Aspen Kyiv–UK Leadership Bridge Participants Meet for the Programme’s Second Seminar
On 17 September, Aspen Kyiv–UK Leadership Bridge programme participants from Ukraine and the United Kingdom came together for the online seminar Leadership in the Age of Fragmented Reality. This was the programme’s second gathering, following the seminar held in Cambridge in June this year.
How can we preserve a common world when reality is becoming increasingly fragmented? This question was at the heart of the seminar. Participants explored what allows us to remain part of a common world when we increasingly see and interpret reality differently.
The conversation focused on language and trust, facts and interpretations, and our ability to see the world from another perspective. Participants considered how an abundance of information may not bring us closer to understanding but, on the contrary, deepen fragmentation; how social media and algorithms are changing our attention and the way we perceive reality; why narratives can both bring people together and divide them; and the personal responsibility we bear for the words, facts, and stories we accept and pass on.
The dialogue drew on texts by Hannah Arendt, Byung-Chul Han, and Timothy Snyder, as well as poetry by Serhiy Zhadan.
Arendt prompted participants to consider how a common public world can exist amid a plurality of perspectives. Han’s texts raised the question of what happens to society when the flow of information displaces narratives capable of giving meaning to experience and bringing people together. Snyder provided a starting point for reflecting on why responsibility for language, facts, and one’s own judgement is also a civic responsibility.
Different authors and perspectives kept bringing participants back to a shared question: can we disagree with one another while still preserving a reality that we are able to talk about together?
The seminar was moderated by Andriy Kulakov, Community Programme Coordinator at Aspen Institute Kyiv, and Ruth Girardet, Lead Moderator at Aspen Institute UK and Member of the (Supervisory) Board, University of Edinburgh.
Aspen Kyiv–UK Leadership Bridge is a joint programme of Aspen Institute Kyiv and Aspen Institute UK, bringing together leaders from Ukraine and the United Kingdom for dialogue on the challenges facing contemporary societies.
The programme is implemented in partnership between Aspen Institute Kyiv and Aspen Institute UK, with the support of the Aspen Global Fund.
