Europe is facing a legitimacy crisis due to increasing critique, nationalist tendencies and tensions between diverging values and conceptions of cooperation in the EU. Many citizens also experience a gap between political decision-making and their everyday life. To bridge this gap, decision-making in the EU must happen closer to the citizens. LiFT 3.0 – Politics works towards a paradigm shift in politics, enhancing more collaborative mindsets and practices as a precondition for re-inspiring political cultures and institutions, and thus, building new momentum for the European project. In order to do this, it pilots and spreads an innovative capacity building program for next generation leaders, offering training and education for facilitating dialog processes with diverse stakeholders across political camps, and national, social or cultural divides. It thus develops high quality basic and transversal leadership skills and key collaborative competences of policy-makers, office holders, change agents, citizens and multipliers alike. LiFT thereby addresses 4 (of 8) key competences of the EU Framework for lifelong learning: Personal, social and learning to learn; Citizenship; Digital and Entrepreneurship. The project rationale holds that in times of multidimensional crisis, where fundamental values are simultaneously at stake, political leadership needs to transcend narrow particularistic views and be grounded in global responsibility and interconnectedness. Based on innovative trends in leadership thinking and practice, LiFT applies collaborative knowledge to pressing real world contexts, focusing on social inclusion and sustainability. LiFT 3.0 - Politics builds and expands upon two extremely successful previous partnerships (LiFT 1.0 and 2.0), operating since 2013, as well as on numerous independent activities of the participating organizations. LiFT 2.0 (2015-2018) has prototyped and experientially tested the “Collaboratory”, a unique and powerful holistic citizen engagement method. LiFT 3.0 – Politics goes beyond this by shifting its focus directly to the sector of political decision-making, feeding the collaborative paradigm in where it is most needed, in service of co-creating better futures for Europe and the planet. The project has three main objectives: FIRST, hosting public stakeholder workshops and learning events that support the development of expertise for co-creating joint visions across cultures, generations, fields of activity and political camps, thereby helping individuals, groups and institutions to make progress on shared challenges. SECOND, condensing, documenting and disseminating its insights and experiences for others to use. THIRD, it develops and implements a unique political leadership training that enables multipliers to use and further spread collaborative decision-making methods across contexts. LiFT thereby creates viable learning communities and a cohort of political leaders who can better address big adaptive challenges on local, regional, European and global levels. All activities combine public stakeholder involvement events with genuine training in collaborative political leadership and decision-making, using problem-centered transformative learning, combined with the innovative digital SenseMaker® tool. The consortium will conduct 6 public workshops and a summer school with a Collaborative Politics training at the end of the project, reaching a total of around 600 participants. Its comprehensive, cross-cutting approach builds bridges between a wide range of target audiences that would not usually meet or sometimes even talk to each other, from pioneers of innovative politics to ordinary citizens to politicians, public servants and office holders in the existing political system. LiFT 3.0 – Politics combines two approaches to political innovation, FIRST the experience of specialized service providers and professional facilitators, supporting municipalities and political decision-makers to conduct and root citizen involvement in their communities. SECOND, the experience of a broad range of pioneers of integral/collaborative policy-making and governance, combined with creative visions from an interested public. To ensure academic quality and rigor, 6 tangible intellectual and pedagogical outputs enable change agents and multipliers to make use of LiFT’s insights, methodological knowledge and experience in their own fields. Its training and educational materials will help civic and political leaders to engage more effectively in dialogue, to include key stakeholders perspectives into decision-making, and thus to empower their communities to make progress on important challenges, being more inclusive without avoiding difficult issues. The project thus brings long-lasting benefits to the participating individuals, organizations and institutions, their networks and local communities, as well as to the larger society and policy systems they are embedded in.
The project's overall purpose was to contribute to a paradigm shift in politics, working towards more collaborative mindsets and more dialogical practices in decision-making, as a precondition for a corresponding transformation of political cultures and, eventually, also of social and political institutions. On this basis, LiFT 3.0’s most important objective was to develop high quality basic and transversal skills and key collaborative competences in policy-makers and political office holders on the one hand, and in citizens, change agents and multipliers on the other. Assisting decision-makers and stakeholders to identify the underlying issues and structural restraints beyond surface-level problems and to speak about and address them in constructive and inclusive ways helps to reduce tensions and to find sustainable solutions. This allows us to live side by side despite our differences. More specifically, the project had 3 main goals: - hosting public stakeholder workshops and learning events, - documenting and disseminating insights and experiences for others to use - to develop and implement a unique political leadership training enabling multipliers to use and further spread collaborative methods across contexts.
Humanity is facing challenges that can be addressed only by transnational collaborative efforts. Yet, the existing political model is shaped by competitive logics, and many actors have not grasped the urgency of the matter. Instead, Europe is facing a crisis of legitimacy and action due to diverging values, nationalist tendencies and social divides. Many citizens are frustrated with what they experience as a gap between political decision-making and their everyday life reality. Increasing tensions and critique also arise from diverging conceptions of how responsibilities should be distributed between the EU and its member states. In order to bridge existing gaps and polarization, and to build new momentum for the European project, decision-making in the EU needs to happen closer to the citizens and involve them more directly. In the face of increasingly complex transnational challenges around climate change and social inclusion, citizens and decision-makers need to be empowered to work together for the common good across borders, cultures and political camps. LiFT has worked towards a paradigm shift in politics, enhancing more collaborative mindsets and practices as a precondition for re-inspiring politics in Europe and beyond.