Participatory Innovation Praxis: A trans-disciplinary method for conducting high-complexity social transformations

Abstract

Why is humanity heading for self-destruction and planetary devastation? Why are so many problems –climate crisis, hunger, migrations, organized crime, inequality, desertification, pollution, etc.– out of control and getting worse? These high-complexity problems involve large numbers of actors, conflicts, issues, interpretations and cultures, and require pulling together knowledge from widely different sources to be possibly governed. Yet the master paradigm that has ruled humanity over the last four centuries –i.e., Cartesian, analytical or simplifying thinking– makes this practically impossible because of its principles of separation, reduction and abstraction that are embodied in today’s scientific disciplines. The Participatory Innovation (PI) Praxis offers a viable alternative, within the emerging post-Cartesian paradigm of systems thinking or complex thinking. PI’s theory comes from key systems thinkers: Ackoff, Ashby, Beer, Ozbekhan, Morin and Schein; its empirical grounds, from experiences in many fields and places, including hundreds of innovations. PI makes high-complexity challenges understandable and governable through methodical design and implementation of consensus social-cultural transformations, by using the astounding capacities of human minds and natural language to process complex meanings. This article illustrates the method with 25-year impacts of two cases in Chile. It closes by discussing implications for policy and for cultural and civilizational matters.