Participative Democracy vs. Participative Drama: lessons on social transformation for international organizations from Gorbachev

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Paper prepared for the 12th Conference (Barcelona, 1991) of the World Futures Studies Federation (WFSF). Published in B Van Steenbergen et al (Eds), Advancing Democracy and Participation: Challenges for the Future (Selections from the XII World Conference of the WFSF (Centre Catala de Prospectiva / Centre Unesco de Catalunya, 1992, pp. 165-170). Also published in abridged form as Gorbachev as Dramaturge: lessons on social transformation for international organizations (Futures, September 1992, pp. 689-700)

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Gorbachev: Dramaturge ?!
1. Social change wrought by international programmes
2. Learning from the Eastern European surprise
3. Social transformation as participative drama
4. Beyond cause-and-effect explanations: aesthetic participation
5. Human sacrifice and social transformation
6. Dramatic cover-ups in international organizations
7. Participation in dramatized realities
8. Dramatizing international organizations
9. Escaping from metaphoric traps
10. In search of guiding metaphors
11. World governance and imagination building
12. Towards higher orders of consensus: the crop rotation metaphor
13. Imaginative weapons of the future: binary metaphoric dramas?
14. Beyond winning and losing
15. Implications
References

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Abstract

Explores the dramatic dimensions of Gorbachev's actions as a source of lessons on social transformation in the future. It is argued that transformative moments in society result from the identification of people with an evolving drama. These may then lead to real change of lasting significance, beyond what is normally achieved by international organization programmes. Questions are raised about the extent to which such dramatization is already used and the opportunities for using it to a far greater extent in the future, whether for good or for ill. The link between such drama and the use of metaphor is explored in relation to world governance.