We are pleased to present to you new reading recommendations from our CONVOCO! thinkers – get inspired!
Why we swim (2020) by Bonnie Tsui
A book about the fascination and mystery of swimming – for people like me who love the water.
What We Owe Each Other. A New Social Contract (2021) by Minouche Shafik
Minouche Shafik sketches out a new social contract. At the heart of her ideas is the recognition that we depend on each other and on nature. Economy, philosophy and practical wisdom all combine in creating this timely book.
The Vaccine. Inside the Race to Conquer the COVID-19 Pandemic (2022) by Joe Miller, Uğur Şahin & Özlem Türeci
I have the feeling that a new global Big Pharma company is being created with BioNTech on the basis of a revolutionary new technology. And I want to understand how it all works. Available in English 02/2022
To Save Everything, Click Here (2014) by Evgeny Morozov
A book that has had a significant impact on my view of the digitalization debate. Anyone who is fed up with black-and-white thinking and wants to understand the phenomenon of “technosolutionism” should read this book.
Americanah (2014) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A love story that makes you laugh and cry, that teaches you about racism, identity, and belonging, and that offers a new way of looking at the world.
Invisible Women. Exposing Data Bias in a World Created by Men (2021) by Caroline Criado Perez
A book full of vivid examples that make it clear that discrimination by means of technology is not a new phenomenon of the AI era, but has been with us for as long as humanity has been dealing with numbers and data. A book that encourages us to get involved, providing us with plenty of ammunition for debate.
2034. A Novel of the Next World War (2021) by Eliott Ackerman & James G. Stavridis
… because this frighteningly realistic plot impressively shows how quickly geopolitical tensions can escalate.
The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence (1647) by Baltasar Gracián
…because the aphorisms of this enlightened Jesuit reveal much about affect-control and moderation as the prerequisites of civilization.
The Code Breaker. Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race (2021) by Walter Isaacson
The Resilient Society (2021) by Markus Brunnermeier
Winner of the 2021 German book price in economics (Wirtschaftsbuchpreis).
Usefulness of Useless Knowledge (2017) by Abraham Flexner & Robbert H. Dijkgraaf
A classic.
What Tech Calls Thinking (2020) by Adrian Daub
An essay on the rather silly ideologies of Silicon Valley.
The Last Samurai (2001) by Helen DeWitt
A novel about how talent and success operate.
Oneself as Another (1990) by Paul Ricoeur
… because he speaks of narrative identity and how we have to reconfigure our moral autonomy through times and after having gone through existential crises.
The Denial of Death (1973) by Ernst Becker
… because the way people still consume and behave as if the pandemic had never occurred can be explained by the denial of their mortal condition. Although the environmental crisis was not the context of Becker’s book, his recasting of Freud’s theories and Rank’s ideas is relevant today.
The Animal that Therefore I Am (2008) by Jacques Derrida
… because we are at war against animals and against ourselves.