Case Studies
August 16, 2021

Case #

2020.01

Prototype a shared knowledge for the transition and transformation of territories

Everything today indicates that a quality of a study does not only depend on the quality of its production, but also on the care given to its transmission and conditions of its appropriation by the actors of its territories. It is with this intuition that the “Extreme Scenarios” approach was born, a one-year exploration that we delivered in 2019.

This case study was initially published in French. Click here to access the original case study.

Turning three studies into an appropriate common

Graphic summaries of the three studies, and taken from the prototype "Appropriation Kit"

At Ouishare just as ADEME we are working on bringing about transitions that we believe are right, through projects, initiatives and through varied and diverse modes of engagement. This is why since many years, we have collaborated in different contexts with different interlocutors to produce various studies on cities and the future, notably in the framework of the Ouishare Lab x Chronos.

In 2017, we co-produced Datacites, an exploration of data as a common good of the digital city. On the completion of this, ADEME and their partners are exploring this same digital city from two angles: that of governance with Audacities and that of economic models with Nouveaux Modèles Économiques Urbains (NMEU).

But how can we put all this intelligence produced at the service of the world? In 2019, will producing more knowledge really accelerate the energy and environmental transition? To respond to this issue, the “Extreme Scenarios: prototypes for shared knowledge” approach was born. We share a common ambition with ADEME: to make these three shared and common studies, at the service of concrete actions in the territories.

The “Extreme Scenarios” approach has hence consisted in making an additional effort to enhance the value of this work. Its objective? Converge the results of these three studies in a new common which would allow:

This approach was intended to help shape the future of ADEME's work, by investing in the post-study link that is symptomatically missing.

A collaborative and user-centric methodology

In the initial stages of the project, an intuition of ADEME: to resort to “extreme scenarios” to create a pretext for the exchange, provoke in recipients sometimes already saturated with information or far from these subjects an attention, reactions which, through the emotional and imaginary, would create incentives and “engagement paths” towards other content and tools offered by ADEME.

Example of personas presenting a type of recipient profile from ADEME, and extracted from the report "Maquetter pour valoriser autrement".

Through this method, the project kept its name. It was intended to be resolutely experimental and inclusive. In concrete terms, this has resulted in:

The method co-designed by ADEME, Lab Ouishare x Chronos and the BAM collective, and extracted from the report "Maquetter pour valoriser Another"

Experimentation to learn, doubt and improve

Our approach has proven to be rich in lessons. We retain, in particular five strong ideas which would all deserve to be the subject of further development:

Mapping of the ADEME ecosystem, taken from the report "Modeling for another valuation"

Finally, we moved from a certainty about THE solution to put into place (extreme scenarios to enable better appropriation of complex knowledge), to four possible (but non-exclusive) answers, in the form of hypotheses, developed and prototyped collectively:

Today, the work must go on. By sharing, by confronting, by opening up methods, always with a view to work with the greatest numbers. It is likely that other individuals and organisations are asking similar questions, and we still have no clear answers for them. Others are already exploring their own courses of action in this area, and we do not pretend to know them all, let alone to 'outperform' them. But we probably revealed a few vanishing lines, closed some doors and opened so many windows, by trial and error. This is also how we intend to contribute to the commons.

We are now listening to all those who wish to build on this work to continue the exploration and to think of concrete actions.

So don't hesitate to contact us here yann@ouishare.net or samuel.chabre@ouishare.net.

In the meantime, enjoy your immersion!

Read the complete report here, titled "MODELING TO VALUE DIFFERENTLY" WHICH CONSISTS OF ALL OF THE METHODOLOGICAL AND INTERMEDIATE DELIVERABLES OF THE "EXTREME SCENARIOS" APPROACH


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