Participatory visioning of indicator use

This paper puts forward a new synthesis to stakeholder participation entitled 'Tripe Task'. The approach is based on three tasks: a variety of the IMAGINE methodology as the primary task, an external analysis of group interactions arrived at by facilitators who are not within groups and a self-analysis by individuals within groups of themselves and their group interaction using the Symlog approach. The paper present some early findings of employing Triple Task as the basis of a series of participatory workshops run with potential 'users' of indicators/indices within the EU Framework 7 'Policy Use of Indicators' (POINT) project. Indicators and indices are increasingly being promoted as tools to aid with the formulation and implementation of policy and the improvement of governance. The argument usually employed for this is that indicators and indices summarise complex sets of information and help 'users' make sense of what is happening in the 'messy' world in which they have taken responsibility. Results suggest that Triple Task may be valuable as the basis for a typology of group work and thus help elucidate why groups arrive at the visions they do with regard to sustainable development