Beyond the manual: Practicing deliberative visioning in a Greek island

Deliberative visioning refers to processes of inclusive, multi-stakeholder deliberation over a desirable future. Methodologies include scenario workshops, future searches and community visioning. This paper looks critically at the assumptions of deliberative visioning benefiting from a case study in Greece. We argue that there are fundamental choices to be made concerning how to frame the process, who to invite and how to facilitate it. These are not just a matter of following manuals' good practice guidance. We emphasize the need for epistemological and methodological awareness of: the assumptions which frame DV itself; the assumptions of the users of DV; and the situation in which DV is deployed. We find that whereas visioning motivates participants to work together and provides a good framework to systematize discussion, it is not necessarily effective for developing systemic perspectives and plan actions. This is especially true in contexts such as that of our case study, where there is lack of a collaborative culture and there are insufficient mechanisms that integrate effectively a deliberative process with other processes of policy or social change.