Citizen vision workshops – transforming technological innovation into a quadruple helix process
The European Union is making nearly €80 billion of funding available until 2020 to address the overarching challenges. But how do ordinary people see their future? What kind of challenges do they think they have to face? How can these challenges be tackled? Such questions can be answered by involving citizens in the development of innovation agendas. One way to do this is by organizing citizen vision workshops as a starting point for dialogue between citizens, stakeholders, scientists and policy-makers. This encourages people to think outside the box, leave their comfort zone and imagine an ideal future. They build on the idea that social imagination in Europe is a competitive advantage which may make innovation processes more relevant.
Citizen vision workshops allow people to formulate visions of a future 30 to 40 years from now. Involving citizens in a co-creation process in this way can lend relevance and accountability to innovation agendas. Discussing hopes and fears helps us chart a path towards realising them.
The figure below outlines the crucial stages of citizen vision workshops.