Is Participation Risky?
(or sometimes you need a bit of luck)
By Dr Manfred Hellrigl
The 19-year old Melanie stands and smiles in front of a flip chart, looking somewhat embarrassed. Again and again someone calls something out and she notes it down on a poster with a squeaky green marker pen. To the left and right there are further pin boards, all covered with bright posters full of writing. Why is Melanie spending the weekend in a stuffy, somewhat dreary festival hall, together with people, most of whom she did not know until yesterday, when the sun is shining outside?
Last September in Wolfurt, a municipality between Bregenz and Dornbirn with approx. 8,000 inhabitants, an exciting experiment took place. For the first time the Office for Future-Related Issues organised a wisdom council (www.tobe.net). Although Wolfurt has many committed fellow citizens, this time twelve people, selected randomly, spent two days discussing things that were on their minds: badly trimmed hedges; juvenile delinquency and vandalism; traffic issues; a lack of zebra crossings. Their assignment was to compose a collective public declaration of their findings.
After heated discussions they reached a decision – to the surprise of everyone – that their lives are actually quite okay. Wolfurt is flourishing, there are things going on in the village, the mayor is doing a good job. “It can’t get a lot better, life is fine here”, says the tenor. If there is a challenge, then it must be to maintain this high standard of living in the future.
As they finally wanted to formulate their requests to the local politicians, they realised that they were actually directed towards all of the citizens. We have to bear more responsibility (for ourselves, our children, our families, companies, for senior citizens, for society); we have to find more time for each other; we have to be more courageous, we have to set a good example; cultivate inner values; push education; to deal with each other in a respectful way (also with nonconformists and minorities).
Two days later the group presented their results in front of 150 people. The results were taken into consideration in the overall concept process of the municipality. The next wisdom council should take place in the spring.
I was surprised and still am surprised about the findings of the twelve laypersons. About the quality and the authenticity of the results, but also about what “normal” people can come up with. If you let them.
By the way: it took one year to find a municipality that dared to tackle such an experiment. But sometimes you just need a little bit of luck.
Manfred Hellrigl is head of the Office for Future-Related Issues (www.vorarlberg.at/zukunft), an administrative section of the State Government of Vorarlberg/Austria, which is dedicated to the subjects of citizenry commitment, social capital and sustainable municipal and regional development.
Contact: manfred.hellrigl(at)vorarlberg.at
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