The challenges of the climate transition are usually framed as top-down directives imposed on people's lives, often perceived as implying an air of moral superiority that is not meant to be contested. In contrast, decentralised decision-making approaches have been developed and tested in recent years, demonstrating their relevance and applicability in addressing the challenges of the climate transition.

Off-grid strategies operate autonomously from centralised supply systems at the national level. When combined with privacy-preserving encryption technology, these strategies unveil the remarkable potential of decentralised autonomous organisation in distributed architectures that can generate positive impacts across a much broader spectrum of resource production and consumption.

Tackling the complexities of decision-making mechanisms gives rise to innovative models of translocal cooperative organisation. By transferring the authority to make decisions from centralised structures to local nodes within distributed networks, it is possible to foster local agency and support the claims for collective ownership and responsibility while maintaining productive, cohesive collaboration across different fields and regions. 

This challenge of decentralisation enhances adaptability, preserves privacy, encourages diverse perspectives, and strengthens resilience, ultimately facilitating the emergence of dynamic, interconnected systems that transcend traditional geographic, cultural and organisational boundaries.

Specific challenges for PACESETTERS main target groups:

  1. For artists and creatives: Experimenting with new divisions of affective labour in settings for decentralised decision making that increase the ability to adapt to change
  2. For research: Registering the surplus and assessing the impact of new organisational models characterised by distributed architectures and the power to be affected
  3. For policymakers: Emphasising collective agency to rethinking conventional approaches to governance in the climate transition
  4. For finance and investment: Development of investment mechanisms supporting resilience of decentralised business and shared ownership models.

Map of Challenges