TY - JOUR
T1 - (De)futuring democracy
T2 - Labs, playgrounds, and ateliers as democratic innovations
AU - Asenbaum (lead author), Hans
AU - Hanusch, Frederic
N1 - Funding Information:
This paper originated in a research project at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) Potsdam called ?Democratic (Re)Configurations of Sustainability Transformations? lead by Patrizia Nanz. We are grateful to the research team and in particular to Boris Gotchev for their contributions in an early stage of the paper. We would also like to thank the participants of the workshop ?Toward Democratic Transformation: A Lab on Labs? conducted at the IASS in 2019. The paper benefitted from a presentation and discussion at the ECPR Conference 2020 and in particular from John Dryzek's insightful comments. We would also like to thank Rebecca Freeth, Rahel S??, Nick Vlahos, and Graham Smith for their comments on draft versions and Anna-Katharina Demes for preparing the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - New laboratory formats worldwide, including policy labs, innovation labs, and living labs, invite political engagement of multiple stakeholders. Although this format shares the basic characteristics with democratic innovations such as citizens’ assemblies, it has yet to be acknowledged by this field of study. This article fills this gap. It finds that labs are torn between the logic of democratic agency and technocratic control, and argues that this power nexus is indicative of a likely future of democracy. Beyond this ambiguous character, labs point to playfulness and creativity as two aspects that established democratic innovations rarely incorporate. Hence, we extrapolate these two aspects to propose alternative formats: democratic playgrounds and democratic ateliers. Instead of the output-orientation of democratic innovations for expected change, playgrounds and ateliers follow the logic of democratic serendipity, an exploratory, open-ended mode of participatory engagement, which promises to open democracy for unexpected change.
AB - New laboratory formats worldwide, including policy labs, innovation labs, and living labs, invite political engagement of multiple stakeholders. Although this format shares the basic characteristics with democratic innovations such as citizens’ assemblies, it has yet to be acknowledged by this field of study. This article fills this gap. It finds that labs are torn between the logic of democratic agency and technocratic control, and argues that this power nexus is indicative of a likely future of democracy. Beyond this ambiguous character, labs point to playfulness and creativity as two aspects that established democratic innovations rarely incorporate. Hence, we extrapolate these two aspects to propose alternative formats: democratic playgrounds and democratic ateliers. Instead of the output-orientation of democratic innovations for expected change, playgrounds and ateliers follow the logic of democratic serendipity, an exploratory, open-ended mode of participatory engagement, which promises to open democracy for unexpected change.
KW - Democratic innovations
KW - Futuring
KW - Labs
KW - Political participation
KW - Serendipity
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85114926702
U2 - 10.1016/j.futures.2021.102836
DO - 10.1016/j.futures.2021.102836
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85114926702
SN - 0016-3287
VL - 134
SP - 1
EP - 11
JO - Futures
JF - Futures
M1 - 102836
ER -