Learning, seeing and doing participation

All the things we've heard and found in phase one of Participatory Melbourne, and what we think is needed going forward.

When we started this ambitious exploration of participation, it was clear that communities are at their strongest when voices are represented, perspectives are valued, and individuals are empowered to enact change.

The risk ahead is of further social fracture, fear-driven responses, and deep-seated division. To prevent the worsening of our fragile democratic health, we need everyone to feel included in participating in our shared future.

Over the past six months, we have hosted a series of conversations with 40+ organisations, exploring what a participatory ecosystem is in service to.

Phase one was designed as a sense-making, research and insights process exploring questions including:

• How is active citizenship relevant to a regenerative future?

• What are the barriers to a thriving democratic life?

• What are the most potent angles of intervention?

We heard that a thriving democratic life is about re-empowering publics to make their own active decisions across all aspects of their lives.

We heard that active participation is a necessary component for us to heal, to reconnect, to walk side by side and to recreate our systems.

In order to move through challenges, we needed 'creative pathways' — areas that focus action through participatory activities across multiple domains of our lives.

What we believe is needed

We believe in order to nourish our democratic life we need to strengthen the participatory ecosystem — the interconnected projects and activities that work towards collective decision making. We also need to make it visible.

We designed a model of activation that helps us place activity in a system of democracy. Through this model and a culture of experimentation, we believe we can take strides towards a thriving democratic life.

We look forward to your participation, in whatever form that may be.