Governing Together reimagines governance as something built with and for relationships – an approach that shifts how we understand our place in the world, how we relate to one another, and how we design, decide, and act across divides.

How do we make better decisions together, especially in uncertain times?

Who decides what we consider a ‘better’ decision?

How do we engage people meaningfully, not just performatively?

How do we rebuild trust so people want to participate again – or for the first time?

Regardless of our core beliefs and ideologies, one thing is clear: behind every successful transition lies a key ingredient – collective action across divides. Much of our public effort still focuses on the visible levers of change – policies, infrastructure, technology and services. While these matter deeply, there is another – often overlooked – site of transformation that decision-makers must pay attention to: the psychosocial dimensions of change. This is how human behaviour is shaped, how mindsets and attitudes form, and how motivation and willingness to act are fostered and sustained. The future of governance won’t be built in isolation or by any single actor. Governing Together works to co-create practical pathways for local governments, organisations, communities, and their wider ecosystems of actors to foster trust, motivation, and the critical conditions for sustained collective action. Together with our partners and ecosystems, we seek to build a new ethic of governance – one that turns collective responsibility into collective action.

Governing Together explores the key conditions, everyday practices, and governance structures that guide how decisions are made, problems are defined, and priorities are set across public, private, and civil society actors. It shows how shared accountability and collective agency can be nurtured across the full ecosystem of actors – governments, public institutions, businesses, industries, corporations, and community groups alike. Together, we can build a new ethic of governance – one that turns collective responsibility into collective action, improves the quality of our collective decisions, and fosters more relational, collectively intelligent, and resilient ecosystems.

Many people are politically disengaged, confused about what to believe, misled and manipulated into accepting lies, or even celebrating leaders who tell them lies they don’t even realise – all while being divided by growing inequality and polarisation, or fatigued by tokenistic engagements that have failed to meaningfully improve their quality of life. This has also eroded trust in institutions, making it harder to build shared priorities or confidence in collective solutions. Trust grows not from performative statements, but from consistent actions that reflect genuine commitment and bring about positive outcomes. For public institutions and civic processes, this means showing up over the long term and with humility, being transparent about decisions, acknowledging past harms, and being open to learning and adapting. It involves creating spaces where people feel heard, where their contributions are valued and visibly shape outcomes, and where power is shared rather than merely consulted.

Critical barriers to collective action often stem from a lack of trust across society and among key stakeholders – not just citizens, but elected officials, public servants, and the private sector. Each faces different trust-related challenges that need to be addressed, whether it’s trusting that a more stable policy and regulatory environment will be provided or fearing negative public backlash. We are increasingly overwhelmed, sceptical, and disengaged, paralysed by conflicting information or unsure how to address complex challenges. Yet confidence grows when we see others acting alongside us, showing that change is indeed possible. Collective will is forged – or fractured – in everyday political spaces, which can reveal early signs of civic support, or resentment and disengagement, as well as the root causes of why well-intended initiatives succeed or fail.

Our Companion Guide –How to explore our work

This work calls for an attitude shift — not only from its authors, but from anyone engaging with it. It is less a rigid ‘framework’ and more a set of conditions, or a ‘companion guide,’ inviting curiosity, openness, and generosity. We welcome new ideas and perspectives to grow this work collectively.

We don’t always have the perfect words or terms to describe what we’re discovering here. Sometimes we only understand something by circling around its edges – and that’s okay. Our work and reflections embrace a high degree of emergence, where meaning and clarity unfold over time, shaped by relationships, patterns, and insights that surface throughout the process.

Governing Together invites a complementary posture to the more familiar Western tradition of focusing on solutions, often rooted in modernist and Enlightenment frames of reference. That tradition values certainty, linear progress, and clear answers with set briefs and blueprints, often before we even fully understand the problem.

Governing Together offers a worldview that holds space for ongoing questioning and co-creation over time, being responsive and attuned to what arises in real time.

In the thinking and practice we offer, we will surely make assumptions and mistakes – and we see that as a healthy part of the process. We are open to being challenged, because we believe that is where the seeds of transformation and innovation live: in dialogue, in friction, in difference, and not only in shared but also in compatible visions and ideas.

Investing in Soft Infrastructures –Cultivating the Conditions for Change

Today’s problems aren’t just technical – they’re deeply social, psychological, cultural, ethical, and relational. Tackling climate transitions, housing shortages, or public health crises requires us to work together across departments, sectors, industries, and communities. But that kind of collaboration doesn’t happen without trust, humility, shared understanding, and the belief that change is both necessary and possible.

And right now, many people don’t feel or trust that possibility. Systems change is hard – for the simple reason that systems are good at resisting change and staying exactly as they are. It has never been more important to understand what drives our support for – or resistance to – collective action, and to rebuild trust as a critical infrastructure. That’s why we’re developing Governing Together, a new body of work at Dark Matter Labs exploring the everyday foundations of collective action, across divides.

01 Bridging Divides in Everyday Politics
Our first publication looks at trust as a critical infrastructure and examines the conditions and foundations of trust-building, exploring how human behaviour is shaped, how mindsets and attitudes form, and how motivation and willingness to act are fostered and sustained in both the informal and formal spaces of everyday life.

Even when local governments invest in quality participatory processes – like citizens’ assemblies or town halls – people don’t show up as blank slates. Their motivations, frustrations, hopes, and beliefs about what’s possible are already shaped both by their lived experiences and by the people they trust: family members, colleagues, neighbours, and online communities. Our worldviews are formed long before we enter the room – not only by the one-way messages we absorb through media, schools, and institutions, but also, critically, by how these messages are interpreted and internalised through everyday dialogue within our informal social environments.

Conversations with friends, family, and peers help frame how we understand the world and shape our sense of what is acceptable, normal, possible, or worth caring about. These subtle but powerful processes – what we call Everyday Politics – are a critical, underexplored tool for local governments to understand how beliefs and motivations are formed. If we want formal participation to be meaningful, we need to take seriously what happens in the everyday.

In this publication, we share key design principles and strategies that local governments and their ecosystems of collaborators can adopt to engage in these critical formal and informal spaces of change.

Over a dozen incredible practitioners and thinkers from around the world contributed to this publication and their thoughts and insights are woven throughout our chapters. Their names are also all listed in ‘The Village’ section of our website.

We invite leaders, practitioners and community organisers to test ideas, services, and tools in your own contexts, and co-create new approaches – together. We also invite you to share your stories and practices of building towards collective action.

Dear Reader, Before you dive in… This isn’t a deck to read in one go. Yes, it’s 80 pages! Think of it like a garden – wander in, linger where something catches your eye, skip a few paths, come back later!

Open Publication

What Keeps Us Awake At Night

This is our starting point and the context we work in, where we face the hard truths of our time – widening inequalities, deep injustices, and entrenched powers that shape the world we live in. These are the stories and patterns that stir us, unsettle us, and keep us awake at night – the reasons behind why we do what we do. Sharing them here is our way of naming what matters and why we choose to act.

Read more

The Village

Change does not come alone — it takes a village. This space gathers the field we are part of: partners, collaborators, and fellow practitioners working toward new paradigms. Here, we amplify the good work of others and host reflections, interviews, and shared pieces of design work and writing that show how our collective strength grows through relationships, a multitude of intelligences, and governing together.

Our Roots

Every action has a root. Ours lie in the values, life stories, and connections that shape who we are. This page is where we share our beginnings, our team, and the threads that brought us together – not just our skills and capabilities, but the deeper reasons why this work matters to each of us.

In Practice – How We Get Our Hands Dirty
Here, we open up how we work – the practices, experiments, and approaches that guide our day-to-day efforts. From designing processes and tools to enabling change on the ground, this section shows the practical ways we put ideas into motion, keep our hands dirty, and help improve the fertility of the soil for others to do good work.

Our Shared Work – Where We Show Up

This space gathers our public work – talks, events, publications, and other contributions that share our learning more widely. Here we open up the conversations we have beyond our immediate field, offering ideas, stories, and provocations for others to pick up, question, and carry forward. It is both a record of where we have been and an invitation to join us in shaping what comes next.

Glossary – Building a Common Ground

Language shapes how we understand each other and the work we do. This space gathers key terms, concepts, and ideas that guide our collective practice, offering a shared reference to help everyone speak, think, and act together. By building a common language, we strengthen our connections, clarify our intentions, and support the field as it grows.

Let’s Govern Together

The future of governance won’t be built in isolation or by any single actor. It will emerge from how we choose to relate to one another and build trust. Its foundations are laid in the everyday spaces where people work, connect, and gather. We invite city leaders, practitioners, community organisers, and institutions to join us: share your stories, test these tools, collaborate on new approaches, and help us grow this ecosystem.

Whether you are working to rebuild civic trust, strengthen community relationships, improve participatory processes, or design for long-term systems change, we are keen to connect. Change is relational, and every conversation is part of the larger weave.

Please get in touch at hello@governing-together.org
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