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Abstract

Collaboration between individuals, groups, and organizations become more important in times of distress or economic crisis. Nevertheless, resilience and collaboration, due to natural disasters, are different from an economic crisis, where the deterioration of the quality of life is extended over a longer period. This study aims at reporting the results of an attempt to establish permanent forums in two districts of the city of Lisbon, Portugal, as a means to improve democratic participation and decision making in times of crisis. An adaptation of the large group method Future Search, proposed by Weisbord and Janoff (1995), was employed with a two groups of 30 to 40 stakeholders, representing the existing knowledge and power in local geographical areas, related to economic, educational, social, security and state agencies. Over a nine month period, the evolution of the small world networks was analysed during phases of forum development, and the results indicate the increasing density in communication and cluster formation, and the emergence of natural leaders as brokers of communication, favoring task accomplishment and innovation. Interviews with these leaders helped to understand how to improve the resilience of a large group under these conditions. The findings of the research indicate that the large group method employed led to resilience and innovation in terms of successful completion of the projects, and commitment to project completion in the local community sector. These findings provide the substance for improving local resilience against adversity, through the use of the principles of large group methods in a participative democracy.

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