James Evans - Cultural observatories, knowledge communities, and a life resplendent with ideas

James Evans' life is one resplendent with ideas. His trajectory into research and learning in areas as wide as network science, collective intelligence, computational social science, and even how knowledge is created, is as irreducible as it is exhilarating, and is a beacon in disorienting times marked by seemingly accelerating paces of change. 

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

• cultural and knowledge observatories (05:30)
• Mark Granovetter (09:15)
• Steve Barley (10:30)
• Woody Powell (10:30)
• Chris Summerfield (11:00)
• Some papers mentioned:
  • Metaknowledge (17:10)
  • Weaving the fabric of science: Dynamic network models of science's unfolding structure (18:30)
• Abduction (21:30)
• epistemic space (22:40)
• Claude Lévi-Strauss (24:20)
• Clifford Geertz (24:30)
• "Dissecting racial bias in an algorithm used to manage the health of populations" Obermeyer et al. (30:00)
• Scarcity Sendhil Mullainathan (35:00)
• The Knowledge Lab (36:00)
• "Quantifying the dynamics of failure across science, startups and security" Yin et al. (45:00)
• Charles Sanders Peirce (51:00)
• Pirkei Avot (56:00)
• Alison Gopnik on explore-exploit (01:02:30)
• Elise Boulding "the 200-year present" (01:03:00)
• Jo Guldi (01:06:00)
• Lightning Round (01:06:30):
  • Book: The Enigma of Reason
  • Passion: physical exploration and spiritual calling
  • Heart sing: 'social science fiction' and Hod Lipson
  • Screwed up: management style at times
• James online:
  • @profjamesevans
  • The Knowledge Lab
• 'Five-Cut Fridays’ five-song music playlist series  
  • James’ playlist

Logo artwork Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo