filling in the form if not done already).

Costs + Funding

We ask for a sliding-scale or free donation, either to cover basic living costs or to support the expenses of the organizers, some speakers, and those who cannot afford to contribute as much.

Sliding scale fee:

• 0-120: lower tier → balanced through collective contributions
• 120: basic → covers rent / food / technical aspects
• 200: standard → covers basic + travel expenses for contributors and organizers
• 400: standard + solidarity / those externally funded → covers basic + expenses for contributors and organizers + those in needs

Those prices are for the five days - if you are attending fewer days, it is of course ok to contribute a proportional amount.

We’re on a shoestring budget. At the moment, production costs are low (550 euro rent for 5 days), but we are still looking for catering/technical options. We will update you as soon as the costs are confirmed.

We are also applying to a couple funding options with some optimism, but we have the chance of being denied. Due to this uncertainty, as well as amount limits, we strongly request anybody with access to institutional/external funds to help support those in need. In order to comfortably allow them access, we need to plan ahead and coordinate such allocations. Please look into any options you may have and apply on time!

We now have a crowdfunding campaign running to gather more funds - so share along: https://gofund.me/65f71936 !

Program

We will follow a gradient with in the first two days more traditional 'input' talks, and in the last days more unconference style. Following are the general flavours per day:

• Monday: Gathering ground: introduction to complexity and anarchism, mapping out questions and the field, intro to economical and biological perspective
• Tuesday: Going deep: core concepts, philosophical, economical and and biological perspective
• Wednesday: Applying: anarchist strategy&decision-making, sharing experiences, movement&play
• Thursday: Going forward: future implications of ideas from the previous days, how to continue this community after the symposium
• Friday: Going out:  ending and social activities (city tour revolutionary Brussels)

We saw several tracks emerging, below we mention which days those will be mostly touched:

• alternative oeconomy: Monday&Tuesday
• anarchist strategy & decision-making: Monday and Wednesday
• biological perspective: Monday&Tuesday
• Philosophy / core concepts / complexity: Tuesday
• Movement/play/games/embodiment: Wednesday/all days
• Sharing experiences: Wednesday
• Future: Thursday

Get involved

We encourage any and all who want to bring their unique perspective or interests to our event.

If you wish to attend, please fill out this form as soon as possible. That way, we can estimate the number of participants, constraints, desires, shareable skills/equipment, and can contact you later with more info.

We are quite full for activities at the moment. There will be space for impromptu activities. If you already made a proposal, you can update it at propositions ; and if you would still want to do something, you can also add it and we'll see if it is still possible to fit in.

If you want to contribute to our organisation directly, please reach out via the same form. We have a Notion space for asynchronous collaboration, regular online meetings, and a Signal group for communication. If you can think of other people, places, organizations, or email lists where there might be interest, do not hesitate to share!

Topics

Across disciplines

• How can complex systems concepts help us self-organize within and between groups and societies?
• How could anarchistic principles structure human collaboration?
• How can we learn from spontaneous coordination of animals, body parts, or neurons to better organize human collectives?

Across scales

• How do system constraints and network structures (collectives vs. hierarchies) incentivize individual strategies (altruism vs. competition)?
• How do individual properties (homogeneity vs. heterogeneity) influence group-level information processing (coherence vs. adaptability)?

Alternative perspectives

• How could a decentralized economic system work (oeconomy)? How can we reorganize society to prioritize common goods or living conditions (degrowth)?
• Which kinds of features could help prevent entrapment in ‘vicious cycles’ (of corruption, wealth inequality, addiction)?
• How can we use different mathematical structures that are more 'anarchistic', e.g. not following a total order?
• How would bottom-up (active/direct) participation in complex systems differ from top-down prediction and control?

Realizing change

• How could anarchism and co-creative mutual aid groups evolve in the future?
• What role can people with a background in exact sciences play in social practices?

Methodology/concept

Our aim is to put theory into practice – to create a self-organised space for experimentation and collaboration across disciplines and scales. Rather than one-sided information transmission of typical conferences, we will develop alternative means to bring each other together and facilitate spontaneous exchange of ideas and practices. Think about unconference, open space technology, games to illustrate concepts, simulation games, LARP, future narrating, projects, hackaton, relational mapping, map out the symposium, the symposium as a game/challenge, discussions, talks, co-creation of a paper/zine, etc.

The symposium is largely structured by a gradient between input and collaboration over the five days. The first two days will consist mainly of talks in order to both share experience and inspire new thought. The last two days, on the other hand, will focus on self-organized exchange between those with similar interests and to stimulate future partnerships, whether it be scientific studies or social organizations. The self-organized exchange will feature planned activities such as interactive games and workshops, and allow for spontaneously organized discussions, as per the interest of the participants.  Each day will step forward, emphasizing the intention to establish relations that last beyond this event.

In-Person/Hybrid + Attendance

Due in part to technical limitations, in part our desire for in-person contact, we will limit our Zoom/hybrid connection. We are weighing options as to when and how much connection to plan.

The reality of hybrid attendance is that you will get a block of time to give a talk, you can stay for the rest of the hybrid symposium, but you will unfortunately miss out on some in-person connection and discussion.

Deadlines

Please register as soon as possible through following Form if you plan to come, so that we can arrange logistics. The official deadline for registration has passed,  but it is still possible to join later if space allows. For activities our program is already quite full.

Vision

For a deeper exploration of the motivations and ideas underpinning this event, see our Vision. This text can also provide more background on the aforementioned topics.

Can't get enough?

On Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 May, 2025, the Imaginary Institute takes place  at CLEA, Brussels. So join us for a week-long deep-dive into self-organisation, play, and radical imagination.