More than a simple methodology, SPIRAL proposes a methodological framework allowing exchanges and capitalisation on methods that each one experienced on the ground. This is why its content is neither uniform nor set in stone: it is the result of a process of networked co-construction with different stakeholders working to promote co-responsibility for the well-being of all in their respective areas or institutions (companies, schools, hospitals, administrative authorities, public services, etc.) at a local or wider (regional, national, etc.) level. It is therefore diversified and open, developing in line with the results of the experiments that have been carried out since 2005 in various settings and contexts. The website Wikispiral is one of the main tools of this process.

A number of principles serve as guidelines for the construction of this framework. They help identify the most promising ideas and practices which could be adopted and included in the methodology and relayed to others, thereby making it possible to bring about gradual improvement. As such, new experiments always are sources of enrichment, revealing approaches which no one had previously thought of. The SPIRAL methodological framework should therefore be seen as a source of inspiration where each interested stakeholder could either adopt the suggested process as a whole, or choose what they find the most interesting and, in both cases, report back on the adaptations they have tested so that others, faced with the same needs, could in turn draw on this experience.

This means that SPIRAL is of course not a perfect methodological framework nor can it be seen as a recipe that can be automatically applied. There are inevitable difficulties, since bringing about co-responsibility is no easy matter. Accordingly, the objective of SPIRAL is to make it possible, thanks to contributions from everyone, to overcome these difficulties step by step, as we have been doing for seven years, so that little by little this process of developing co-responsibility for the well-being of all becomes a more natural pathway followed in our societies and is recognised as a key component of our common future. This is SPIRAL’s ambition, the result of a participatory process in which stakeholders from almost 20 countries are today taking part.