2016 CTT International Conference: Martin Sande and Lena Langlet explore active democracies.

1. Exploring Active Democracies
Lena Langlet and Anders Nordh,
SALAR, Swedish Association of Local
Authorities and Regions
Martin Sande, Dialogues

2. Citizen dialogue a mission from
SALAR:s congress 2015
”SALAR supports its members in the work to
develop dialogue and co-creation with citizens
and to integrate the results in governance
processes and organizational development.
Enabling both a sustainable democracy and a
socially sustainable society”

3. Since 2007 SALAR invites local
authorities, county councils and regions
to participate in:
• Networks to improve knowledge
• Networks to develop and test methods
for dialogue and meet complex
challenges
Our approach

4. We work …
 …from the position of supporting of politicians and civil servants
in regions and municipalities of Sweden. They have formal power
over resources, community planning and policy making.
 …. to support and develop our representative democracy through
dialogue, co-creation and prototyping.
 … partly from direct funding from the Government to address
complex issues
 … from “the whole system view” hence politicians and civil
servants are part of “the problems” addressed.
 … by consciously activating conflict in complex issues. Actively
seeking the “NO” voices. Requiring a neutral facilitation in order
create safety “sitting in the fire”.
We see a risk of “Swedish values” being hi-jacked by right
wing politics.

8. We pride ourselves with a high
turn out
70
75
80
85
90
95
19701973197619791982198519881991199419982002200620102014
Development of citizeins voting 1970-2014 (percent)
Kommunvalen Landstingsvalen Riksdagsvalen

9. Kommun
Distrikt med
högst
valdeltagande
Distrikt med
lägst
valdeltagande
Differens
2014
Differens
2010
Göteborg 92,6 37,4 55,2 48,1
Stockholm 94,8 40,8 54,0 58,1
Malmö 93,4 39,7 53,7 49
Botkyrka 90,9 42,3 48,6 43,6
Huddinge 91,9 46,1 45,8 42,7
Haninge 89,8 44,6 45,2 41,2
Södertälje 86,8 42,5 44,3 36,2
Borås 92,5 50,5 42,0 38,2
Halmstad 93,5 52,2 41,3 31,8
Sollentuna 91,1 52,6 38,5 33,7
But…

10. 4%
1%
95%

11. ”Votes for sale”
1. Every fifth young Swede between 18 and 29
would be willing to sell their vote for a smaller
amount of money.
2. One in four young Swedish do not think it is so
important that they live in a democracy but
think it would be good, or very good, if Sweden
was ruled by a "strong leader who does not
need to bother with parliament and elections.”
3. Nearly 15 percent of young people think it
would be good, or very good, if Sweden was
ruled by the military.

12. NVA Sweden 2016
13
• Violence and crime
• Conflict / aggression
• Diversity

14. How high is your level of
trust in the way the following
political institutions manage
their work?

15. Dialoguesmartin.sande@dialogues.se
… the complexity of todays societal challenges
require a transformed and co-creation based
power structure in order to be handled in a
socially sustainable way….
Hans Abrahamsson, Göteborgs Universitet
16

16. We are falling apart when we need
to learn to live side by side

17. Dialogues are shifting focus
Physical
issues
RelationsValues

19. A framework and mindset!
Arrogance Intimacy
Co-creation
Control

20. A framework and mindset!
Arrogance Intimacy
Co-creation
Control
We are the elected
officials. We have
the power and we
decide
Manipulation “Make
it look good. but it’s
a facade
We invite and have
dialogues, on our
premises
We work together.
We share power,
and responsibility.

21. A necessary shift?!
Arrogance Intimacy
Co-creation
Control
We are the elected
officials. We have
the power and we
decide
Manipulation “Make
it look good. but it’s
a facade
We invite and have
dialogues, on our
premises
We work together.
We share power,
and responsibility.
Lack of trust
Complexity

22. A framework and mindset!
Arrogance Intimacy
Co-creation
Control
We are the elected
officials. We have
the power and we
decide
Manipulation “Make
it look good. but it’s
a facade
We invite and have
dialogues, on our
premises
We work together.
We share power,
and responsibility.
Here we are working :
Dialogue, co-creating,
prototyping and
learning

23. Model for dialogue on complex issues
24
3:Dialogue,
experimen-
tation and co-
creation
Iterations:
learning by doing
and trying
=steps that dialogue with citizens has direct influence over
Capacity development to manage complex issues dialogue based
1:Prepara-
tions
4:Proposals,
measures and
commitments
5: Decisions 6:Implemen
-tation
2:Perspec-
tive
collection

24. Our dialogues are going deeper and
beyond – shifting towards to intimacy
and co-creation
Sitting around the fire – happy ending
dialogues. Gathering and sharing views.
Conflicting perspectives are avoided
Sitting in the fire – working
from through friction and
conflict between perspectives
in order to reach wisdom,
release potential and enable
innovation
Wisdom, potential, innovation

25. Thank you!
Lena.langlet@skl.se
Anders.nordh@skl.se
Martin.sande@dialogues.se
Join us in the workshop after lunch to
co-create and learn together

26. Workshop…
 Together explore how values can unite
communities integrating large
migrant populations – a really
complex issue we are working with
 Assumption: Living side by side
(inclusion) requires a resilient
ability to enter conflict and
friction constructively
- What are your experiences that we
can learn from?
- Dialogues going deeper and
beyond – what have we learned?!
- What are your experiences from
working with conflicting values?