Navigating Complexity: Why Future Public Leaders Need The Atlas of Social Complexity

The preconference on Administrative and Local Government Studies 2025 will be held on Wednesday, November 19, 2025, from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM at the University of Vaasa Palosaari Campus (Wolffintie 32). The preconference is specifically aimed at doctoral students. The session will be chaired by Professor Brian Castellani from Durham University and Postdoctoral Researcher Patrik Nordin from the University of Vaasa. For the attendees presenting their research at the preconference both the preconference and the Thursday and Friday sessions of the conference will be free of charge.

The preconference will provide for a provocative and practical session on how the book The Atlas of Social Complexity (Castellani & Gerrits 2024) can reshape the way we train, lead, and govern in the 21st century.

Aimed at postgraduate students in public administration, management, and social policy, this event will challenge conventional thinking and offer a new lens for tackling today’s most urgent and interconnected policy issues — from climate adaptation to health inequality. Far from a traditional academic text, The Atlas is a visual and conceptual toolkit for making sense of the unpredictable, dynamic systems shaping our world.

Drawing on real-world case studies and systems thinking, we will show during this preconference how to move beyond linear solutions and embrace adaptive, relational, and ethical forms of governance, after which the intention is to discuss how complexity thinking can be applied and understood in different contexts within the framework of the attendees’ work.

Attendees of the preconference should send an approximately three-pages long extended abstract of their dissertation in English to Patrik Nordin at patrik.nordin@uwasa.fi by Monday, November 3, 2025.

Language of the preconference is English.