Η μέθοδος SPIRAL δημιουργήθηκε από το Συμβούλιο της Ευρώπης, ως ένα εργαλείο ανάδειξης κοινωνικών δεικτών και οργάνωσης της διαβούλευσης για επιχειρησιακούς σκοπούς.
Τον Ιούνη του 2012, τρία στελέχη του προγραμματισμού τςη ΚΕΚΠΑ-ΔΙΕΚ, συμμετείχαν στην εκπαίδευση στη μέθοδο που συνδιοργάνωσε το Συμβούλιο της Ευρώπης με το Δήμο Καβάλας στη βορειοελλαδική πόλη.
Στη σελίδα αυτή θα αναρτήσουμε το υλικό και τα εργαλεία της μεθόδου που εκτιμούμε ως σημαντική. Προς το παρόν μπορείτε να βρείτε εδώ μια σύντομη περιγραφή της μεθόδου -δυστυχώς για τους μη αγγλομαθείς, στην Αγγλική γλώσσα.
INTERNATIONAL – SHEET IN1 The SPIRAL method proposed by the Council of Europe
SPIRAL (Societal Progress Indicators and Responsibilities for ALL)
The Council of Europe, an intergovernmental organisation set up at the end of the Second World War to ensure peace among peoples and states and the development of democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights in Europe after the horrors experienced, has always considered these four pillars central to its founding values and social progress objectives.
This is particularly true of human rights, which are provided for not only in the European Convention on Human Rights, which reiterates the major principles of the United Nations convention, but also in numerous recommendations and resolutions agreed on by member states. These have made it possible to achieve progress in all areas (the rights of women, migrants, minorities, and so on), largely under the impetus of the European Court of Human Rights set up in the 1950s.
After the 30-year post-war boom, which brought rapid economic growth and full employment from 1945 to 1975, the very foundations of the progress achieved in the area of human rights were called into question by rising unemployment and social exclusion from the 1980s onwards. This prompted the Council of Europe to include a fundamental new objective in its social progress objectives, that of social cohesion. This objective was endorsed as such at the Second Summit of Heads of State and Government in 1997.
The Council of Europe defines social cohesion as the capacity of a society to ensure the welfare of all its members, the focus being on making all concerned jointly responsible for attaining this objective. This definition is based on an observed change in the concept of responsibility and the context in which it operates. After a period when the welfare state prevailed, and responsibility for ensuring the rights and well-being of all rested primarily with governments and public institutions, while economic players were responsible for production and growth, we are, with the globalisation of the economy and trade and the development of various forms of interdependence at all levels, entering what is known as the "welfare society" era, in which responsibility for the well-being of present and future generations is shared by everyone: governments, members of the public, economic players, and so forth.
The concept of shared responsibility for the well-being of all is prompting the various players to get together to define what is meant by well-being and determine how progress in well-being can be measured - hence the idea of jointly devising indicators for well-being and social cohesion, in the sense of the capacity of a society to ensure the welfare of all its members, including that of future generations.
Genesis
The Council of Europe began in 2005 by publishing a methodological guide entitled "Concerted development of social cohesion indicators", which sets out the broad concepts and methods used in this approach and proposes a database of possible
indicators, devised in the light of the numerous resolutions and recommendations approved by member states since the Council was set up.
In the wake of this publication, at the suggestion of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, various experiments in applying the principles set out in the guide were carried out at local level, in municipalities or neighbourhoods, and then in specific bodies or institutions, for example companies, schools and public services. These experiments, conducted in the town of Mulhouse and then, inter alia, in Timisoara (Romania), Trento (Italy), the 14th district of Paris, the Stracel company in Strasbourg and the Albert Schweitzer secondary school in Mulhouse (see the sheets concerning the various experiments) made it possible to devise and gradually refine a method for establishing social progress indicators with citizens and local players which could easily be applied and transposed to other situations.
Development (the method)
First of all, the method for the concerted development of indicators of progress with the aim of fostering, among those concerned in a particular area or institution, shared responsibility for the well-being of all involves ensuring that the parties concerned, or their acknowledged representatives, actually take part. This is done by setting up a co-ordination group representing the parties involved. This group carries the whole process forward. One or more preliminary meetings provide an opportunity to organise the process, ensure that it is complete and make sure that the group has taken on board its role, which is to carry through and co-ordinate the process. Where a partnership already exists, it is an excellent idea to use it as a basis.
In the light of the principle that the definition of well-being for all must be based on the way in which citizens themselves see it, the co-ordination group begins by organising small, homogeneous groups of eight to ten people, for example groups of young people, elderly people, housewives, people with disabilities, migrants, members of a particular ethnic group, entrepreneurs, civil servants, and so on. These groups are invited to consider the matter individually (by writing "post it" notes) and then collectively (taking stock of their thoughts together) in the light of three simple and completely open questions:
1) What do you understand by well-being?
2) What you understand by ill-being?
3) What do you do to ensure your own well- being?
This generates a large number of highly varied criteria for well-being, put forward by the various groups. These criteria are then pooled and organised according to the main facets of well-being, so as to produce a consolidated, inclusive set of criteria, in other words one that takes account of the variety of viewpoints and does not exclude any of the criteria expressed by the citizens and defined in the groups. This consolidation work is carried out in "rainbow" groups of heterogeneous citizens, in other words groups made up of people from the various initial homogeneous groups.
By repeating the experiment in different situations and contexts, it was possible to refine the method and the tools facilitating its application further each time. In particular, it was ascertained that eight dimensions of well-being were systematically reflected in the criteria put forward by citizens and that, within each of these, there were a number of indicators that differed to varying degrees according to context. These eight dimensions, set out in the diagram below (with a few examples of indicators), make it easy to classify criteria for well-being and ill-being and prepare an consolidated, inclusive set of criteria. It is thus possible, with the help of a leader or a small technical team which classifies the criteria in advance, to obtain, in a short space of time, a comprehensive picture of all the criteria put forward and to focus discussion within the heterogeneous groups of citizens directly on the proposed classification into dimensions and indicators.
Περισσότερα στην ιστοσελίδα του Συμβουλίου της Ευρώπης
