The practice of complexity
Talking, theorising and practicing at the Complexity and Management Conference June ’26
CHRIS MOWLES
JUN 10, 2026
This year’s Complexity and Management Conference was entitled What does it mean to say the world is complex? Implications for practice. Jean Boulton kicked us off with a rich key note which grounded us in the complexity sciences and made the case for complex ontology – reality is complex.

For the rest of the day delegates discussed the implications of Jean’s presentation for their work, and some also hosted workshops of their own to convene discussions about their practice which might be of interest to others. These included Migena Shula, Kevin Flinn, Eric Wenzel, Sara Filbee, Jakub Perlak, Jana Filosof, and Franciska Fellegi.





As a reflection on the work on Saturday I gave a response on Sunday morning which was not in any way intended as a summing up, but a further opportunity for a reflexive turn on some of the themes which had emerged. It was also an opportunity to talk about, and to model, what the perspective of perspectives we refer to as complex responsive processes of relating has developed by way of practices to do justice to the insight that the social world is complex all the way down. This is in no way an attempt to claim a monopoly on the truth, but to demonstrate what 30 years of working with complexity ideas has meant for practice, the theme of the conference.

The practice of complexity – by Chris Mowles