RPCC/NN, established in 2026, is a open an independent group of scientists in the North of the Netherlands, engaged in regional climate change research and familiar with or directly involved in IPCC. Its purpose is to contribute to an accelerated regional response to the climate change urgency. To achieve this, RPCC/NN answers questions from regional society about climate change, adaptation and mitigation. The panel also publishes articles and policy advice and gives guest lectures and workshops. Furthermore, wthe panel is a sounding board for IPCC, to close the information and communication loop within the science community.

The relevance to task democracy is that one or more scientific panels like RPCC/NN may represent science in a task democratic platform. The choice of panels may depend on the nature of the platform. For instance, in a task democratic chamber of a municipal council (a ‘transition chamber’), three panels may participate, representing social, ecological and economic science. In a task democratic food council, science may berepresented by specialised members of these three panels may participate, or by specialised panels for agriculture and food. 

Panel website: https://www.rpccnn.nl

Vinkmobiel is een samenwerking van organisaties van de wijk Vinkhuizen, aangevuld met experts van buiten. Ze staan in de buitenring in het schema hieronder, gesorteerd in vijf geledingen (wetenschap, bewoners, overheid, bedrijven en voorzieningen) die de samenleving representeren. Vanuit elke geleding worden bijdragen geleverd aan Vinkmobiel. De belangrijkste daarvan zijn weergegeven door de pijlen naar de binnencirkel. De bijdragen versterken elkaar en tellen op naar een goed werkende dienst voor kleinschalige wijkmobiliteit. 

Project website

The Province of Groningen owns the former Schelligheheert dairy farm and its 60 hectares of agricultural land, and wishes to divest itself of this property. The Schelligheheert Foundation and partners aims for sustainable redevelopment as a common, with focus on landscape development, agriculture for 250 households, horticulture, heritage, culture, residential use, road safety and compensation for the 380 kV high-voltage power line that was built across the property. The bidding closes in September 2026. 

For governance, a task democratic model was chosen and enshrined in the statutes. Equal supervisory authority is granted to five involved groups: science, citizens, government, businesses, and non-profits. Science is represented by a multi-disciplinary scientific panel. Citizens may be represented by the nearby village associations. Government may be represented by the municipality. Businesses may be represented by commercial users of the property. Non-profits will be represented by educational and other institutes using facilities on Schelligheheert.

The draft statutes were written in 2022. At that time the plan was to compose the executive board from five task groups, similar to the supervisory board. Lateron, this was abandoned in favor of a more entrepreneurial and competence based board, while maintaining the task democratic composition of the supervisory board. 

Task democracy is a—for now, theoretical—model for society-wide coordination of sustainability transitions. The model is designed for use alongside liberal democracy, as an upgrade to societal agreements, and as a blueprint for entities such as transition chambers, product councils, and neighborhood councils. The intended outcome is acceleration of transitions and mitigation of crises through cyclical initiation of society-wide transition projects.

The reader is a four page introduction to task democracy. Sections:

• Poly-crisis and political perspectives (Eisenhower matrix)
• Societal agreements and their limitations
• Theory of change: task democracy
• Structure, process, integration
• Implementation
• Large scale applications and transition accelerators
• Intended impact
• Costs, risks and measures
• Alternatives and discussion
• Conclusion

The translation is to be completed

Bootsma, Peter, Bartjan Pennink, and Niels Faber. 2024. ‘Visualising Regional Circularity’. In Sustainable Business Models for the Digital, Green and Inclusive Transition, doi:10.48764/VGJ2-JX66.

Faber, Niels, Bartjan Pennink, Peter A. J. Bootsma, and Thomas Broecks. 2023. ‘Value Excavation: Towards a Process Model for Multi-Value Creation in Multi-Actor Contexts’. In Maastricht University Press. doi:10.26481/mup.2302.

Faber, Niels, Peter A.J. Bootsma, and B.J.W. Pennink. 2022. ‘Proliferating Circularity Efforts, Coordinating Multi-Value Creation in Multi-Actor Contexts’. In Sustainable Business Model Challenges:  Economic Recovery and Digital Transformation, Rome. https://www.newbusinessmodels.org/s/NBM2022_BOP_FINAL.pdf (October 19, 2022).

Bootsma, Peter A.J. 2024. ‘Task Democracy, Politics for the Common Good’. In Leeuwarden. https://www.wetsus.nl/app/uploads/2024/08/ECGIC-2024_Papers-Day-1.pdf.