Co- creating Democracy: Roeland Japp in't Veld

Cocreating democracy

By roeland jaap in ‘t veld

May 24 2011

roelintveld@hotmail.com

Content explanation

• Digression on concepts

• A fundamental transition:– The landscape: today’s world– The regime: towards knowledge democracy– The niches: co-creation

“we live in times of profound change”

Knowledge democracy

• Triangle media, science, democracy

• Evolution of each cornerstone

• Tensions between bilateral relations

• Emerging tensions in the triangle

4

RepresentativeDemocracy

DisciplinaryScience

EmergingBottom-up

Media

Top-downMedia

EmergingTransdisciplinaryDesign/Science

EmergingParticipatory DemocracyTensions

1st order

2nd order

3th order &

Three domains: science, politics and media

Powell’s presentation in the UN on mass destruction weapons in Irak:– Media: neutral transfer of informaton?– Evidence-based policy?– Democracy at work?

Nightmare: lies, manipulation,criminal acts

Democracy 1

• Representative democracy weakening because of fragmentation of value patterns, loss of ideologies

• (but also because of the hype dominance caused by the interaction between politics and the corporate media)

Democracy 2

• Individual treated by public bodies as institutional role player:– Voter– Client

Citizen as a creative contributor neglected

Democracy 3

• More participatory democracy necessary to overcome the weakness of representative democracy

• Participation based upon territory, function, interests, talent

• Participation in many degrees: advise, cocreation, autarchy (citizen initiatives)

• Burning questions as to the relations between participatory and representative democracy

Science and society

• Humboldtian ideal of cloister science: relates to basic research

• Senseful accumulation of knowledge then is the only objective

• Much production of knowledge however should be related to the world

From a Democratic Perspective 1

• Knowledge production, dissemination and use have to meet certain conditions that are based on democratic values

• Legitimacy

• Pluralism

• Independence

• Credibility

From a Democratic Perspective 2

Demands on decisionmaking:• Relevance• Participation• Accessability• Accountability

• These conditions can cause tensions, because people tend to regard knowledge as a power tool

Action-perspective production

• From left to right: amalgamation of relevance

• Cooperation between stakeholders necessary

Normal

science

Future-orien

ted resear

ch

Future-Transdisciplinary resear

ch

fragmented holistic

detailled

immune

certain

Not related toreal activities

raw

vulnerable

uncertain

Related to real decisions

Logic of research

• Basic, normal: curiosity, meaningful accumulation of knowledge, no external interests relevant

• Problem- oriented: meeting with problem owners, at least interdisciplinary character of research

Today’s political agenda’s

• Wicked problems dominate

• No consensus on values, no consensus on knowledge

• Extreme complexity and uncertainty

• Authority fails systematically

Wicked problems

Values

Knowledge

consensus dissensus

consensus technical Classical, political

dissensus Scientific discourse

WICKED

Transdisciplinarity =cocreation

• Trajectory from problem to perspective for action

• Criterion for success is social robustness, consent, plausibility, not truth or validity

• Not only interdisciplinary, but always interaction between knowledge producers and policymakers

Media 1

• Classical media are enterprises with power: Castells points at switching power

• Structural mutual dependencies between politicians and classical media

• Classical media evolve in global business networks

Media 2

• Social media: mass self communication

• No ownership visible

• Inclusion and exclusion are vague

• Consumer is producer =prosumer

• No editors, so no selection

Media 3

• The presence of social media liberates the politician from the classical media in principle

• Communities exist in social media

Media 4

• Society is richer than ever on social media:– Masses– Crowds – Publics– Communities – Individuals

22

RepresentativeDemocracy

DisciplinaryScience

EmergingBottom-up

Media

Top-downMedia

EmergingTransdisciplinaryDesign/Science

EmergingParticipatory DemocracyTensions

1st order

2nd order

3th order &

Knowledge Democracy: Emerging Concept

• Analogy with Knowledge Economy

• Scientific, Persuasive and Programmatic Meaning

• Based on Perceived Tensions and Problems

• Normative in scope, not in substance

Values

• Substantial vs relational

• Relational values like equality a.o. relate to collective good and bad decision making procedures

• Relational values determine the opportunities for cocreation

Institutions

• Realise values in society, produce meaning

• Are solidified and mortal

• Democracy,networks,markets are institutions

• Networks are based on empathy, because of complementarity of actors (nodes)

Games

• Zero sum vs positive sum games

• Political power games are zero-sum games

• Zero sum games are obsolete

• Contracts and networks are positive sum games

Tensions

• Participatory democracy, social media and transdisciplinarity demand new modes of governance in order to overcome the immense complexity

Cocreation

• Beyond coöperaton because the belief in processes as creative events prohibits a power orientation

• The result of the process is richer than the contribution of any partner

• Each individual will is moderated by the enriched self-interest or the moderate altruism of the partners

Co-creation and politics

• Politics will develop a hostile attitude towards co-creation because it devastates the core surplus value as to content of the politician

• The remaining role for politics is process architect (meta governor)

Co-creation and knowledge democracy

• Co-creation will be the core characteristic of the marriage between transdisciplinarity and participative democracy

• Cocreation is hope