by Virginia Tassinari
This event is an in-depth discussion of the notion of “public” in a context in which new forms of active and collaborative behaviors emerge. More precisely, it is based on the observation that contemporary social movements indicate the viability of a new relationship between citizens and the public realm: new socio-material assemblies where citizens and public agencies are engaged in a conversation on new services, their characteristics and in their practical production and delivery.
Moving from here, this DESIS Philosophy Talk starts an in-depth discussion on how the public realm evolves when these new socio-material assemblies emerge.
As a first result from the experience of the Public & Collaborative Cluster Project we had a series of reflections on the idea of "People-powered services", co-produced services where the citizen is actively involved in producing new public services. Within the Public and Collaborative cluster project we are witnessing the proliferation of projects in which the final service is based on the direct involvement and engagement of the citizens. We also notice that the newest and most promising public services nowadays rising above are the ones (pro)actively encouraging and facilitating this possibility of the citizens' involvement. This creates a positive loop for citizenship and public services. From such observations we can draw some initial philosophical questions, for instance: what is the new social pact between state and citizenship? can we speak of a shift from the welfare to a partner state?
We will start this discussion on October 27th 2012 within the public & collaborative days (26th - 27th october) within the Biennale of Liège Reciprocity (http://www.designliege.be) in Belgium, in collaboration with the MAD Faculty, the research group Social Spaces and FAK (KU Leuven). The discussion will be organized in four steps: 1) an introduction, where the main questions emerging from design research activities are presented. 2) a keynote speech that links these questions to their larger theoretical background. 3) Short interventions by guest discussants, who react to both the initial questions and to the main keynote contribution 4) A final discussion, involving all the speakers and the audience.
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