From Welfare State to Partner State: the case of Welcome to Saint-Gilles

Nowadays, we are witnessing a shift in policy making, in which citizens are increasingly becoming part of the process of creating the res publica. Both policy makers and civil servants are starting to realize that the old models of policy making are becoming inadequate to contemporary society’s needs and challenges. Within this framework, design can help to facilitate a shift towards new models that lead from a welfare state towards a partner state. Public Innovation Places (PIP) are places where such experimentations on the ground of social and public innovation are supported and facilitated. Here citizens, policy makers and civil servants prototype new societal solutions in a collaborative fashion, through co-designed and co-produced public services. PIP represent the exception to our society where it is eventually possible to grow a new idea of policy making alternative to the current one. This article shares a series of reflections on the nature of these places, looking at the process that eventually can lead to establish a PIP and at the role of design schools therein - starting from the concrete experience of the project Welcome to Saint-Gilles. Furthermore, this article will also present a more theoretical and philosophical reflections on the nature of these experimental places.