The World and the Earth: in Conversation with David Van Reybrouck

David Van Reybrouck reflects on democracy and humanity’s relationship with the Earth. How can our institutions respond to challenges that affect the entire planet? What would politics look like if it took the interests of future generations and the living world seriously? In conversation with moderator Meta Knol, writer, historian and Denker der Nederlanden (‘Thinker of the Netherlands’) David Van Reybrouck reflects on democracy and humanity’s relationship with the Earth. In his essay The World and the Earth, Van Reybrouck argues that the defining challenge of our time is not only the conflict between nations, but the growing instability of the planet itself. As climate change, environmental degradation and ecological disruption increasingly determine what our societies look like, established political systems struggle to deal with crises that transcend borders. David Van Reybrouck and moderator Meta Knol explore how our understanding of politics, democracy and responsibility might evolve to include not just the world, understood as the human-made political order, but the Earth itself. They discuss the central ideas of The World and the Earth, drawing on examples from the cultural field that offer alternative ways of imagining politics, diplomacy and representation, including practices that give nature and the living world a voice. Programme 19:00 – Doors open 19:30 – Welcome and introduction 19:40 – Conversation between David Van Reybrouck and Meta Knol. With interludes with artists, researchers and designers, among whom Julien Thomas. 20:30 – Audience Q&A 21:00 – Closing remarks 21:15 – End Encounters This event is organised with DutchCulture as part of ENCOUNTERS, a programme running from 16–22 November that brings together existing international cultural initiatives to reflect on a shared question: at a moment when both societies and individuals seem to be retreating, behind borders and into isolation, what kinds of encounters do we need instead?