policy as conversation

Session 5c, 23 October 2008 eChallenges e-2008 CC 3.0 Attribution-Noncommercial Alberto Cottica

Policy as Conversation

Alberto Cottica

Department of Economic Development

Regione Basilicata

Italy


Presentation Structure

• A policy problem • Rethinking policy (and the people within it)• Signalling for quality and mutual recognition• Harvesting and sharing information• Results

– Diagnosis– The blog– Pilot projects– The policy solution

• Lessons for a regional Living Lab governance– At the level of the policy process– At the level of the solution


The Mandate

• Implementing “creative workspaces” in Basilicata• 4,3 Meuro budget for capital expenditure (bricks-and-mortar)• No budget for ongoing activities• Basilicata is a lagging region, sparsely populated• An inter-institutional task force (central and regional

administration)


Difficulties

• Local markets are very thin (less than 600K inhabitants in the region; two small cities with 60K each)

• Basilicata's creatives tend to be self-referential and aid-dependent; some are rent-seeking

• Sustainability of workspaces seems a long way off• Any progress on this ground requires very active, up front

involvement of local creatives• A new deal: sustainability in return for far better

infrastructures?


What we needed to overcome them

• Rethink policy as a conversation, and creatives as trustworthy adults. Give up some control (e.g. campaign for decision criteria rather than imposing them)

• Solve a credibility problem (bad narrative on public policy as inefficient and corrupt) and establish ourselves as credible partners

• creatives must recognize each other as potential allies and colleagues worth of respect

• everyone involve must recognize that change is possible


Signalling for Mutual Recognition

• A project brand (Visioni Urbane) and identity as separate from the administration's (Be different, look different)

• Insisting on transparency, meritocracy, sharing-oriented ethos

• Non-ontological, peer-recommendation based definition of the creative community (including tech and communication companies and bloggers): 91 small companies and orgs

• Styling the relationship between the administration and creatives as unselfish: no money handouts ever

• A blog (www.visioniurbanebasilicata.net) as the main tool, signalling for transparency, openness and “speaking in a human voice”

• Getting on board high profile figures (Bruce Sterling, La Fura dels Baus, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Torino Internazionale...), signalling for quality


Harvesting and Sharing Information

• Offline interaction: 5 workshops (Oct 2007-May 2008) structured as reporting sessions, providing final documents we could all agree on (and videos)

• Raise the level of the debate to sell the idea that change is possible with the right kind of input. Culture shocks (Sterling, state-of-the-art examples of creative workspaces from all Europe)

• Insist on social dimension. Encourage peer-to-peer interaction by coffee breaks, happy hours and parties


Results: Diagnosis

• creatives are reasonably competent in producing culture• need to improve in marketing and communication of cultural

products• need to improve in command of technology (especially

internet) geared to cultural production and marketing• need to improve business management skills• need to network more, especially with each other• (all of the above is subscribed by the creative community as

of October 2007)


Results: the Blog

• More than 100 unique visitors per day (everyone involved, every day!)

• 88 posts and 618 comments (Sept 2007-May 2008)• peaks before and after offline workshops• only one flame exchange


Results: Pilot Projects

• We decided to divert part if the funds to pilot projects to get the workspaces started and other non-brick-and-mortar activities (about 1,3 Meuro)

• “Call for dreams”: 14 proposals flowed in and were posted on the blog


Results: The Proposed Solution

The proposed solution: creative workspaces by area and theme

Theme Location

The high tech cave Matera city

Reinventing the future Potenza city

Socially inclusive art Vulture area

Roots Pollino area

Basilicata in the world, the world in Basilicata Metaponto area


Lessons for a Regional LL Governance: the Policy Process

• Lack of funds for ongoing activities => focus on sustainability => demand for innovation

• Innovation => new marketable cultural products (the notion of marketable is contingent and hyperlocal: e.g. Sterling's “technological cave”)

• A “no surrender” attitude on meritocracy helped to emerge an alliance between smart, hard working members of the community


Lessons for a Regional LL Governance: the Policy Solution

• More and better policy as conversation• Cultural strategy conference (2010?)• Governance structure

– The creative community itself (via a social network, expansion of the blog)

– “Council of the wise” (à la STAG in Taiwan IT policy), expansion of the high profile figures within the policy design process

– Committee formed by managers of workspaces bringing feedback from the trenches

– The regional administration at the highest possible level


Conclusions

• Policy as conversation has been able to achieve promising results in a difficult situation, restoring a healthier policy climate

• A hitherto implicit demand for innovation has emerged in Basilicata, thanks to the “biting” sustainability constraint. This has attractive efficiency properties, and I propose it be considered as an alternative to the traditional innovation supply model of LLs

• This approach is probably most useful to put to use the very many heritage buildings restored through URBAN

• A problem: getting other administration departments (tourism, IT, infrastructures, even culture) involved is difficult, even with a short chain of command

policy as conversation

Business