Abstract

The mission of Cocreation Foundation is to map, develop, test and establish the cultural technique of cocreation for better global governance. Our Theory of Change describes why, how and what we are doing to achieve our mission:

Governance processes urgently need an update on a regional, national and transnational level to tackle challenges like climate change, plastic in the oceans or effectively fight pandemics like the Corona crisis.

The Global Resonance Project is the first project of Cocreation Foundation. It is a field and action research project to analyse the deeper, underlying patterns of cocreation that unite all the different methodologies and processes of the various pioneers, research institutions and activists. The such ways generated understanding creates a peer-reviewed standard for consciously designing cocreative processes for better, up-to-date global governance.

WHY

When we look at how governance is done nowadays - from a municipality to a regional, to a national and transnational level - we are recognizing that the systems in place seem often outdated when we apply scrutiny to how much more intelligent, wise, coherent, precise and long term decisions could have been taken.

Much like a computer software needs regular updates, we need an update in our governance structures. The majority of our institutions are pretty old-fashioned: Germany, the EU, UN, WTO, WHO - all these entities were created in the aftermath of WW2, often with legal origins from the 19th century. No wonder they are simply not capable to tackle the grand challenges ahead like climate change, plastic in the oceans, mass migration, fighting epidemics like the current Corona crisis on a transnational level.

The way decisions are made is mainly through negotiations. But beyond that we need collaboration, participation and ultimately cocreation to unlock our collective intelligence and wisdom. Instead of politics being the expression of our common smallest denominator, we need to embrace a bold vision of how we can cocreate a world for 10-12 billion people in abundance, health, peace and unity for all human and non-human beings on this beautiful planet Earth.

HOW

We at Cocreation Foundation believe that in order to achieve this goal, we need to understand what cocreation as a cultural technique really means. Up until now we have pioneers in the field working on projects, methods and theories of cocreation. But we have no common understanding of how to apply it to consciously designed governance processes.

With our first project, the Global Resonance Project, we embark on a journey of action and field research. We are reaching out to universities, think tanks, pioneers and activists to engage in deep dialogue and gain a mutual understanding of the methodologies and tool boxes, share best practice examples as well as our gordian knots still to untie, get a better understanding from the different applications in the various fields and ultimately distil the deeper, underlaying patterns that define cocreation as a cultural technique.

Ultimately, like in software development, we aim at nothing less than defining the source code for cocreation.

WHAT

Like the name indicates, within the Global Resonance Project it is all about creating resonance, mutual understanding through deep dialogues and sharing our knowledge with international experts and peers. The ongoing dialogues are regularly blogged and vlogged.

In our bi-weekly by invitation only online salons, we gather luminaries, respected authorities and pioneers in the field of cocreation.

In the Cocreators*Club we gather to peer-review our methodologies, processes and projects.

The goal of the Global Resonance Project is to publish this desperately needed field research within a co-authored book. We also issue research papers that dive deeper into the topic:

• Bundesrepublik 3.0 - With this study, we want to make a contribution to the development of a new version of the parliamentary-representative system of the Federal Republic of Germany.

• Cocreating Trade Policy - The report outlines various options for how political processes could be made to be more inclusive, more transparent and more participative. The aim is to create both greater legitimacy and – primarily – better results.

• The Governance Design of the Climate Conferences - to be published September 2020.

WHO

Jascha Rohr, Founder of Cocreation Foundation has a proven track record of developing participatory processes for over 18 years.

Roman Huber, Federal Executive of Mehr Demokratie e.V., has been a political activist since 1993, fighting for a more inclusive and participatory way of democracy.

Alistair Langer, as Impact Wizard responsible for outreach and fundraising, has 14 years of experience bridging business models from for-profit, to hybrid to non-profit.

Halea Isabelle Kala, our dedicated multimedia artist, will draw the red line through the various formats.

Emil Ejner Friis, writer and developmental editor will assist Jascha to develop the unique code that connects the deeper underlaying patterns of cocreation.

Discover our extended team as well as the Advisory Board and Board of Trustees here. 

LOOKING BACK FROM 2030

Imagine it’s 2030, and the millennials are in power. Our systems to govern ourselves have radically changed. It’s as normal as your daily digest on social media that you as a citizen take part in important decisions. And, it’s actually rewarding. Within your municipality you are able to direct your vote to allocate funds. Is it more the local playground that deserves a renovation, or rather decentralizing the energy supply?

When it comes to the regional and national level, politicians are well aware now that beyond the reoccurring ballot, they are being held accountable for transparency and distribution of funds. Thus, lobbying is hardly possible anymore. Even more radically, the way legislation is passed has changed completely, all European Citizens have the right to organize online, sign electronic petitions that after a certain threshold are passed onto the national and European parliaments. Permanently installed Citizen’s Assemblies have complemented and updated the way representative parliamentary democracy is exerted.

Together with experts and scientists, but also people from all walks of life, spanning all generations, we together as cocreative citizens are shaping the future together for the generations to come.