“Decision Theater” with four large screens. Here, the effects of the measures decided upon after the group discussions are displayed, such as increases or reductions in emissions. © Beate Rogler / MATH+
How exactly do your workshops work?
Wolf: Kai Nagel and I use slightly different formats. I use what is known as Decision Theater, which was originally developed in the US. In our case, 15 to 30 people discuss ten different options for a mobility transition in Germany in small groups. These include purely political measures such as bans, but also possible investments and assessments of future developments.
Specifically, participants must decide, for example, whether to make public transportation more affordable or invest in charging stations for electric cars. And what do we think: Will they soon become cheaper? Can we more easily combine public transportation and rental vehicles through digitalization?
The groups must make a selection by answering questions on a tablet. We then look at the corresponding results of our agent simulations with these different inputs and can discuss the effects in a plenary session.
So we take a look at various possible futures that reveal some surprising consequences of the participants' decisions. For example, when subsidies for electric cars mean that public transport is no longer used because even environmentally conscious people are now buying cars.
Shouldn't such workshops be made mandatory in the work of the Bundestag? Wouldn't that prevent many mistakes?
Wolf: That would be exciting, of course. But I must emphasize that we cannot predict the future like a crystal ball. The discussions in the plenary session are more about helping people recognize that things are complexly interrelated and that there are no easy solutions. In addition, everyone has to put their arguments on the table, and it often becomes clear that we actually want the same thing, but have different ideas about how the world works.