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New Political Culture: A Basque Experiment

 

When imagining how Action Research for Transformations can have a political impact, Orkestra in partnership with AR+ helps make it real. We share here of an important experiment that may have global implications. It illustrates the importance of bringing adult development into the arena of ART generally and politics in particular.

On March 23rd** we, Hilary Bradbury and Miren Larrea, participated in the deliberation session of the Orkestra group tasked with developing new political culture.  Hilary is curator and principal at AR+ Foundation which seeks to raise consciousness about action research as a transformative methodology at our time of eco-social crisis. Miren is a senior researcher and one of the action researchers supporting regional politics through Orkestra with a focus on Action Research for Territorial Development. 

** read also the follow up one year later

Miren writes: On the Orkestra side we are experimenting with ART led by the provincial council of Gipuzkoa, a regional government in the Basque Region of Northern Spain, home to about two million citizens. Our aim is to develop a new political culture as part of the Etorkizuna Eraikiz, i.e., future forming project. We are already practicing what we call Action Research for Territorial Development (ARTD) as we want the territory to elevate our heritage of collaborative governance. We see the value in AR+ as a space where action researchers working locally in transformation processes can reflect and learn together globally. We see the possibility for ARTD as a new experiment in including both external territory (e.g., ongoing concerns for healthy economy) and “internal” territories (new emphasis on personal leadership capacities among key stakeholders).

 

Hilary writes: The Basque region is one of the most thriving not just in Spain but in all of Europe, when we look at measures such as GDP per capita. Its collaborative learning orientation (this is the land of  Mondragon the world’s largest cooperative) and now the embrace of action research into political processes help propel this region. 

One of the initiatives in this project is an action research think tank that Miren leads devoted to bringing a new political culture alive, starting with elected politicians and policy makers. As we realize we need to work to support democracy around the world, this experiment can offer global implications.

Toward a new political culture

In this project four challenges are being addressed by four deliberation groups. Three concern external territory:

• Green recovery,
• Future of the welfare state,
• Future of work,

And the fourth helps support the other three by working directly on transforming political culture itself through aiming to have a positive impact in citizens’ lives:

• New political culture.

Each group, facilitated by action researchers, convenes policy makers of the government and other territorial actors from the ecosystem of the government policies. These ecosystems in turn are configured by organizations in the territory of the region that are outside the government but affected by – and stakeholders to – its policies.

First we all had to agree. Democratically.

Miren started the meeting by explaining that the aim of the session was to explore the role of self-development in the transformation of the political culture. She posed the matter in a rather provocative way by stating at the beginning of the presentation, that

“Transforming our environment requires capabilities and attitudes that we do not have as our world becomes more complex.” She explained that unless each of us engages self-transformation, we will hardly transform the political culture around us. In this she deliberately broadens the conventional notion of territory.

Hilary then crossed her fingers and shared the idea that to cultivate internal territory means to turn the camera around on ourselves. At heart of the matter is a kind of cultivation that concerns our own meaning making and action taking, both alone and in collaborative contexts. 

This is politics in a new guise. Not the old conquistador mode, which we still see today, e.g., in Ukraine, but a politics of cultivation of self and other in an increasingly complex world. Growing our own capacity for complexity allows us respond to – not hide from, merely explain or seek to reduce – complexity. New capacity brings sustainable development and personal development together. They are not separate for those engaged in ART. 

Hilary’s talk highlighted that any political actor’s ability to make a positive difference is not their philosophy, personality, or style of management. Rather, it’s their (internal) “action logic.” This refers to patterns of sensegiving and meaning-making. These patterns are most evident in how we interpret our surroundings and respond when our power or safety is challenged. These patterns are measurable. More mature patterns can be learned, especially when we undertake to do so with others in the context of our shared work. 

 

Democratic debate

This was the first time we had openly addressed the possibility of bringing self and mutual inquiry into a policy makers’ setting. In this room sat those leading the three projects defined in the think tank for the transformation of the political culture. This was a space known for highlighting the relevance of the cooperative perspective, and in a project explicitly oriented to community development. The invitation to turn the camera around on ourselves, individually and together, was something new. And a bit uncomfortable.

By the initial reactions, we  wondered if people feared we were being anti-cooperative? Narcissistic? Perhaps wondering why are we inviting Americans to talk, when American politics has its own glaring struggles.  (That said Hilary is not actually American and so far America has survived Donald Trump’s reign).

Others might wonder could this new approach offer a way to grow new capacities needed precisely for continuing cooperation in an increasingly pluralistic world?

The debate included dialogue prompted by the presentation of ideas from constructivist adult development. Participants became most engaged on the matter of how the relationship between individual and communitarian transformation are linked and how the concept of action logics could be useful or not.

Miren and Hilary were at pains to frame self-inquiry as synergistic with cooperative transformation. However, this idea was not immediately or easily accepted. Though it is also true that people who practice at later stages of sense making and action taking are measurably better collaborators better at helping collective action happen because they have a bigger sense of how self and context interact.  It is also true that, on the face of things, Anglo Americans, with their recent politics of extreme populism and Brexit, offer the very opposite of cooperative approaches. In ego development terms this is, in part, because individual leading (male) egos have been allowed to run amok. Efforts to locate the right balance between “getting things done” and being effectively “inclusive” fall to those unpracticed in meeting complexity with compelling solutions, and perhaps too well practiced in offering deconstructive criticism with no real path to action.

The Yays have it.

By half way through the deliberation  approximately half of the participants openly welcomed the value of the proposal, that self development would feed into and support collective development.

The other half used phrasings such as “yes, but not only…”, “yes, but not a priority…”, “ yes, but…”, “I agree, but it is not enough…” By the end of the 45 mins dialogue the group had slowly muddled along to yes/and. We heard from group leaders: “self development can enrich the process, as long as it considers the reality of our system…”

In the end only one person wrote down “I think it would be a mistake to integrate self-transformation as one of the responsibilities within collaborative governance”.

The final majority vote in favor came at the close of the session. It opened a door for ART in this territory. In this Basque land’s Action Research for Territorial Development, both external and internal territories would be included.

Moving to action

We have already started with a next experiment as self-volunteering policy stakeholders are using a Developmental Assessment Self Instrument as a “before measure” for their own leadership development. This assessment is a conversation starter on personal development that allows those who take it to plot their own work development in collaboration with meeting shared goals with others. The assessment itself is the outcome from a collaborative partnership that makes up Shifting Horizons a partnership with AR+ | ActionResearchPlus Foundation and CHIE (of Brazil), AMARA (of Finland), Dana Carman Integral (USA). 

Stay tuned! We’ll share results of this global experiment in new political culture along the way!

In the video below you hear (or read in Spanish subtitles) Hilary Bradbury. She has just been introduced by Dr. Miren Larrea and speaks about the value of linking personal development in our work to meet community, sustainability, goals.