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 on this ambitious exploration of participation, it was clear to us that communities are at their strongest when voices are represented, perspectives are valued, and individuals are empowered to enact change. Fast forward six months and this still holds true. Without a shared sense of purpose, despite our many disagreements and differences, our ability to navigate these complex times is greatly diminished. How we collectively make decisions in urgent times will define our ability to effectively shape and adapt to our changing world. 

The risk ahead is of further social fracture, fear-driven responses, an intractable status-quo and deep-seated division when faced with the multiple crises the next decade can expect. To prevent the worsening of our fragile democratic health and move towards the best of our collective power, we need everyone to feel included in participating in our shared future. We need everyone to feel involved in the collective pursuit of the common good*.

(what’s the common good, you say? see note on language below).

Over the past six months, we have hosted a series of conversations and workshops to build the foundations of this ambitious project. Sharing, listening and designing with 40+ organisations and multiple individuals over this period of time, we have explored what a participatory ecosystem is in service to, and what a thriving democratic life means for Greater Melbourne.

Phase one of this project was designed as a sense-making, research and insights process — exploring a number of questions:

• How is active citizenship and participation relevant to a regenerative future?

• What are the barriers to a thriving democratic life across our economic system?

• What are the major forces at play, either accelerating or preventing the emergence of a thriving democratic life?

• What relevant project and research work is currently being undertaken by actors in Melbourne?

• What are the most potent angles of intervention for the Regen Melbourne alliance to pursue together?

We heard that a thriving democratic life for all is about re-empowering publics to make their own active decisions across all aspects of their lives — including in their communities, their work and how they are governed. 

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. And we heard that new forms of leadership are emerging, and need support to thrive, in order to foster the pursuit of a shared future.

None of this is without challenges, over the exploration phase repeated barriers and enablers emerged: forces that constrain and divide us and forces that enable our shared pursuit of a shared future.

Participatory Melbourne, as a collective research and action project, is a response to these systemic gaps and opportunities. 

In order to move through these challenges, it was recognised that we needed 'creative pathways' — areas that can focus action through participatory activities across multiple domains of our lives; from how we negotiate with our neighbours through owners corporations, to how we design our businesses, how we value labour and each other as citizens of this place, and of course how we engage with our democratic institutions through our voting in elections and referendums. These were lifted from our deep listening work and are centring our efforts into the future.

What we believe is needed

Participatory Melbourne recognises that in order to cultivate the conditions for a thriving democratic life we need to recognise and support the many actors working towards this goal — as well as recognising that these diverse actors make up a definable ecosystem.

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

For this to work, it isn’t about starting a whole lot of ‘new’ things and forgetting the ‘old’ — we’ve done enough of that in this country. It is also not enough to have a plethora of siloed and segmented activities, each fighting for time and space and voice. We need to move towards a more coherent ecosystem of activity, acting in concert, with both power and precision. Part of our next phase will be to work with you all to bring a map of this ecosystem to life. 

As we surfaced from our deep diving into our insights and observations, we designed a model of activation that helps us place activity in a system of democracy, where each voice can be seen and heard with relation to the other. Through a model of activation and a culture of experimentation, we believe we can take strides towards a thriving democratic life.

With findings, hypotheses and a model in hand, the real work begins in taking our insights and validating with a wider audience — all of you in Greater Melbourne! We’re seeking to bring rigour and evidence to the model via quantitative methods and active validation, leading to the set up for a rollout of potent experiments in 2024.

Importantly alongside all of this, we’ll continue to strengthen the bonds between all the organisations and people working in this space already and paying attention to the emerging forms of leadership alive and well in Greater Melbourne.

So keep an eye on phase two activities surfacing very soon. Until then, click through and have a look at our Phase 1 Executive Summary or Detailed Insights Report below!

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