Are you interested in how creative practices and competencies foster better collaboration between citizen collectives and local governments? Apply for this PhD position and join the ECCO consortium!

Citizen collectives (CCs) are essential actors in shaping transitions, because they innovate new pathways, (bottom-up) approaches, and potential solutions for persistent societal challenges. Examples of innovations developed by CCs are community energy collectives that stimulate local energy markets, or neighbourhood cooperatives that create local jobs and income. These innovations spark local transitions that ultimately contribute to larger societal transitions. For such innovations to start, flourish, and sustain, collaboration with governments is imperative. Creative competences (e.g. empathy, visualisation, idea generation), practices (e.g. co-design, iteration), and attitudes (e.g. reflexivity, open mindset) are indispensable for CCs to develop their ideas towards implementation and adapt along the way, particularly in a configuration with other crucial actors.

Apart from innovation capacity, continuity of CCs remains a challenge, because the collectives often rely on one or a few key figures. Likewise, fruitful collaboration with local governments is usually dependent on a few creative civil servants, acting as boundary spanners to bridge the (proverbial) gap between system world and life world. Representatives of many government agencies are increasingly under pressure due to budget cuts, tightening regulations (e.g. the widely debated nitrogen issue), an overemphasis on accountability, and the wider erosion of the public sector. These factors further complicate their ability and agency to collaborate with, support, and facilitate CCs beyond the scope of one-time subsidies or projects. We hypothesise that creative competencies of CCs are responsible for sparking the innovation in the collaborative practices with government agencies and other actors, in ways that may creatively overcome the aforementioned barriers and set off actual transitions. However, which configurations of creative competences play a role in these collaborative partnerships and how these can be strengthened (and maintained) remains underexplored. This hinders CCs and civil servants from unleashing their full potential in shaping inclusive and just societal transitions.

The following research question will drive your work: 
What creative competences do CCs and civil servants need to establish effective collaborations and innovation to spark societal transitions and how can these be strengthened? Your research will identify creative competences—such as empathy, adaptability, visualization, idea generation—essential for citizen collectives and civil servants to collaborate effectively on innovations driving societal transitions. You will explore how these competences can be strengthened to overcome barriers like bureaucracy, budget constraints, and silo funding.

Read more and apply here.

Do you want to know about the other ECCO PhD positions? You can find that on the website of Collectieve Kracht.