Private Public Partnership by Lotta Hedström

1. Lotta Hedström
Belarus Greens, November 2014

2. What is a Society?
SOCIETY = Stick together!
Profit - non profit? (Taxpayers money, money for gain?)
Formal - non formal? (Structured, open,rules, sponatneous?)
Public - private? (Everyones business or my own?)
Complementing parts, different tasks.

3. Not looking
for profit
Profit making

4. Formalised
structures, Informal structures,
spontaneous
protocols,
transparency

5. Public undertakings
Private undertakings

6. Formal Not for profit
Profit
Informal
Public Public
Private Private
Forrmal
Non profit Profit Informal

7. Formal Not for profit
Profit
Informal
Public Public
Private Private
Formal
Non profit Profit Informal

8. Formal Not for profit
Profit
Informal
Public Public
Private Private
Forrmal
Non profit Profit Informal

9. Formal Not for profit
Profit
Informal
Public Public
Private Private
Forrmal
Non profit Profit Informal

10. Formal Not for profit
Profit
Informal
Public Public
Private Private
Forrmal
Non profit Profit Informal

11. Formal Not for profit
Profit
Informal
Public Public
Private Private
Forrmal
Non profit Profit Informal

12. What about...
Academic production?
Artistic production?
Administrative work?
Political parties?
Media?

13. Hybrids that
• depends on purpose
• depends on financing
• depends on jurisdiction/system

14. A political party
• is working in a formal, public, context regardless of form of
financing
• shold be non profit
• should be transparent and open to members
• should be formalised in it’s operations
• should work for the public good
• is in itself open to anyone = a civil society entity
• have an overt agenda but clear goals and visions

15. A Think tank
• should provide qualitative input for development of
societal practise and individual thinking
• be open ended in solutions
• might have visions
• should stay close to academic world, but independent
• should have open space for radical solutions
• should encourage debate inside and outside
• should be able to criticize even it’s founders

16. Production
Parties Think tanks
articles, press releases articles, press releases
bills, motions and proposals reports, books and pamphlets
enrolement, employment lobbying
digital communication digital communication
direct press relations own press?
seminars, debates seminars, debates

17. Relations P /TT
independence / interdependence
order from / deliverance
acceptance /impact

18. NGOs and Politics
• gh
• ideologically related
• one by one issues
• recrutiment
• democracy – free opinion

19. Lobbying – for who?
• Commercial companies?
• Idealistic purposes?
• Hired agents
• Convinced agents?

20. Lobbying- towards who?
• Government – execute!
• Parliament – legislative changes!
• Agencies – practice, special benefits or
outcomes!
• Media – opinion direction / make people
NOT think?

21. A Living Party
A resting social room for Belonging, Identity,
Comfort, Socializing among like minded
An intaking room for developing ideas,
learning, activism, reflexion
An outgoing room for change
and democratic decisions

22. • “Since its founding in 2005, Cogito has aimed to broaden and
deepen the public debate and foster change in a spirit characterised
by ecological concern and human solidarity. We foreground
constructive ideas and practical initiatives to demonstrate that a
sustainable society is within reach.
• Rooted in green thinking, our work seeks to further livelihoods and
lifestyles that are sustainable in the long-term across the globe. This
necessitates critically examining dominant economic and political
paradigms and power structures, articulating viable alternatives, as
well as exploring the means by which democracy can be
strengthened and developed.
• Our approach and work methods are characterised by openness
and a readiness to question the received opinion, including truths
that are considered to be self-evident within the green
movement. “

23. The Swedish Green Think tank:
• web page www.cogito.nu
• seminars and events
• book and publications
• since 2005
• party finance + own + projects
• self appointed board (now, not from start)

24. Ideology and Politics
Political philosophy conventionally refers to three
foundational political ideologies: liberalism, conservatism, and
socialism. However, there is no comparable established
philosophical tradition applicable to the various kinds of
ecological or green thought. The emergence of green or
environmentalist parties in the 1970s has destabilised
traditional categories of political thought.
Cogito explores and scrutinises existing forms of green
thinking and political praxis: Are we witnessing the
crystallisation of a new way of political thinking, which is no
less concise and coherent than traditional ideologies?
Moreover, how is green thought being translated into
concrete politics?

25. Peace and Development
Ours is an age marked by armed conflict or the threat of armed conflict. Acts of war do
not only lay waste to lives and resources but also do harm to nature and the
environment with long-term effects. Although armed conflict may partly be caused by
a set of very different factors – political, historical, ethnic, social, economic, and
cultural – the struggle over scarce resources and limited environmental space is often
an underlying element.
One of the most crucial issues today is how to deal with the circumstances that give
rise to conflicts, in preventive and proactive fashion before they become violent. The
present approach to ”conflict resolution” by way of military intervention, not only
within the framework of the UN but external to it as well, is alarming. In comparison
with the resources spent on military armament and intervention, the scope given to
non-violent and civil methods of conflict resolution is neglected. This applies globally
as well as to the situation within the EU and in Sweden.
The objective of Cogito’s work in the area of peace and development is to throw into
relief the role of scarce resources as the cause of conflict, to explore the possibilities of
peaceful prevention of violent conflict, and to examine methods of non-violent
conflict resolution.

26. Environment and Welfare
The global climate crisis affects present-day social organisation in its entirety, and,
increasingly, people are coming to see that the roots of the problems are structural
rather than technical. To face the current problems and challenges, what is needed is a
critical analysis of the way society is organised and of predominant norms, so that the
interconnections between environmental problems and social values and ideals are
made visible. The basis of present-day welfare systems is access to cheap oil and
perpetual economic growth. In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the
unsustainable exploitation of natural resources, this economic and social model must
be fundamentally changed. New ways of sustainably organising and financing human
welfare are a dire necessity.
Still today, a large part of the world’s population is mired in deep poverty. The
consumption levels of the rich part of the world are not globally sustainable – in a
finite world, the environmental space available for human beings is necessarily
limited. The connection between increasing material consumption and quality of life
has often been assumed to be linear, yet it is being increasingly questioned by greater
numbers of people.
The critical exploration of the complex intersections of these areas – environmental
destruction, the climate crisis, global inequality, and the organisation of social welfare
– constitutes one of Cogito’s central tasks.

27. Examples from other Think tanks

28. Thanks!
Questions and remarks?
Lotta Hedström, EKO5
lotta.hedstrom@mp.se