- Especially in Austria, the Wisdom Council is used by governments to address difficult public issues. And the process is expanding to other areas of Europe.
- See Dr. Manfred Hellrigl, Director of the Office of Future Related issues in Vorarlberg, as he describes using the Wisdom Council to overcome gridlock on a development project in the heart of Bregenz, Austria. In this case the Wisdom Council determined determine the citizens perspective on the issue as well as a suggested solution strategy. Now the developers are incorporating the perspective of the citizens into their project and the project is underway … with the suggested solution included. (10 min)
Watch Wisdom Council Excerpts- Manfred Hellrigl-From Consumers to Citizens.HQ in People & Blogs | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
For the entire 55 minute video see: http://player.vimeo.com/video/43720286
For the entire 55 minute video see: http://player.vimeo.com/video/43720286
- A Wisdom Council in the city of Hohenems, Austria addressed the issue of how a disgruntled group of citizens were dominating public hearings, claiming to represent the general public and driving away mainstream citizens. The Wisdom Council, a unanimous group of random citizens, spoke as a legitimate voice of the general public. And they made the point that: we want to work with government and we don't want this negative tone. Now, the disgruntled band of people at city hearings no longer can claim they represent a mainstream viewpoint.
- State legislators in Vorarlberg have been experiencing the positive benefits of the Wisdom Council for years as cities and towns in their districts have been using them successfully. So they started convening citizen Wisdom Councils of citizens to report to the legislative body. The new enjoyable, productive conversation among legislators has made their work more effective. Most lately the governor and representatives of all parties have amended the state constitution to include this citizen involvement process in three ways:
- Two times a year there will be a state-wide Wisdom Council
- The government will respond to issues when appropriate
- Petitions of only 1000 signatures … suggesting a topic … will trigger a government sponsored, state-wide Wisdom Council
- Two times a year there will be a state-wide Wisdom Council
- Michael Lederer describes a number of Wisdom Council projects in this short informal video.
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