What happens when the systems we rely on suddenly stop working?
The Berlin blackout offers a powerful lens through which to look at governance: when formal systems fail, people start organising themselves. They share information, distribute resources, make decisions and create new rules. In moments of crisis, governance becomes visible.
Laws and administrative processes shape how people can act, participate, access resources and relate to institutions. They are, in this sense, design tasks.
In this keynote, Rojda Tosun introduces PublicLegalDesign as an approach to treating law, rules and public administration as design material. She explores what it means to design governance not only for people, but with an awareness of the wider consequences for those affected — and those who are not in the room.
The central question is: Can we design governance that learns from crisis — and becomes capable of preventing the next one? PublicLegalDesign brings together responsiveness to lived reality with responsibility for the worlds our rules create.
