Reallabor

At any point in time, potential societal futures have arrived without being noticed (immediately). The truism for innovation holds: any specific future needs “allies”, lobbying and active scaling in the here and now. In this way, futures are not “digital,” either existing (“1”) or not (“0”). Rather, futures have to be regarded as analog continuum, existing to varying degrees already in the present. Taken seriously, this idea has far-reaching consequences for all changemakers.

In light of the challenges we are facing, it is a societal task to find, test, collectively discuss, live and spread potential futures now. The changes take time, people and places where social practices can be explored and adapted or replaced. Subscribing to the experimental turn in entrepreneurship, economics, politics and social sciences, we at STRIDE therefore seek and promote transdisciplinary forms of (learning through) inquiry in order to better understand and actively influence processes of societal transformation.

A promising method and philosophy for testing and showcasing futures is the “Reallabor” (see e.g. Schneidewind): a place to do real-life experiments that involve (scientific) reflection and public dialogue. We understand the Reallabor as an entrepreneurial and transdisciplinary cooperation of actors from various sectors and fields. STRIDE itself works as a Reallabor on the future of (further) education. This is recognized also from outside: the Handelszeitung featured an article on STRIDE as one of the “niches” and real-life experiments that “could scale rather quickly”.

A central competence developed within the STRIDE unDiploma of Collaborative Leadership and Social Innovation is transformative literacy: understanding the complexity of socio-technical transformations with their interplay of technological, economic, institutional and cultural factors.