The Convention of the Future Armenian (RWCI Call)
Our featured guest for the first Real World Co-Intelligence community learning call of the year is Rich Wilson. Rich is the CEO of Iswe, founder of Involve UK and co-founder of the Global Citizens' Assembly on the climate and ecological crisis. He will join us for an interactive call to share the story of the innovative Convention of the Future Armenian which brought together randomly selected citizens from Armenia and from the Armenian diaspora to discuss the future of their nation in Yerevan, in March '23
Our Featured Guest for January 2024
Rich Wilson is the CEO of the Iswe Foundation. He has substantial experience in leading climate and democracy movements from a strategic perspective. In 2004 he founded the public participation centre Involve. Since then he has been at the forefront of the new democracy movement; most recently co-founding the world’s first Global Citizens’ Assembly, Good Help and Funders Initiative for Civil Society.
Focus for our community learning call
Whilst the surge in Citizens Assemblies globally is cause for celebration, there have also been concerns about their actual impact on policy and practical change. In their recent article Getting Real About Citizens’ Assemblies: A New Theory of Change for Citizens’ Assemblies Claire and Rich of ISWE challenge the existing norm, advocating for a new model of Citizens' Assembly that empowers Citizens' Assemblies to drive tangible change. Their article envisions Assemblies not solely as "invited" spaces confined by the top-down constraints of government but as more empowered "claimed" spaces, self-created by Civil Society.
Designed and organised under the guidance of ISWE, the Convention of the Future Armenian is an example of such a process. We at CII are delighted to highlight this case study as a succesful integration of citizen and stakeholder participation and for demonstrating aspects of "real world co-intelligence" and of governance of the whole by the whole. A measure of its success was "a permanent Affiliation Network of influential people and organisations from across business, media, civil society, and politics with significant resources to take its proposals forward."
The Convention took place in March 2023 involving 200 Armenians over 3 days, deliberating on the challenges facing their nation and the wider diaspora. It was the first citizen's assembly in Armenia and it combined citizens’ assembly and ‘Town Hall’ models which harnessed the collective intelligence of participants discussing the country’s common future.
Our call will discuss the design and outcomes of this particular case study and we'll explore the potential of this particular model of "claimed" Citizens Assembly for a wiser, more empowered participatory democracy.
See the video below for an overview of the convention and its outcomes:
Format
CII's Real World Co-Intelligence (RWCI) community learning calls are held in an intimate and highly participatory setting using Zoom videoconferencing. The call includes a presentation from our guest, questions and breakout group discussions, hearing from Tom Atlee, who will explore where co-intelligence and Wise Democracy patterns are already at work in this project.
At the same time, the calls are recorded so we can share the learnings with others.
Hosting Team
Your hosts for this call will be Andy Paice and Natalia Rogovin
Registering
You can register for free. However if you would like to support this work, you are welcome to make a donation here. All donations go to support the work of the Co-Intelligence Institute, a registered non-profit.
Additional Resources
ISWE Foundation
The Future Armenian Project
Wise Democracy Pattern Language
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