navigate by fiction is a method for collaborative future-making, online and offline. It is based on futures literacy: the capacity to imagine different futures and to become able to act from them in the present.
The method was developed in 2020 together with a team of truly wonderful people who came together during the pandemic to set free hope and the power to shape things – even before the Institute for Practical Emergence existed. Today we use it above all for towns and municipalities.
Why municipalities
Political change is increasingly set in motion outside the political system – on the streets, online, in networks. Modern citizen participation becomes the key.
navigate by fiction activates the creative power of a whole municipality. In engaging formats, everyone imagines the future – the desirable as well as the undesirable. And what people have shaped themselves, they help implement with motivation.
How it works
- Create identification Together with committed people from the community, a creative process on future scenarios takes shape. It creates meaning, gives orientation and confidence – and is genuinely fun.
- Read the narratives From the future narratives, opportunities and risks for the municipality can be derived. This lets political bodies recognise the relevant questions – and the dialogue about which course to set begins.
- Implement with transparency From the prioritised opportunities, implementation teams form. Voluntary engagement grows from identifying with the collectively imagined ideas – carried by high transparency and frequent communication.
What emerges: a futures mindset
In intense, creative sessions, new networks emerge that would otherwise never have met. The dialogue revolves around desirable coexistence – around values and norms. This is how shared identity grows, step by step.
Those who have developed futures themselves identify more strongly with the decisions that follow – and want to help shape them. Reactive observing turns into bold storytelling, low interest turns into engagement. We call this attitude a futures mindset.
From practice: Gemeinsam. Zukunft. Machen.
In 2021, around ten volunteers in Ebersberg (Bavaria) launched an open, non-partisan participation process with navigate by fiction. In the “Café Zukunft” and in small future groups, people co-created city stories that grew into concrete projects. In 2022 we presented the project at re:publica, and local media reported on it repeatedly.
Read more
We explore futures literacy and navigate by fiction in more depth on the blog: