co- creating democracy: roeland japp in't veld
TRANSCRIPT
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