This is not a course about finding answers. It is an invitation to rethink the questions.

The summer school offers 3 days of intense reflections about Complexity, Uncertainty and Governance of Knowledge. We are living through a metacrisis: not only a failure of prediction, but a loss of the conceptual and cultural frameworks needed to integrate scientific knowledge, meaning, and ecological constraints. This Summer School will give you the opportunity to discuss with scholars who have spent decades confronting the limits of science, and what it means to think, decide, and act when certainty is not available.

First, on Day 1, participants will be introduced to the concept of Complex Adaptive Systems, systems that become something else in time, while maintaining a recognizable identity. Human societies are canonical examples. The central question to be explored will be the following: “What does remain the same when societies become something else?” and thus, how should we frame an analysis of their sustainability? Key ideas here are autopoiesis and structural coupling, holons and holarchies, introduced using simple examples to illustrate the epistemological consequences of complexity—i.e., the limits of modelling and the unavoidable coexistence of non-reducible representations of Complex Adaptive Systems across scales. In the afternoon, contributions from the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission will connect these ideas with the EU bioeconomy. We will examine how modelling choices shape sustainability questions, and how a system of accounts for societal metabolism can help explore coherent and feasible transformations while making assumptions, interdependencies, and competing claims explicit. The discussion will also consider how institutional beliefs, strategic action, and the brokering of agreement shape the use of evidence and the possibilities for changing policy practice from within.

Next, on Day 2, participants will be guided directly to the heart of the crisis at the interface between science and policy. Starting from today’s most urgent challenges—environmental risks, technological transformations, political conflicts—we will discuss how the effective governance of these issues is challenged not by lack of data, but by the existence of irreducible uncertainty and conflicting values. In such conditions, the traditional ideal of science as a provider of certainty collapses, and Post-Normal Science is required to make processes of decision-making robust, transparent, and socially accountable—addressing situations where “facts are uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high, and decisions urgent.” In this different narrative, science is no longer a machine for producing truth, but a collective practice for navigating uncertainty. Building on the previous afternoon, case studies from the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission will explore strategic autonomy in wood products and dietary shifts. Participants will examine alternative framings and missing perspectives, then consider how the analysis might inform a policy briefing, identifying key messages, trade-offs, and the grounds for any recommendation. The exercise will explore what models can responsibly contribute to collective judgement under uncertainty.

On the last day, the conversation will address the most difficult territory of all: how societies live—or fail to live—with uncomfortable knowledge. We will show that ignorance is not simply a lack of information, but something actively produced within social systems. Why do societies resist bad news about their own future? Why do optimistic narratives persist even when evidence suggests otherwise? Through the lens of biosemiotics, identity, and socio-technical imaginaries, participants will examine the tension between what might be called “noble lies” (yes, we can) and “toxic truths” (we are in trouble). Here, scientific models give way to questions of meaning, narrative, and collective identity.

The programme concludes in an open afternoon session with our colleagues at the University of Florence and the participants of the parallel summer school on ecological macro-economics, a space for open conversation shaped by participants’ questions.

Teachers

• Mario Giampietro – ICREA Research Professor and Complexity Scientist; Member of the European Centre for Governance in Complexity (ECGC)
• Silvio Funtowicz – Mathematician and Philosopher of Science; Guest Researcher at the Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT), University of Bergen; Co-director of the European Centre for Governance in Complexity (ECGC); Silvio Funtowicz was awarded the 2025 Boulding Award prize in honor of Kenneth Boulding
• Sarah Mubareka – Scientific and Technical Officer at Joint Research Centre of the European Commission
• Ansel Renner – Consultant for the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission
• Jacopo Giuntoli – Consultant for the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission
• Art Berman – World-renowned energy consultant

Who should apply?

This summer school is designed for those willing to question foundational assumptions:
researchers, PhD students, master students, policymakers, consultants and practitioners working across sustainability, science and technology studies, science for governance, and complex systems. 

Practical Details and Important Dates

Organization and Venue

This summer school is organized by the LIPHE4 Scientific Association in collaboration with the Summer School on Ecological Macroeconomics and the Global South. It will take place in Florence, September 7–9, 2026. It will be held at the Santa Verdiana venue (Piazza Lorenzo Ghiberti, 27, 50122 Florence (FI), ITA) under the patronage of the University of Florence , the PhD program in Social Sciences for Sustainability and Wellbeing (S3W), and the International Society for Ecological Economics.

Accommodation

Participants are responsible for finding and booking their accommodation. HERE you can find a list of suggested accommodations together with Hotel Bonifacio. (If writing to info@hotelbonifacio.it, specify that you are coming for an event linked with the University of Florence.)

We recommend that you book your accommodation as soon as possible!

Registration

• Early registration: 350 €, before 15 June 2026
• Late registration: 450 €, until 1 August 2026

The registration fees cover tuition costs, materials, lunches, coffee breaks and the social dinner. All other expenses are the responsibility of the participants and will be paid by them.

LIPHE4 Summer Schools bring together a mix of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and professionals to transcend disciplinary boundaries, piece together the big picture of today’s most urgent sustainability problems and explore our radically uncertain future. Participants can expect both traditional lecture sessions and applied practical sessions conducted in small groups, which often extend into long-term collaborations and scientific papers. LIPHE4 Summer Schools provide an opportunity for early-career researchers to expand their research horizon and network as well as gain valuable experience “thinking outside the box” and working in transdisciplinary teams.