Writing History
The Democracy School Story
Short Version
The Democracy School emerged from Nico Heller's experiments in democratising relationships – from social research innovation to projects like CivicAction.info, one of the UK's earliest interactive consultation platforms, leading to the School's formal establishment in 2005. After developing narrative-based action learning through work with local authorities, the 2010 austerity period forced strategic withdrawal from UK consultancy, ultimately leading to Berlin relocation in 2018.
This transition proved transformative. By 2020, the School had repositioned itself at the intersection of art and politics, developing three interconnected strands: commentary and debate, cultural interventions, and capacity building. In 2024, it established Unruhe Media to engage with the polycrisis – the convergence of environmental, democratic, and socioeconomic crises reshaping our world.
In early 2025, Nico's art-based AI research revealed the "cube problem" – how systems persistently resist transformation from within by absorbing disruption while maintaining essential structures. This discovery catalysed the systematic articulation of narrative prefiguration, the theoretical framework that had been implicit in the School's practice all along: recognising and actualising latent possibilities within existing configurations rather than imposing external solutions.
Today, the Democracy School offers pathways for transformation that work with rather than against contemporary complexity, through narrative coaching, narrative-based action learning, and cultural interventions uniquely suited to our fragmented moment.
