Social (Political) Psychology at the Paradox of Prejudice Reduction, Collective Action, and Social Change; Facilitator; Design Thinker; a tendency to Culture Social Eco Something and Intra-/Entrepreneurship...
Currently: ( OFFTIME ) - Unplug yourself in a hyperconnected world var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-31435199-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();
Design Thinking Books to Read - Nachdem lange Zeit viel Ruhe auf den deutschen Design Thinking Buchmarkt herrschte tut sich etwas. Endlich!
Die neuen Must-Reads:
- Das Design Thinking Playbook: Mit traditionellen, aktuellen und zukünftigen Erfolgsfaktoren - Hands-On Design Thinking Methoden aus der Praxis zur eigenen Umsetzung
- Das Design Thinking Playbook: Mit traditionellen, aktuellen und zukünftigen Erfolgsfaktoren Digital Innovation Playbook. Das unverzichtbare Arbeitsbuch für Gründer, Macher und Manager - etwas mehr Theorie, weniger Methoden
- Denkwerkzeuge der Kreativität und Innovation - noch mehr Meta für das große Ganze: Überblick über Kreativ-Prozesse und Denkwerkzeuge (erinnert mich mich etwas an den Klassiker “50 Erfolgsmodelle. Kleines Handbuch für strategische Entscheidungen”)
Was sind Eure Design Thinking Bücher Empfehlungen?
For OFFTIME I’ve been interviewed again (this time SRF 10vor10 / Swiss television) about our relationship with the smartphone and Digital Detox. They also used film material from our Digital Detox weekend.
You can watch it here.
Ein netter Jahresabschluss: Interview mit etwas mehr Big Picture mit WIRED von uns über Offtime, das Zeitalter des Informationsüberflusses und die Seiten der Macht. Danke!
Endlich Ruhe! Diese App macht dein Smartphone unerreichbar
https://www.wired.de/collection/latest/die-offtime-app-hilft-euch-wenn-ihr-trotz-smartphone-eure-ruhe-haben-wollt
I had the honor to be interviewed and to be quoted quite extensively about our relationship with our smartphones by Jürgen von Rutenberg from DIE ZEIT Magazin who did a cover story on this.
Scaling done right: Ask yourself these 50 questions
As there is overlap between what OFFTIME does (focus on the right things), where we are right now with our company (scaling our vision towards more free spaces) and as it connects to my personal interest, with the combination of knowledge from psychology, sociology and system thinking, I engaged more deeply with the topic.
Mark created with ‘Scaling’ a superb book and covered a very wide range of topics while making them easily accessible through good descriptions, several case studies to every topic and a good summary of the key points. Also his approach of thinking in emergence, networks and waves does make sense to me. However, what I found is missing to apply the knowledge further, are questions that help me to frame the key issues I have to take into account.
Here is my first go to questions that you should ask yourself to implement the knowledge from the book, build on top of this and start scaling: the 50 Key Questions You Have to Ask Yourself. Is a question missing, not phrased clearly or powerful enough (c.f. The Art of Powerful Questions)? Please comment or drop me an email, I’ll constantly iterate on and update the list below.
Nevertheless, keep in mind: Scaling does stretch us to one extreme. I can only highlight and push the comment that was made from another workshop attendee: We have to look at the other side too; and find a rhythm that enables us to sustain this over a long time, also our very own rhythm and nurture the personal connections that hold us.
Best regards,
alex
Scaling - Emergence, Networks, Waves - the 50 Key Questions You Have to Ask Yourself
Emergence
Setting Targets
What is our end goal?
How far & how fast do we want to scale?
What is your target in two years?
What different scenarios / ways can lead you to this targets above?
What are indicators in 6, 12 and 18 months for each scenario? Where and how do we know on which way we are?
What are the core assumptions underlying this targets?
When are we reviewing & adjusting the targets and core assumptions again?
Emergent Solutions
What is the core of …?
What are elements around this that might develop/spread/disappear?
Balance Control
What is the core of …? What do we we have to control?
Where can we allow configuration & personalization (that does not inhibit effective growth)?
What (process steps) and how can we modularize them/it?
Which APIs can we make/allow to support mass individualization?
Fostering an Ecosystem
What incentives can we give people that support us?
How can a beneficial environment for many look like?
Leveraging Adjacencies
Which is the niche we want to start with? (+ Why this and not another?)
How needs … to look like so that with little need for redesign it can be used in other markets and niches?
When is a market/niche fully saturated?
How does a robust repeatable program for entering new markets/niches look like?
People Follow
Who are the multipliers and thought leaders (a) around us and (b) in our target niche?
What behavior should they adopt?
Crowd Power
With which elements do we implement (in ... as organisation) a crowd mindset?
Which areas of the organisation are how open?
With what do we ask who?
Power Laws & Long Tails
Which (of the here named) things and activities bring us 80% by 20% effort?
long tail question? (to be found)
Seeding Optionality
Which (big) trends are connected to our topic?
Which trends/areas of the above trends do have high growth?
What would happen/how would we feel that the above trends are changing?
How would we notice that we are (not) part of a growing trend / in such a trajectory?
Rapid Experiment-based Improvement
How can we make hypotheses of our actions explicit and measurable? (How to integrate it in our routine)
How can we increase our release cycle?
How can we receive more feedback on things that we do/release?
How do we deal/proceed with feedback that we receive?
Data Intelligence
Where do we get data from?
How do we monitor these sources?
Designing Choices
What do we want users to do?
How do we design things and choices that lead to this?
Virtual Currency
What can people around us get to show how much do for us / love us?
Networks
Network Hubs and Amplifiers
Which networks & communities - better real world, but also virtual - are align with our mission in some way or another?
Who and what are the gatekeepers in this communities?
Who and what are the amplifiers in this communities?
Network Ask
What are simple favors that we can always ask people to do?
What should people share about us?
Long.Jump Networks
Who around us has moved through different careers, industries & disciplines? (Open your address book and go through it!)
Infectious Ideas
How do we recognize that somebody uses or likes … ?
Network Effects
How can … be more usable or valuable for an individual the more people use it?
How can … be more usable or valuable for an individual the more people know about it?
Community Development
What is our core concept?
How can we get supporting enthusiasts and passive followers (that enlarge the experience and group dynamic)?
Which events can we create?
How do we give our community meaning?
Gamification
How can we interact with our our community playfully?
What stimulation, rewards or sense of fun can we give people?
Waves
Unleashing a Wave
What wave (energy that is trapped in a/the community) could we trigger/unleash?
How would we kick-off/unleash this wave? Which series of actions?
What story of change can we tell that supports momentum?
What story can we tell that direct momentum (in our favored direction)?
Catching a Wave
Which underlying forces and factors influence our wave?
What’s our wave we want to catch?
How can we measure (and become aware of changes of) those forces and factors?
What do we have to do when one of the above waves start moving? (Think through each ones above separately.)
Riding a Wave
What are connected waves?
How can we support the wave keeping momentum?
Waves might be changing, like when a DJ is changing the beat:
(a) Who would be DJs of our waves?
(b) How would we see/release that the beat changed?
Creating a Shared Movement
What shared purpose can we give (and create)?
How can we sustain a mass over time?
How can we encourage self-action of individuals in our community?
Synchronization
What synchronizing activities can give the community and relevant networks a heartbeat, a pulse, a rhythm?
How can we create cliffs of excitement?
How can we create an expectation of continuation over time and therewith a sense of synergy and common purpose?
Building Crescendo
What actions and events can we create that grow in importance and impact over time?
Which actions and events make our concept more visible and culminate in a seemingly inevitable result?
Which actions and events do build on the previous ones and also deepen the relationship with existing supporters?
What does resonate with you? What's missing? What would you ask? Please comment or drop me an email, I’ll constantly iterate on and update the list.
Some time ago I added the different ‘tribes’ to my Mindmap of the Berlin Startup Ecosystem to orient myself better what it’s going on. After Jess and Derks exchange in the Berlin Facebook Startups Group that there are quite requests from tech conference organizers, here is my little contribution to the exchange and the latest addition the mind map: the base of a list of Berlin Women in Tech with their companies and roles based on Jess' Berlin Geekettes Facebook List.
Let's hope that this here is just a interim solution and the Geekettes include something like this on their website to make women in tech and role models not just visible, but also much more accessible.
Nevertheless, till then: Is somebody missing? Please feel free to suggest more people via this web form here. I’m also more than happy to open up this list and add more Editors to it. On that Women in Tech will flourish!
[Please click here to view list on an extra page.(html)]
(Google Spreadsheet / download as XLS)
Speaking at #TEDxEutropolis/#unplug: 'Social Media is the new Junk Food'
Updated.
This week I have the honour to give my first TEDx talk at TEDxEutropolis next to people like Paul Miller (American Technology Journalist, Senior Editor at The Verge) and Eberhard van der Laan (Dutch politician and mayor of the city of Amsterdam).
Update: Here is a picture with me speaking; some more pictures of the event can be found here. All rights reserved by TEDxEutropolis. The video should go online next week or the week thereafter, you can see it here: Why can’t we switch off? Social Media is the new Junk Food
Social Media is the new Junk Food
Alexander's hypotheses is that 'Social Media is the new Junk Food'. During the last half of the century we went through an abundance of (cheap) food - from which we are slowly trying to recover again. Something similar is happening now even more powerfully: In the last decade we went through an exponential technical revolution and have now access to information everywhere, anytime. However, our survival depended so long on access to social information, our reward system adapted to it - to our brain Social Media is as important as food and sex. Not lack of information is a problem anymore, but affluence of (junk) information - with negative influence on our health and well-being. Can technology fix that again?
Here are some more impressions:
#tedxeutropolis pic.twitter.com/2K8ev5LtPI
— alex (@quanders)
August 24, 2013
Photo: #TEDxEutropolis yeah, talk by Alex from #offtime. “social media is the new junk food” happy to met... http://t.co/yhWwvjnG40
— Mostafa Akbari (@mosworld)
August 24, 2013
Nog een talk over de balans tussen on- en offline door Alexander Steinhart; iedereen heeft momenten van eenzaamheid nodig #TEDxEutropolis
— Francine Pelzers (@francinepelzers)
August 24, 2013
Two speakers on the importance of "unplug". Couldn't have agreed more. #TEDxEutropolis pic.twitter.com/5ZiSORY7WA
— Chat W. (@chatchavan)
August 24, 2013
I love Junk Food ... and Social Media ;) thanks for your talk @quanders @getOFFTIME #tedxeutropolis pic.twitter.com/hiLLX8QNAj
— Judith van Hooijdonk (@jujuutje)
August 24, 2013
My favorite slide today: "social media is the new junk food", by @quanders #TEDxEutropolis pic.twitter.com/NqhfsyleJE
From Hippies and the "Whole Earth Catalog" to Wired and the New Economy
Whooo... deeply recommended: The Whole Earth. California and the Disappearance of the Outside (Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin) curated by Diedrich Diederichsen and Anselm Franke.
Berlin is hyped as the IT start-up capital of the world right now, but nearly half a century ago, the birth place was Silicon Valley.
Diedrich Diederichsen and Anselm Franke let you travel back in time to California's technological and political revolution of the late 1960s/early 1970s and draw many links and connections till the 1990s.
One of the main hypotheses Diederichsen and Franke work with is that the image of the "blue planet" change our thinking dramatically (from linar to circular/holistic//interconnectedness/system thinking) and explore along those lines the active influence of Stewart Brand and friends beyond this.
How have political conflict lines been neutralized in the early 1970s? How was the “personal computer" coined and what is the history of the internet? What is WELL, Wired and Hackers? What has the hippy counterculture and political thought to do with this? How did ecology and cybernetics lead to the system and self-management of the capitalist network society?
The whole collection is an intelectual masterstroke and very good resource. It connected and showed relationships of many things I knew already, things I work with or influenced me - and it is good that it is no the whole and you will leave with many more question in your head. Bring plenty of time with you... and I've you have the chance, take it, and attend one of the guided tours of the curators!
Best,
quanders
The Whole Earth.
California and the Disappearance of the Outside
The project takes its starting point in historical developments in California since the 1960s: using materials from cultural history and artistic works, the exhibition will critically explore the application of ecological-systemic concepts to society, politics, and aesthetics. The transformation of romantic and technophile ideas from the realm of counterculture and cybernetics led to concepts of the system and self-management in network capitalism that have a global impact today.
The image of the “blue planet,” a new perspective of the earth as seen from the outside, is one of the most popular images in history. This image, more than any other, has shaped the popular notion of the age of the “whole world” and globalization, from a worldwide society linked by the Internet to the current debate on the climate. Using artworks and materials from cultural history, the exhibition will critically explore the application of ecological-systemic concepts to society, politics, and aesthetics.
The exhibition is one of the first to explore the history of the photograph of the “blue planet,” and reflects in a comprehensive way the power of the Whole Earth Catalog, the analog predecessor of Google (Steve Jobs). It was published in 1968 for the first time by Stewart Brand, who later coined the term “personal computer”: a compendium of useful utensils for the planetary future, it used the image of the whole planet for its cover. the whole earth takes up the historic moment of what was later called the “Californian ideology”: an alliance between hippie culture and cybernetics, nature romantics and technology worshippers, psychedelia and computer culture. In this exhibition, curators Diedrich Diedrichsen and Anselm Franke explore these countercultures in California of the 1960s and 1970s: with visual and audio documents, historical and contemporary artistic contributions. They reflect various impulses from politics, ideology, and popular culture for an environmentalist movement and the rise of a digital network culture.
How have political conflict lines been neutralized? How did ecology and cybernetics lead to the system and self-management of the capitalist network society?
Curated by: Diedrich Diederichsen and Anselm Franke
Exhibition: 26.04.-01.07.2013 | Wed-Mon 11-19h
Conference: 21.–22.06.2013
With Mercedes Bunz, Katja Diefenbach, Erich Hörl, Tom Holert, Fred Turner a.o.
Handelsblatt Karriere: Unternehmen buhlen um die Generation Facebook
Das Karriere Magazin des Handelsblatt widmet seine aktuelle Ausgabe den Social-Media-Skills - und wir sind Teil des Berichts.
Das macht mich an -
Unternehmen buhlen um die Generation Facebook
Genug gespielt!
Text: Xenia von Polier
Die Digitalisierung revolutioniert die Wirtschaft. Deshalb ist in Unternehmen jetzt die „Generation Facebook“ besonders gefragt. Nur welche Kenntnisse müssen Bewerber mitbringen, um als Social-Media-Manager, Enterprise-2.0-Experte oder Programmierer Karriere zu machen?
[…]
Müssen also Bewerber künftig unentwegt auf sämtlichen Social-Media-Plattformen präsent und aktiv sein, um ihre Karrierechancen zu verbessern?
Alexander Steinhart ist überzeugt, dass – ganz im Gegenteil – seine Generation eher lernen müsse, zwischendurch mal abzuschalten.
„Ein Smartphone in der Tasche zu haben ist für die meisten von uns so, als ob da immer ein Stück Schokolade griff bereit wäre. Es ist eine permanente Versuchung“, sagt der 30-jährige Start-up-Gründer von Master & Slave. Viele Digital Natives täten sich schwer, einen vernünftigen Umgang mit den neuen Tools zu finden.
„Durch das permanente Surfen, Mailen, Chatten und Twittern mit dem Smartphone ist die freie Zeit keine Freizeit mehr, und bei der Arbeit ist es unmöglich, konzentriert eine Aufgabe zu erledigen, wenn laufend neue Nachrichten aufblinken“, sagt Steinhart.
Und wie es für viele der oft lösungsorientierten Digital Natives typisch ist, hat er nach einem programmierbaren Ausweg aus dem Problem gesucht und kurzerhand eine Geschäftsidee entwickelt: eine App, die bislang den Arbeitstitel „Quality Time“ trägt. Aktiviert man sie, werden vorübergehend alle Anrufe, Mails und weiteren verführerischen Funktionen blockiert. Das Smartphone bleibt stumm und schickt an Störenfriede egal auf welchem Kanal automatisch eine Abwesenheitsnotiz. Nur ein definierter Kreis an Personen kann trotzdem Kontakt aufnehmen, zum Beispiel der Vorgesetzte oder die Familie.
Was angesichts des Web-2.0-Trends in der Wirtschaft zunächst widersprüchlich erscheinen mag: Erste Unternehmen haben bereits Interesse an der Anwendung signalisiert, die Steinhart mit Unterstützung von Hub:Raum, einem Start-up-Förderer der Telekom, entwickelt.
Denn obwohl die Unternehmen Nachwuchskräfte suchen, die in der digitalen Welt zu Hause sind, wünschen sie sich auch, dass diese im Büro nicht ständig abgelenkt sind. Schließlich haben die Firmen den größten Nutzen von Mitarbeitern, die die neuen Medien beherrschen, aber nicht von ihnen beherrscht werden.
Der vollständige Artikel ist im Karriere Magazin als Beilage des aktuellen Handelsblatt oder hier digital als PDF zum download zu lesen.
Vielen Dank an dieser Stelle noch einmal der Autorin Xenia von Polier für die gelungene Berichterstattung.
At the HarvardXDesign conference — a great event for the B-School— I was on a panel that did a crit on two teams from across Harvard that were the best of 9 teams competing in the challenge of How Would You Redesign Education in America. Kickstarter’s Charles Adler, IIt Institute of Design’s...
There is a ton of other advise out there, most of it is very intuitive. However, when you need it, you don’t have it! For this reason I put down my learning’s in a simple check-list for public speaking!
The basis of this is a superb crash course into public speaking by Caroline Drucker (@Bougie) from Etsy and formerly working at Soundcloud. We had this at the beginning of our Telekom Hum:braum Accelerator program - as investor day approaches, it is time to have a look at it once more. I sequentially updated this after other occasions (e.g. my TEDx speaking).
Enjoy & we wish you all the success you need! Let us know how it went & tell us what you think we missed to state here.
Chris Anderson shares his tips for giving a killer presentation (check also the different kinds by Nancy Duarte)
In preparation
get a appointment with your speaking coach (thankfully, Bianca Milon does challenge me before bigger things...)
a 2 min presentation is about 7 hours practice. plan time, start early.
a good story has a beginning → middle → end
check for a clear structure ?
who is your audience? show people context & why they should listen to you ?
my product is changing how people do xyz
every slide is a chapter (with it’s hypotheses and supporting evidence) ?
people remember three things! what are your three things?
simplicity counts! reduce.
check: your logo at the bottom?
check: footnotes? every statistic has a quote.
collect your references. & make them ready to blog min.
30 points font size?
Week before
talk to somebody else (“Betriebsblindheit”) → is it clear? killing time? ask questions to the audience. write some down.
making people involved? ask questions (careful at the beginning)
bridging → artful way of answering questions from the audience
“That’s a great question.” … & say what you want to say
“interesting question. I have to think about this.” … & say what you want to say
google for more & practice!
be not sweaty
hydro-fugal from the pharmacy
microfibre shirts
are you doing the presentation with notes or without? best is without - write everything out, learn the sentences and get through the U (that they don't sound dead any more).
do some sing sang variations of your presentation, play around and bring life back to it!
Day before
don’t dress like an idiot
not too dark, not too light, no (little) squares etc.
represent your company → show that you care, brand & make recognition easier
think of adapters! be save, bring all along you might need!
try to be able to speak it once without all the notes the evening before
Morning before
breakfast is important! you need energy!
keep some energy bars with you, you never know how long it takes
show up on time
be an hour early
go to the toilet as soon you arrive
find the person that helps → clear all questions as soon as you arrive (introduction, microphone, adapters, sound, etc.)
Just before
last but not least, don’t worry about being nervous! it will fly away!
Afterwards
get the recording of you & start at the top of the list again!
Bio sozial regional lokal Label Label Label... wer kennt sich da noch aus? Wie wäre es wenn wir einfach die 'besten' Produkte direkt an der Ecke kaufen könnten - und dabei gleich noch etwas Gutes tun? Diese Idee hatten wir bei einem DSchool Projekt 2010: der Grüne Kühlschrank.
Die Idee des Grünen Kühlschrank ist recht einfach: Spätis (so werden die Spätverkauf in Berlin genannt) und kleine Supermärkte können den Grünen Kühlschrank bei sich aufstellen. Die Grüne Kühlschrank GmbH hat die Expertise und das Warennetz und kümmert sich um die Befüllung mit Produkten die zu diesem Zeitpunkt den geringsten sozialen und ökologischen Fußabdruck haben. Der Spätibesitzer bekommt einen Teil des Gewinns, ein anderer Teil geht in die klimagerechte Renovierung des Ladens, für die den Ladenbesitzern meist Kapital und Know-How fehlt. Damit kann der Kunde beruhight die besten Produkte kaufen und hat gleichzeitig einen positiven Effekt auf seine direkte Umgebung.
Da wir keine Kühlschrankverkäufer werden wollten hatten wir das Projekt leider nie weiter getrieben. Die Idee ruht also gerade, vielleicht hat jemand von Euch Lust diese weiter zu spinnen
Vor gut zwei Wochen hatte ich mich mit Julia Knetzger auf einen Kaffee getroffen (nachdem ihre Redaktion einen Trampausflug --leider!-- dann doch als zu zeitintensiv und unsicher eingestuft hatte). Nun wurde der doch recht gute Artikel über das Main-Netz in ein paar Zeitungen abgedruckt, u.a. Seite 3 der Augsburger Allgemeine. Vielen Dank für den wohlwollende Beitrag, ich fühle mich geschmeichelt! Und ich hoffe, dass es das nächste Mal auf einen (kleinen) Trampausflug klappt!
Damit der Artikel nicht wieder im digitalen Nichts verschwindet, hab ich hier unten mal eine Kopie davon zu Archivierungszwecken eingefügt.
Autostopp - Die Erde schon zweieinhalb Mal per Anhalter umrundet
Alexander Steinhart hat die Erde schon zweieinhalb Mal per Anhalter umrundet. Der Dreißigjährige will seine Erfahrungen nun weitergeben. Von Julia Knetzger
Alexander Steinhart (links) ist viel als Anhalter unterwegs.
Foto: privat
Mit einem Rucksack auf dem Rücken und einem Schild in der Hand ist Alexander Steinhart schon so gut wie überall hingekommen. Per Anhalter ist er die Ostküste Afrikas entlanggefahren. In zwanzig Tagen hat er es von Jemen bis nach Deutschland geschafft. Und Reisen innerhalb Europas? Das gehört zu seinem Standard-Repertoire.
Steinhart ist studierter Psychologe und Unternehmensgründer. Dunkelbraunes Haar bis zu den Ohren, Ansatz zum Vollbart, ordentlicher Freizeitlook, ein ruhiger Typ. Auf den ersten Blick würde wohl niemand vermuten, dass der 30-Jährige Mitbegründer eines Trampvereins ist. „Abgefahren e. V. – Deutsche Autostop Gesellschaft“ ist dessen bezeichnender Name.
Manche Ecken sollte man eher meiden
Der Verein richtet jedes Jahr die deutschen Meisterschaften im Trampen aus, und für alle, die Spaß am Autostopp haben, hat er eine Datenbank mit Tramp-Tipps mit aufgebaut. Dort lesen Hitchhiker aus aller Welt nach, wo günstige Orte zum Einsteigen liegen oder welche Ecken man besser meidet.
Getrampt ist Steinhart schon auf so gut wie allem, was Räder hat oder sich irgendwie bewegt. Auf Traktoren durfte er mitfahren, auf Lkw, Baggern und Schwertransportern. Sogar ein Fahrradfahrer hat ihn schon einmal mitgenommen.
Angefangen hat alles vor zehn Jahren. Da war der Schwabe aus Mengen in Baden-Württemberg zwanzig und in Südafrika unterwegs. „Ich bin Student und ich habe kein Geld. Aber ich kann, wenn ich möchte, am nächsten Tag tausend Kilometer weit weg sein“, sagte er sich damals. In der Zwischenzeit hat er etwa 100000 Kilometer per Anhalter zurückgelegt. Das ist so, als ob er die Erde zweieinhalb Mal am Äquator umrundet und dabei insgesamt geschätzte dreitausend Mal das Fahrzeug gewechselt hätte.
Aber ein Lebensstil – das ist das Trampen für den Dreißigjährigen nicht. Er sieht das Ganze pragmatisch, einfach um von A nach B zu kommen. Trampen sei „ein Geben und Nehmen“. Er selbst komme schnell an sein Ziel, und die Autofahrer seien oft froh, wenn ihnen jemand Gesellschaft leiste.
Trampen bedeute aber nicht, dass man sich einfach mal an die Straße stellt und schaut, was passiert. „Aufs Trampen bereitet man sich vor wie auf jede längere Autofahrt auch“, erklärt er. Man brauche eine Landkarte und man müsse die Orte kennen, an denen man am besten ein- und aussteigt und wissen, welche Routen sich erfahrungsgemäß zum Trampen eignen.
In Gebieten mit einem engmaschigen Autobahnnetz und vielen Abzweigungen, wie zum Beispiel dem Ruhrpott, komme man schlechter voran als woanders. Auf Autobahnen trampt es sich andererseits besser als auf Landstraßen. Wenn er von Berlin in seine Heimat in der Nähe von Ulm fährt, wechselt er auf der langen Autobahnstrecke maximal zwei bis drei Mal die Autos, auf den letzten 50 Kilometern übers Land dafür vier bis fünf Mal.
Und dann ist da noch das Stichwort Sicherheit. Gruselgeschichten hat Alexander schon viele gehört. Aber entgegen landläufiger Meinung seien nicht Übergriffe das größte Risiko, sondern Unfälle. Oder dass eben mal ein Auto kaputtgeht. Auch er hat Erfahrungen mit unliebsamen Situationen gemacht. Einmal hat er schon zwei Stunden mit jemandem auf den Abschleppdienst gewartet. Und einmal hatte er plötzlich die Hand des Fahrers auf seinem Oberschenkel. Was tun in so einer Situation? Er lenkte das Thema schnell auf seine Freundin und ließ sich schon früher absetzen als geplant.
Wer hat vor wem am meisten Angst?
Wer mehr Angst vor dem Gegenüber hat – der Tramper oder der Fahrer, kann der Profi nicht pauschal beantworten. Einmal hat ihn ein etwa 40 Jahre alter Fahrer beim Einsteigen gefragt: „Hast du keine Angst, dass du bei mir einsteigst?“ Da erwiderte Alexander: „Hast du keine Angst, dass du mich mitnimmst?“ Da guckte der Fahrer erst mal. Alexander erklärte dem Fahrer, dass er sein Autokennzeichen bereits an einen Kumpel geschickt habe. Der melde sich sofort bei der Polizei, wenn er in zwei Stunden noch nichts von ihm gehört hat. Als der Fahrer Alexander am Ende aussteigen ließ, erinnerte er ihn sogar daran, dem Kumpel Bescheid zu sagen, dass er gut angekommen sei.
Geschichten erzählen, das kann der Weitgereiste. So viele Geschichten hat er selbst unterwegs schon gehört und erlebt. Die Geschichte von dem Mann im liebevoll eingerichteten VW-Bus, der den ersten Urlaub im irischen Ferienhaus ohne seine verstorbene Frau verbrachte. Die von den iranischen Autofahrern, denen er ohne Persisch-Kenntnisse erklären musste, dass er nicht einfach zur nächsten Bushaltestelle wollte. Oder die vom ersten Weihnachtslied, das er irgendwo zwischen Wien und Ulm im Radio hörte, nachdem er zuvor vier Monate im Jemen gelebt hatte.
Alexanders Eltern fanden die Idee mit dem Trampen anfangs übrigens gar nicht so toll. „Ja willst du denn nicht Zug fahren?“, war die besorgte Frage. Inzwischen sprechen sie selbst auch junge Tramper an, ob sie nicht mitfahren wollen. Ihr Sohn ist ja einer von ihnen.
How can we promote intrinsic values in campaigning?
It is good to see that the Common Cause Initiative (www.valuesandframes.org, www.findingframes.org) finds application - I mentioned the initiative briefly in an earlier post already as an important step from my cultural-psychological perspective in the NGO/NGDO sector; it builds on Shalom H. Schwartz research on human values and stresses the fact that we should promote less the self-enhancement (power/achievement) but more the self-transcendence (benevolence/universalism) ends of the values spectrum.
Last week I had the honor to take part in a 'brown bag' lunch that we hosted to analyses our European Parliament Campaign. Please read below a short summary about our discussions. But some questions still remain open...
Open 'Brown bag' lunch and reflections about the EP campaign
Casper ter Kuile on July 18, 2012, valuesandframes.org: Blog From Bruxelles: Influencing MEPs
The European Parliament: between ice cream and development education
How much did it promote intrinsic values to adopt a European Parliament declaration on development education and active global citizenship when this relied in part on enticing Members of the European Parliament with “Earth balloons” and photo opportunities?
This was the question Tobias Troll of DEEEP (Developing Europeans’ Engagement for the Eradication of Global Poverty) asked the Common Cause Brussels chapter on 12 July.
Tobias first gave us a crash course in written declarations of the European Parliament: They become automatically adopted once a majority of the Parliaments’ 754 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have signed them (within a deadline of three to four months). The declarations have to be less than 200 words, have no binding force, can be linked to any policy area of the European Union and do not automatically give rise to any specific follow-up. The main purpose is political: with a written declaration in your pocket, it is easier e.g. to ask the Commission to take action. It gives you a political “foot in the door”.
The written declaration on development education and active global citizenship was adopted on 5 July 2012 and the key sentences are as follows:
“(…) 1. Calls on the Commission and the Council to develop a long-term, cross-sectoral European strategy for development education, awareness-raising and active global citizenship;
2. Calls on the Member States to develop or strengthen national development education strategies (…)”
At any point in time, there are several parallel written declarations for which lobbyists seek signatories. For instance, at the time DEEEP was seeking signatories for its declaration, another group worked for a declaration to call for a European artisanal ice cream day. It is instructive to look at the overlap and differences between signatories of the two declarations in the figure below (EPP = centre-right, S&D = centre-left, ALDE = liberals).
It shows that a majority of MEPs do sign “anything”, and that there are predictable political differences among those who do discriminate between declarations: No liberals and hardly any Greens signed the “ice cream declaration”, whereas most of the right-wing MEPs did. It is good to see those differences as it shows that the declarations are taken notice of by the MEPs, which is not self-evident for all EP instruments.
Tobias explained that although the text of the declaration fits well with intrinsic values on the value circumplex, the tailor-made arguments they used with MEPs did not necessarily do so. The message to left-wing MEPs was about justice and a sustainable world, but with right-wing MEPs it was about building individual skills and competence in a globalised world. Chiara Tripepi explained that she had tried intrinsic arguments with an Italian centre-right MEP, who then responded “this could be politically dangerous for Italy.” Eivind Hoff of Bellona noted that the correlation between left-right position on the political spectrum and intrinsic-extrinsic value priorities should not be exaggerated. Data from the European Social Survey indicate that age is just as good predictor for value priorities as political position (young people tend to be more extrinsic than older people).
DEEEP discovered that also “gamification”, which is currently hyped in the IT sector, worked in the Parliament too: MEPs liked being taken picture of, while holding a balloon with the Earth drawn on it. So DEEEP organised photo opportunities and then made a new leaflet for other MEPs with pictures of fellow MEPs that had signed, holding the balloon. As many MEPs wanted to have a balloon, some MEPs mobilised and even found ten signatures in order to get a balloon. This mix of appeals to conformity, image and achievement worked.
Tobias mapping out the values circumplex
“Was it worth it?” Tobias asked. Patricia Scherer pointed out that from the moment you say “go” any campaign for a written declaration is competitive and will probably trigger extrinsic values. Because so little is at stake with a declaration, it is virtually impossible to engage in depth with MEPs on the actual topic (the situation is better with assistants and advisors, some of whom took a real interest in the topic of development education). The real question, then, is if you can build on the declaration to create a political process where real engagement is possible, where you can appeal to intrinsic values. Patricia mentioned that she had been involved in a similar written declaration campaign for the development organisation PLAN, and it had been great for PLAN’s branding and recognition.
“There is a follow-up now and the Parliament is looking at writing a report on development education,” Tobias explained, who still was wondering if it might have been better to engage in-depth with a smaller group of MEPs in the first place.
“The problem is that by engaging in this campaigning behaviour, our own values and attitudes may be influenced,” said Alexander Steinhart of DEEEP. “We have to be careful about what we say as we have a blind spot through the fact that we need to justify to ourselves what we do, in order to have a positive self-concept.”
Common Cause Brussels wishes Common Cause sympathisers in the north of our little planet a relaxing summer with lots of leisure and nature. And for those down south, Brussels weather right now is nothing to be jealous about.
However, my questions about this paradox still stays unanswered: How can we promote intrinsic values in campaigning? Campaigning, which might sometimes still be needed to overcome structural inequalities. It think it is not either or, but it is somewhere in the middle or in another approach and perspective. Nevertheless, I haven't figured it out yet!
Schooling the world - The white man’s last burden. Slowly, we start to recognize our blind spots and start to move behind them? I haven't seen the movie (yet - quite old actually...), but it seems to be worth watching!
trailer | Schooling the World:
“We’ve moved from wisdom to knowledge, and now we are moving from knowledge to information. And that information is so partial.”
Manish Jain:
“What’s amazing to me is that people who are claiming to be concerned with social justice, don’t see the huge kind of social hierarchy and inequity that is created through modern education.”
Sir Ken Robinson (as an authoritative argument ;)
“An important and fascinating movie.”
(via globalwh.at and hoodlook)
Have you seen the movie? What are your thoughts on it?
Participation & Ownership vs. Inclusion, Emancipation, & Shared Leadership
During the last months my thoughts turned around different types of working together with people in social change processes – participation, ownership, inclusion, emancipation, and shared leadership. The other day I had another brief exchange on Twitter regarding this topic with some participants of a Participatory Design workshop and Jascha Rohr, from the Institute for Participatory Design, and also with my colleague. As I took part in a scribble workshop by Nick Payne last week, I thought I may just try to visualize my thoughts regarding this and take the discussion a step forward.
What are the differences and similarities in method and attitude of participation & ownership vs. inclusion, emancipation, & shared leadership?
I do not know.
And yes, somewhere connected to this issue is also (dis-)empowerment, however, somehow, I do not like the term and left it out therefore. ;) The same is true with diversity, which I think is a basic necessity, but is not sufficient on its own. In an open collaboration setting, diversity and collaboration will, of course, increase your competitiveness and market advantage. As most projects have to be competitive too as well it is a good selling point, this plays a role – and makes at the same time the limits visible. Therefore, they are not included here. However, let's elaborate a bit further on the other concepts.
Participation & Ownership
In many projects I am involved, one of the basic requirements is participation and ownership. But does this really create a change of a status quo? Next to the discussion of who actually owns (ideas etc.), I have the feeling that participation is (and participants are) used to create ownership, acceptance and also to ensure that people participate (as workforce in voluntary settings) - people are used for external, already existing, aims. Sure, there are different levels of participation --e.g. from merely informing over collaborating and acting together to supporting--, but who distinguishes? Theory and practice? Who do I have a participatory process account to?
The following images come to my mind when I see those words/concepts:
Participation - it feels like that there there is already (clear) direction, it is possible to take part or be part of this (direction). But how much are you able to influence or change this direction?
Ownership - to own, but who owns? Who owns what? Or controls? Holds? Property? Is this still adequate in our information society? Where do you get ideas from? Centuries of knowledge? And how is owning related to in a more commons orientated society?
Inclusion, Emancipation, & Shared Leadership
Terms I favor currently a bit more are inclusion, emancipation, and shared leadership. My thinking in regard to this, as far as I can trace it back, is influenced by Vanessa Andreotti's post-colonial thoughts on (critical) citizen(ship) education, discussions around the logic of the market versus the logic of the commons, and the psychological literature of collective action research (e.g. Piven & Cloward, 1991, Sabucedeo & Arce, 1991, Wright, 2009).
The following images come to my mind when I see those words/concepts:
Inclusion - It is an active act, process through which or even state in which 'others' are incorporated and become part of the whole. On Wikipedia is a nice graphic to contrast inclusion to integration.
Emancipation - It has an element of loosen, release, or liberate. A friend of mine drew the lift like image when I asked her how she would visualize it - it brings the other person on the same level. I think it fits quite well!
Shared Leadership - The direction is open, it is on the same level. The lead is shared, it is not merely a part to participate.
Sure, we could always say that people might already be included or that they have to be excluded first to be included afterwards. Or why should we emancipate people? Is it necessary? And does it imply that they are not emancipated? No, I do not think that such binaries are necessary. It is more about the aim at the end, it does not matter from which direction one comes. It's like a mindset and the openness to bring the other person on the same level, share, engage and become, eventually, also subject of change.
To summarize my thoughts at this point, I would say that participation and ownership are minimal requirements in change work and processes, but ideally, high levels of (?) inclusion, emancipation, and shared leadership should be reached to enable a social change. Further, I do think that the term 'ownership' needs revision and should be replaced by another term (identification?), or even fully dropped in this context.
I am curious about your thoughts and images on this topic!
