Dr. Philipp Dorstewitz

Dr. Philipp Dorstewitz obtained his PhD in Philosophy from the London School of Economics in 2008. He studied Business Administration and Philosophy in Germany and in the UK. Before serving for five years as a lecturer in Philosophy at Maastricht University (Netherlands) he held teaching appointments at the LSE and the University College Dublin. At LSE he received the departmental teaching prize in 2003. In 2013, he joined AURAK as an Assistant Professor in Philosophy. Dr. Dorstewitz is also affiliated as a research fellow with the Cologne Dewey Center (University of Cologne). In his academic work he applies a pragmatist method to the social sciences. He investigates deliberation processes in policy and (urban) planning contexts. Other stands of his work address the use of normative frameworks in policy-making and the structure of scientific inquiry. As a university teacher he developed numerous courses on political philosophy, philosophy of science and philosophy of social science. At AURAK Dr. Dorstewitz coordinates and teaches general education courses on Critical Thinking and Reasoning (PHIL100), Ethics in Todays World (PHIL 101) and in the Mass Communication Program Media Law and Ethics (COMM311).

Peer reviewed journal articles

• Provinces of Imagination: A Taxonomy (forthcoming in Transactions of the C.-S. Peirce Society)
• On the possibility of intelligent planning: A Deweyan perspective on dispersed intelligence and rational democratic deliberation (forthcoming in Pragmatism Today)
• Imagining Social Transformations: art, territory making and the project of radical pragmatism. Contemporary Pragmatism 14(1) 2017
• Imagination in Action. Metaphilosophy, 47 (3) 2016, 385-405
• Ethics in Actor Networks: What Latour could learn from Darwin and Dewey. Journal of Science and Engineering Ethics 20 (1), (March 2014) , with Katinka Waelbers
• Urban planning as experimental knowledge production – Zeche Zollverein a scientific laboratory? International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 38 (2), (March 2014)
• Community, communication, and social change: Music in an Indian slum. International Journal of Community Music 4(1) 51-62, with Andre De Quadros (2011)
• There is no ‘point’ in decision-making: a transactive model of rational public policy. Policy Sciences (43) 3, 263-287, with Shyama Kuruvilla (2010)
  Available “online first” at : http://www.springerlink.com/content/gp23hw6754p10511/
• Rationality as situated inquiry: A pragmatist perspective on policy and planning processes Management and Philosophy 6(1): 35-61, with Shyama Kuruvilla (2007)

Book chapters

• Civil Society Theory: Dewey. In: Regina A. List, Helmut K. Anheier and Stefan Toepler (eds.): The International Encyclopedia of Civil Society. 2nd Edition, Meteor (2019), With Shyama Kuruvilla
• Handlung. In: Michael G. Festl (ed.) Handbuch Pragmatismus. Stuttgart, J.B. Metzler (2018)
• Traces of immortality – reflections on Gilgamesh and Enkidu. In: Fernando Caceres et al.: Gilgamesh and Enkidu, Beyond Death, TMG, Stockholm, (2015); Translated to Korean (2018)
• Karin Knorr Cetina . In: Robin Celikates, René Gabriels, Johan F. Hartle, Pieter Lemmens, Thijs Lijster (redactie): De nieuwe duitse Filosophie. Denkers en thema´s voor de 21e eeuw . Amsterdam: Boom. S. 379-387. ISBN 978 94 6105 934 5, (2013)
• Dewey’s Science: A Transactive Model of Research Processes. In: The Continuing Relevance of John Dewey. Reflections on Aesthetics, Morality, Science, and Society. L. A. Hickman, M. C. Flamm, K. P. Skowronski and J. A. Rea. Amsterdam/New York, NY, Radopi (2011)

Editorial work

• Action Agency & Praxis. Special issue in Pragmatism Today volume 11 (issue 1) (September 2020) with Frithjof Nungesser
• Since 2020, member or the editorial board of Philosophy of Management (Scopus, Emerging Sources Citation Index)
• Food & Agriculture. Special issue in Pragmatism Today 8.2 (2017), co-edited with Dorota Koczanowicz
• Pragmatist Perspectives on Science, Technology and Contemporary Dewey Studies. Special issue in Pragmatism Today 7.1 (2016), co-edited with A. Kremer
• Caceres, F.; Kardaun, M; Dorstewitz, Ph. et al. (eds): Gilgamesch and Enkidu, Beyond Death, TMG, Stockholm, (2015); Translated to Korean (2018)
• Emancipation – Challenges at the intersection of American and European Philosophy. Special issue in Pragmatism Today , 6.2 (2015), co-edited with R. Farinas
• Since 2010 co-editor and later main handling editor of the international peer reviewed journal Pragmatism Today (Scopus, Philosopher’s Index)
• Peer-reviewing for several international journals including: Policy Science, Management and Philosophy, Pragmatism Today and Space & Culture

Other academic and professional contributions

• Introduction: Pragmatism on Action Agency and Practice. An overview, In in Pragmatism Today volume 11 (issue 1) (September 2020) with Frithjof Nungesser
• Introduction: Food & Agriculture – Opening Avenues for Responsible Public Intervention. Special Issue in Pragmatism Today, volume 8 (issue 2) (winter 2017), with Dorota Koczanowicz
• Introduction: Pragmatist Perspectives on Science, Technology and Contemporary Dewey Studies. Pragmatism Today , volume 7 (issue1), (Summer 2016), with Alexander Kremer
• Introduction: Emancipation and liberating human experience. Pragmatism Today, volume 6 (issue 2), (Winter 2015), with Rebecca Farinas
• Contextualizing Doctoral Business Research Questions: Driving Forward Through a Conceptual Framework. In Proceedings oft the 13th European Conference on Research Methodology for Business Management Studies, ECRM (2014). With David Lal, Soon Lim Chan, Leila Salykova
• Imagination in the Deliberation Process (Technical Report 04/08). D. Fennell, N. Cartwright and S. Hartmann (eds.). CPNSS at the London School of Economics, pp. 1-35 ISSN: 1750-7952 (2008)

Organisation of Conferences and Workshops

• 2018 Work Ethics: Workshop organised for the Department of Internships, Career Development & Alumni Affairs at AURAK
• 2016 Imagination: interdisciplinary conference at AURAK, Feb. 23-24 2016 (chair of organisation committee)
• 2015 Emancipation: Challenges at the intersection of American and European Philosophy, Feb. 26-28 2015, Fordham University, NYC
• 2002 Rationality in Question, colloquium at the London School of Economics with Steven Lukes and Elenora Montuschi
• Reconstructing Rationality: agency and inquiry in John Dewey’s project as a foundation for social and urban planning. Submitted to the Department of Philosophy, Logic, and Scientific Method. London, London School of Economics (LSE, 2008)

Conference Appearances and Academic Presentations

2019

• “The Desolation Syndrome”. Presentation at the capgroep colloquium, philosophy, University of Maastricht 30/10/2019
• Innovation in Corporate Social Responsibility: Re-imagining Business Agency Contexts through Theoretical Modelling. Paper given at the Transformative Business Models conference at HCT, Male campus, Dubai, 19-20 Feb. 2019, with D. Lal

2018

• Dispersed intelligence and possibility of intelligent planning: A Deweyan perspective on rational policy making. Paper given at the Annual Conference of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy [SAAP] in Indianapolis, USA.
• bi-annual meeting to the Central European Pragmatist Forum (CEPF) in Prague (June 2018). Paper: The blind spot in pragmatism

2016

• SACSCOC annual conference in Atlanta, USA, member of the AURAK delegation, 2-6 December 2016
• Pragmatic Imagination: A third way? Presented at the interdisciplinary conference on imagination at AURAK, 23-24 February 2016.

2015

• Keynote speech at “Emancipation: Challenges at the Intersection of American and European Philosophy”, international conference hosted by Fordham University, NYC. Topic: Imagining Social Transformations: art, territory making and the project of radical pragmatism

2014

• Invited Talk: Philosophy Research Series at UAEU in Al Ain (UAE). Topic: Dimensions of Imaginative Intelligence
• Eighth International Conference by the Central European Pragmatist Forum (CEPF) in Wroclaw (Poland). Topic: Imagination in action
• Cognitive Studies Day , United Arab Emirates University, May 20, 2014 Topic: Imagination, cognition and action
• Philosophy and Science reading circle at the Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi. Topic: Imagination in Action

2013

• XXIII World Congress of Philosophy, Athens, Greece. Topic: Evaluating normative frameworks for policy-making – a role for a pragmatist approach.
• Annual Conference of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy [SAAP] in Atlantic City

2012

• Seventh International Conference by the Central European Pragmatist Forum (CEPF) in Turda, Romania. Topic: Evaluating Normative Policy Frameworks
• Annual Conference of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy [SAAP] in NYC. Topic: The relevance of Art as an Imaginative Practice
• Invited contribution to the workshop “Democracy and Education Today” at the Dewey Center at Cologne University. Topic: Understanding Agency and Motivation

2010

• International conference of the Central European Pragmatist Forum in Cadiz, Spain. Topic: Urban planning as Deweyan inquiry – a case study

2009

• Urban Laboratories Workshop, Maastricht: Topic: From Brownfield to Cultural Capital: Zollverein as an Urban Laboratory
• Dewey at 150, international conference organised by the Central European Pragmatist Forum in Opole: Dewey’s science: a situational-transactive model of research processes
• SAAP international conference at College Station, Texas

2006

• Emotions and Work, international conference organised by Philosophy and Management (Journal) at LSE. Topic: Imagination in Rational Deliberation

2005

• International conference organised by Philosophy and Management (Journal) at St Anne’s College, Oxford: Reviewing Rationality; a pragmatist perspective on policy and planning

2003

• Rationality in Question, colloquium at the London School of Economics with Steven Lukes. Topic: Rationality, Intelligibility and Understanding Foreign Practices

Memberships and Professional Associations

• Senior Research Fellow at the Faculty of Arts and Social Science (FASOS) at Maastricht university (Fall semester 2019)
• Research Fellow at the Centre for Dewey Studies at the University Cologne (ongoing)
• Society for the advancement of American Philosophy (SAAP)
• Central European Pragmatist Forum (CEPF)

• Media Law and Ethics
• Critical Thinking and Reasoning