Methodologies

1. Constellations

Objective: to explore a particular phenomenon from broader and multiple perspectives

Methodology:

• Participants select a problem or phenomenon that they want to work on
• They write a list of the actors related to the problem.
• The facilitator divides the group into two subgroups: actors and observers.
• The actors come to the front, each one takes the role of one of the people or organizations involved in the problem and they all interact for 3-5 minutes. Then they share how they felt.
• Observers provide an analysis of the activity and the relationships they were able to identify.

2. I see, I see, what do you see? (Mapping)

Objective: to become aware of the social dynamics in a particular territory or community and to recognize their various characteristics and configurations.

Methodology:

• By reflecting on their territory or community, participants identify any particular problems or needs.
• Participants spend some time gathering information about the problem or needs, in the community. 
• Participants come together to clarify the specific topic of investigation and the geographical sites that are relevant. 
• The participants draw a map of the territory (or utilise an existing map).
• Together, participants and facilitators generate a series of codes, colours or symbols that are used to describe different places on the map (for example in terms of safety).
• The information is used to take decisions about what needs to be done to address particular community needs. 

3. Film making and analysis

Objective: To use collective film making and analysis for exploring the meaning of key concepts 

Methodology:

• The concepts to work on are determined (for example, community and collectivity)
• The key concepts are presented to participants, or developed with participants, in the form of questions. For example:
  • What is a collectivity for you?
  • Do you live in a community?
  • Do you know a community other than your own?
• Once the questions have been defined, participants proceed to develop short films.
  • They can be developed using smartphones and apps. 
  • The format does not matter (they can be videos, photos, narrations, songs, animations etc.) as long as they are produced digitally. 
• The participants meet, share and collectively analyze their videos.
• They determine what the common words across different videos are.
• These common words become the center of a discussion to define the collective ways of defining key concepts and what they mean for different people. 

4. The power of a song

Objective: To generate spaces for reflection around a problem we want to address.

Methodology:

• Participants share different songs, and we select a keyword from one of the songs (for example love, loyalty, family).
• Participants are invited to guess a song that contains the keyword. It must come from a song known to all.
• Once they guess it, the whole group is invited to sing it and we record ourselves. 
• Once the song is recorded, the subject is discussed and reflections on it are generated.

5. The Priorimeter

Objective: To evaluate participants’ ideas on how to achieve the project objectives according to their level of complexity and power for innovation.

Methodology:

• As a group, we define objectives of a project (or draw on objectives defined in a previous process)
• Using paper / Jamboard, participants discuss the feasibility of each objective, as well as the time and resources needed. 
• And on the same paper / Jamboard, a Cartesian coordinates map is drawn. The vertical axis illustrates feasibility and the horizontal axis illustrates time and resources needed. The map provides an illustration of realistic priority planning of different objectives. 

6. Sound Mapping

Objective: to explore a territory through using different senses – in this case sounds and listening. 

Methodology:

• Participants are introduced to different sound-related concepts in film-making, for example:
  • “Leitmotif” is the particular sound or musical theme that defines a character, place or idea. 
  • “Incidental sounds” are sounds or musical themes that suggest a particular emotional state or situation.
  • “Foleys” are reproductions of everyday sounds that are specific to a particular thing, for example wind, rain, etc.
• The participants locate themselves in a particular place or context and, through the above concepts, observe and describe the territory.
• They come back to meet as a group and share what they heard, either by describing the sounds or by sharing a recording.  This process is used to explore different characteristics of a territory. 

7.The 5 ‘Whys’

Objective: To solve simple or moderately difficult problems, or to improve the quality of answers to particular questions.

Methodology:

• Participants should all be familiar with the particular problem, or they identify the problem collectively. 
• On a large piece of paper / Jamboard, the name of the problem is written in the middle, with space around it to add answers to the question “Why?” 
• Facilitators and participants are asking “Why questions” around the problem five times. 
  • For example, the first question could be: Why is this problem happening?
  • Participants are invited to answer using practical examples or drawing on real events. 
  • Participants/ facilitators are asking “Why?” 4 more times, either based on the original question, or on answers recorded from participants. 
  • After 5 times, or when no more helpful responses are generated, the process is ended. 
• Collectively, participants are invited to analyse different possible solutions to the problem based on the answers. 
• Participants agree on a solution. If the solution is not effective, the process can be repeated with differently phrased questions.