Otto Kroesen

Otto Kroesen is Assistant Professor in ethics, intercultural communication and development theory at the Technological University Delft. He also teaches technology, innovation and development at the Technological University of Eindhoven.

He is the coordinator of the minor program “International Entrepreneurship and Development” and organizes and supervises internships and master theses in developing countries. In this program 50 to 70 students are involved in the building of frugal prototypes, the writing of business plans, feasibility studies, customer profiles, marketing studies and policy studies in 15 countries in the developing world.

His research focuses on the co-development of society, values and technology, especially in view of future strategies for developing countries, both in terms of entrepreneurship and the broader framework of governance. He published on the moral philosophy of Levinas and about society, values and technology related to the sociologist Rosenstock-Huessy, analyzing the cultural embeddedness of technology and the co-development of society and technology in different contexts from a historical and development perspective.

Some more biographical notes:

“I have always been involved both with the dialogical tradition in philosophy and theology and development issues. During my studies in theology I was highly impressed by the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas. That was also due to the fact that I had a real teacher, who could convey the message. I considered this approach as highly innovative and relevant for the societal meaning of theology itself.

During the same time, the 70s, I was involved in the opposition towards apartheid. At my university, the Theological University Kampen in the Netherlands during that time several representatives of black South Africa were studying theology. This was meant to support them in their opposition and struggle against apartheid. I was appointed during that time as personal study assistant of those students and this became a formative experience in my biography. In their stories I got the details of the apartheid system. It was not just a story of violence and oppression, but also a story of little humiliations. For instance: if they as pastors visited a white farmer (the black people working on his farm) it would not be unusual that they would have to meet their confidents and at the gate. They might even get a cup of coffee there, but not a cup, it was served in a marmalade glass.

This time laid the basis of my involvement with development issues and cultural differences in values and ways of dealing with things.

I wrote a PhD on the moral philosophy of Levinas and got involved in reading Buber, Rosenzweig and primarily Rosenstock-Huessy. Especially in the approach of Rosenstock-Huessy towards history and society, the prevailing distinction between theological matters and social matters got blurred in a very creative way. God, says Rosenstock-Huessy, is the power that makes us speak! The ways of speech (and for that matter of values) that our society maintains and repeats represent branches of this comprehensive power of speech. This turns the different traditions of humanity into as many branches and approaches to the living God. It also adds a dimension of depth to the usual talk about human values, they are not just construed. They still may be historically contingent but that doesn’t distract from their imperative power. Timeliness and change is everything.

I would like to see that philosophers get interested in this depth dimension of human experience and in turn I would like to see that theologians look beyond the confines of their churches and once more consider the social order they are living in as the evolvement and result of this ongoing dialogue between God and men, as experienced imperative and human response.

In the book “Planetary Responsibilities” I try to combine the micro experiences of human beings with the macro perspectives of the creation of the human race, the long-term traditions of humanity. This should turn the clash of civilizations which is presently going on into a dialogue of civilizations and these dialogue should serve establishing a priority order among values, not in the abstract, but path dependent and depending on time and situation, always ready for further change.

To get back to my own biography – maybe this biography itself is more or less an expression of the urge to bridge the gap between theology, philosophy and society. I have been working a long time as a student pastor alongside with being a teacher in ethics. From both perspectives I could in the margin of my work still pay attention to development issues for instance by facilitating internships in developing countries, many in Bangladesh during that time.

On the basis of these experiences I left the students chaplaincy in 2008 and got involved in the then starting minor program on “International Entrepreneurship and Development” at the Technological University Delft. The development projects the students get involved in can be considered as micro experiences and events of the “clash of values” that is taking place, of course everywhere, but also and primarily in the developing world. Recently emerged (!) values – the ways of speaking created in the last thousand years of Western history – meet an older set of geological value layers of humanity. It should be sorted out in which situation which values have to prevail and even more, what the real imperatives are to be listened to in our society and time. I’ve been doing this now for more than six years and it is a great learning experience, especially in this combination between micro and macro, that it affords. The small-scale experiences in a particular project can be put in the perspective of the long time involvement of the human race. This is very inspiring, because it shows how we are building further creatively on the achievements of past generations. To say it in the words of Rosenstock-Huessy: “Only those really have something to say, who really listened”.

I hope the little book “Planetary Responsibilities – an ethics of timing” really serves this purpose.”