Via Silke Helfrich:

The Green European Foundation is organising, with support of the Belgian Green foundations Oikos and Etopia, a congress discussing the commons, as a new organisational concept of managing natural resources and of developing new forms of cooperation.

The financial and economic crisis brought both the markets and the nation states into a deep systemic crisis. The congress starts from the premise that part of the solution to these crises will be found outside these systems and that the commons offer very promising prospects for developing new forms of partnerships between people, outside the usual borders of the market and even the state. The commons can contribute to establishing a progressive, forward looking green economy and can constitute a new source of political innovation, as they develop new concepts of cooperation, production and ownership.

The congress will address questions as diverse as how can the theory of the commons and its practical implementation strengthen our societies and economies, or can the commons represent a credible alternative to globalisation. A detailed program of the congress will be available soon.

Important information

• Event details:
• Date: 9 March 2012
• Venue: Espace Baudouin – Académie royale de Belgique, 1 rue Ducale, 1000 Brussels
• Language: English, French and Dutch (with simultaneous interpretation)
• Registration: Opens window for sending emailinfo(at)oikos.be