Presentation

Lisode is a cooperative society (SCOP) providing consultancy services in public participation and change management. Combining this expertise with research activities, we position ourselves at the interface of the world of academia and the world of public and private management. This allows us to accompany and support the setting up, coordination and evaluation of participatory decision-making projects in areas such as territorial development, urban planning, natural resources management and organizational change. Due to our research activities, we enjoy the status of Young Innovative Company (Jeune Entreprise Innovante, JEI).

Our team assists policymakers and managers in the search of appropriate ways to interact with the persons affected by the decisions to be made), facilitates interactive meetings, and evaluates the effects of these innovative approaches. We continue to design, test and use new and innovative participatory tools (participatory modeling, role playing, large interactive meetings, etc.). Our research activities and publications provide us with solid theoretical knowledge in the relatively new field of participation.

Our activities are divided between services, research and training.

Our main activity is to design and put into place participatory processes in different contexts. Our practice is constantly fueled by our research activities which we undertake in order to take a step back and reflect on our interventions as well as to evaluate our results. This reflection enables us to improve, adapt and continually re-question our practice in the domain of participation.  Vice versa, our practice also fuels our research by pointing us to questions that need to be explored in more systematic ways. For example we have done a systematic comparison of different approaches to design participation processes.

Both research and practice inspire our training courses. These training courses aim to disseminate our knowledge and to support the practitioners in improving their practice. Through their feedback and contributions in the courses we (as well as the other participants) learn about new methods and especially the situations in which our students may use participatory approaches.