Activating citizen engagement for territory making
We are one and many. As CivicWisers work connected within our global network, local communities, actions and projects are always linked and back up by global knowledge through our “glocal” workgroups.
This is our conception of
team-work where it is possible to have a very local impact without losing the global character of our new era.
CIVIC DESIGN METHODOLOGY TO IMPLEMENT OUR IDEAS
We periodically update and transform our civic design methodology as a reflection of our collective experience and community knowledge. Here is the current version of our work in progress method.
1. Formation of the Workgroup
Coordinators in the local circles engaged with a project form the workgroup through an open call or direct invitation to the global network. The workgroup together defines the roles,specific goals and methodology to deliver the project.
2. Engagement
In order to build a wide, inclusive and diverse local community to act on the project, we seek after engagement of the all agents within and around the territory. The projects evolve by generating a collective intelligence of the local community.
3. Analysis and Diagnosis
In a participatory context, with the community and all the local actors engaged, we work to build a common diagnosis to visualize collective necessities and current connections within the territory as a starting point for the co-design process.
4. Conceptualisation
With a collaborative approach, we use innovative methods and tools, collective brainstorming sessions and workshops in order to look for new ideas and concepts. This is an open process where local communities, with the support of the global CivicWise network, explore different possibilities.
5. Open-Ended Design
With all the information gathered in the conceptualisation phase, we produce a preliminary design for a project or action that is open to be transformed in the upcoming phases.
6. Prototyping
In order to test the ideas and our design as its material reflection we build a real one-to-one scale model. Through learning by doing we reconsider our proposal and in the meantime citizens experience and be aware of their capacities in formation of their own territories. With feedbacks from the prototyping process we translate our first design into a final one and submit it for implementation.
7. Implementation
We make sure our projects or actions are implemented within the collaborative nature and values of CivicWise. We consider implementation not as an end but just a phase of civic mobilization.
8. Building Local Impact
After the implementation we continue to look for possible synergies between the realised project/action and other local realities in order to promote a sort of continuity and to evaluate the long term impact.
9. Transferring Local to Global
Our every project or action is an open process to be replicated and improved. We transfer the knowledge gathered in a located territory into our global network to empower our community in civic design.
10. Having Fun
The main cement holding together all these steps is having fun and not being part of any process that we do not enjoy. We also do our best to keep the local communities’ and our partners’ spirits up. Enjoy!