14th International Whitehead Conference

The 14th International Whitehead Conference was held at the Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University (BNBU) in Zhuhai China between Friday July 17th and Monday 20th, 2026.

International Whitehead Conferences are inspired by the process philosophy articulated by Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947). Since the inaugural IWC in 1981 (held in Bonn, Germany), these conferences have provided an international forum for discussing Whitehead’s philosophy (grounded in his contributions to mathematics and logic), and for documenting and evaluating its continuing influence on a range of intellectual and practical spheres from science and education to politics, business, ethics, economics, religion and beyond.

This was the second IWC to be held in China (the 2002 IWC having been held in Beijing).  Zhuhai proved a particularly fitting setting for the 14th IWC because BNBU is the home of the “The Center for Whitehead Studies”, which is amongst the most important of such Centers in China today. In China Whitehead’s work has become influential in the development of the philosophy and policy promoting an “Ecological Civilization”. Amongst the world’s most important policy initiatives today, the intent, beginning in China, is to promote a global transition beyond the powerful but self-destructive framework of “Industrial Civilization”.

The conference theme, “Process Philosophy in a Time of Polycrisis”, allowed a focus on multiple aspects of the global systemic crisis provoked, in large part, by a dependence on globalised industrial capitalism. To accommodate the different aspects of polycrisis, the main body of the conference was organised into 12 parallel tracks:

  1. Whitehead’s philosophy and the metaphysics of becoming
  2. AI. Digital worlds, and human futures
  3. The nature of life and living systems
  4. Relational cosmology, quantum foundations, and the structure of existence
  5. The meaning crisis, mental health, and human flourishing
  6. Religion, ethics, and moral imagination
  7. Chinese thought, Marxism, and the second integration
  8. Aesthetics, art and creative communication
  9. Education and whole-person development
  10. Climate change, systems collapse, and ecological civilization
  11. Politics, law, and community for the common good
  12. Collaborative blocks (creative spaces for brainstorming, constructive dialogue and establishing new initiatives and collaborations

The event was jointly organised by the Center for Whitehead Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, BNBU; the Center for Process Studies (CPS); and the International Process Network (IPN). Following a Welcome Speech from BNBU President Chen Zhi, the Opening Ceremony continued with speeches from the three Conference Chairs, Guo Haipeng (Dean of School of General Education, BNBU), Andrew Schwartz (Executive Director of CPS) and Paul Stenner (Professor of Social Psychology at the Open University, UK, speaking in his capacity as Executive Director of IPN).

These introductions were followed by an Opening Plenary Address from Wang Zhihe (Executive Vice President of the Institute for Postmodern Development of China): “Towards a Tongtology… Process Thought in China: History, Development and Future Horizons”. Wang Zhihe charted the growing interest in Whitehead within China, including the establishment of some 36 Whitehead related Centers in China since 2002, the annual running of 19 ‘Process Summer Academies’ in different parts of China, and the relevance of Whitehead for ‘Ecological Civilization’ policy. He proposed that the source of this interest is the deep convergence between process philosophy and what he called China’s Tong thinking or ‘Tongtology’. As he explained, in the Chinese language ‘Tong’, although also meaning ‘road’ or ‘way’, is fundamentally a verb suggesting things like walking, getting through, communicating, connecting or opening, emphasing in each case the importance of progressive relations of becoming.

The first Plenary was followed by a key moment of celebration: the launch of The Complete Works of Alfred North Whitehead translated into Chinese and Edited by Guo Haipeng and Yang Fubin, both from BNBU.

The second Plenary Address was given by Wang Kun of the School of Marxism and Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities, Zhejiang Normal University. He is author of  “A Comparative Study of Zhu Xi and Whitehead’s Philosophy” and “Whitehead’s First Handshake with Chinese Philosophy”. He gave an impressive and illuminating overview of Whitehead’s mature process philosophy, based upon an explication of the basic notion of creativity.

The third Plenary Address was given online by the evolutionary cosmologist Brian Swimme from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Dr Swimme introduced the notion of “Cosmogenetic experiences” and shared some thought-provoking examples, from his own biography, of stories of experiences which awakened his appreciation of his own small place in the unfolding of the bigger cosmos (“auto-cosmological experiences”).

The final Plenary took the form of a panel discussion in which the three Conference Chairs, Guo Haipeng, Andrew Schwartz and Paul Stenner, shared their reflections about the conference and some plans for future developments, including planning the next IPN (possibly to be held in Southern Illinois University, USA, 2029), finishing the remaining volumes of The Complete Works of Whitehead, announcing the 19th International Claremont Forum on Ecological Civilization to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, November 1-5, 2026, and planning an event on “Whitehead in London” in the UK. Dr Zhihe Wang was announced as the next Executive Director of the International Process Network.

A number of established prizes were awarded during the conference, including two student prizes for best student conference papers. These were awarded to Wang Shang and Chen Can, both of whom are Ph.D students at Philosophy School of Beijing Normal University (perhaps not coincidentally, since BNU hosted the 4th International Whitehead Conference and established one of the earliest process centers in China). In addition:

The Common Good Award was presented to Zhihe Wang and Meijun Fan for their decades of scholarship, institution building, translation, education, and international leadership. Through the China Project and the Institute for Postmodern Development of China, they have helped establish more than 35 research centers in China, organized hundreds of conferences, fostered countless publications and translations, and build sustained dialogue between process thought, Chinese traditions, and ecological civilization. This award serves to recognize scholars for the value and enduring legacy of their lifetime achievements within the field of process-relational thought.

The Art of Life Award was awarded to Bogdan Ogrodnik for putting process-relational ideas into practice through education, workshops, and experiential activities, including work conducted in natural and outdoor settings. His contributions were described as bringing process thought beyond academic discussion and into embodied educational practice.

This award serves to recognize an individual who has made most valuable non-scholarly contributions to process-relational philosophy through their life and their work, namely, those whose practical actions and activities outside of the academy best exemplify the core values that are espoused by process-relational philosophies.

The Creative Advance Award was awarded to Brian Henning and Joseph Petek for their leadership of the Critical Edition of the Complete Works of Alfred North Whitehead. Through the recovery, editing, and publication of previously unavailable lectures, manuscripts, correspondence, and archival materials, the project is expanding the textual basis for Whitehead scholarship and creating a lasting resource for future research. This award serves to Recognize a scholar who has made notable, novel, and groundbreaking scholarly contributions to the field of process-relational thought: enlarging our understanding of it, its ramifications, and how it may be applied, over the last several (e.g. 3-5) years.

Overall, the 14th International Whitehead Conference was a resounding success, with rich intellectual debate, new alliances forged, and new friendships cemented. The venue at BNBU was impressive, with excellent facilities and an eye for organisational detail. The hosts from BNBU are to be thoroughly congratulated on this excellent organisation, including provision of tasty lunches and refreshments, transport from dormitories and hotels to venues, and general support for participants. The daytrip to the New Yuan Ming Palace and to Beishan Village was delightful. The Banquet at the end of Day 1 was spectacular, featuring Chinese lion dances and music. One experienced delegate, veteran of multiple IWCs, remarked that this was the most impressively organised of all he had encountered.  The team of helpers allowed those physically present to find the well-equipped rooms and operate the technology. The event was hybrid in nature and there were, as seems inevitable, connection issues in a number of cases of virtual participation, and some reported difficulties in using the provided platform to join the conference virtually. Based on feedback from participants and my own observations of Track 5 (“The meaning crisis”), I would recommend slightly reducing the number of parallel strands to maximise audience numbers, and having an introductory time-slot for providing an overview of each strand topic, along with a concluding time-slot for a general discussion. That way, each of the main Track Chairs could feed a summary of each Track into a final Plenary.  

The conference very effectively facilitated the presentations of over 200 speakers from more than 30 different nations.  One of the things that impressed me most was the creative energy of the Chinese academics and students. Consider, for example, that immediately prior to the IWC, more than 40 of us had participated in the 19th Process Summer Academy.

Then, on the day before the IWC, BNBU also hosted the 3rd International Symposium on World Environmental Philosophy and the Construction of Global Ecological Civilization, at which a special session themed “Process philosophy and Environmental Philosophy” was  arranged for the conference. More than 100 presentations were presented at this conference.

Then, immediately after the IWC, a number of us headed North to Humen, Shenzhen to participate in the 2nd International Symposium of Process Philosophy and the Ecological Transformation of Enterprises. The venue for this remarkable event was the Getwell electronics factory, itself exemplary of an enterprise being transformed by the principles of Ecological Civilization. Its founder and General Manager, Li Wenliang, a laureate of the Cobb Common Good Award, has created a unique environment in which workers are provided with excellent organic vegetarian food, and people with mental health and other difficulties are invited into the community and supported.

I mention this series of events to conjure a picture of some of the intense activity currently being undertaken in China in the name of promoting an Ecological Civilization informed, amongst other influences, by Whiteheadian process philosophy. Within crisis, transformation is indeed being gestated. 

14th IWC Group Photo!
14th IWC Group Photo!

13th International Whitehead Conference

The 13th International Whitehead Conference was held in Munich between 26 & 29 July 2023. Organised by the Deutsche Whitehead Gesellschaft

and the Munich School of Philosophy it was dedicated to the philosophical-historical dimension in Whitehead’s oeuvre on the one hand and to its systematic relevance for numerous areas of research on the other hand. The conference was a great success and the photo below shows the delegates from the meeting.

Whitehead and the History of Philosophy
Munich, Germany
26.-29. July 2023

Previous International Whitehead Conference include:

12th IWC (2019) | Process as Creativity: Process as Concern (Brasília, Brazil)
11th IWC (2017) | Nature in Process: Novel Approaches to Science and Metaphysics (Azores)

10th IWC (2015) | Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization (Claremont, USA)

9th IWC (2013) | Society and Process: From Theory to Practice (Krakow, Poland)

8th IWC (2011) |  Creativity and Harmony: The Way of Eco-Sophia for the Future of Civilization (Tokyo, Japan)

7th IWC (2009) | Alfred North Whitehead, Religious Pluralism, and the South Asian Tradition (Bangalore, India)

6th IWC (2007) | The Importance of Process: System and Adventure (Salzburg, Austria)

5th IWC (2004) | Process Thought and East Easian Culture (Seoul, Korea)

4th IWC (2002) | Whitehead and China in the New Millenium (Beijing, China)

3rd IWC (1998) | Process Thought and the Common Good: Silver Anniversary (Claremont, CA)

2nd IWC (1984) | Process and Reality: East and West (Nagoya, Japan)

1st IWC (1981) | Estes Internationales Whitehead Symposium (Bonn, Germany)