The program for the first half of 2019 is well underway. Because we’re eager to get started and reach out, we’re doing a pre-launch already: October 11th.

That happens to be during the World Commons Week

World Commons Week

From 4 to 12 October, people from all over the world celebrate the World Commons Week: a week dedicated to the study and practice of the commons. Exactly fifty years ago in October, biologist Garrett Hardin published his infamous Tragedy of the commons article in Science. Since then, many scholars have been very busy disproving Hardin’s pessimistic assessment of commons. Also in October, Waag’s Chamber of Commons will launch to carve out new practices, models and politics for the commons, in partnership with Commons Network, de Meent, Sustainable Finance Lab and OBA.

Chamber of Commons

The Chamber of Commons bolsters the interests of commons and commoners. Commons are shared resources managed by communities with an aim of assuring their sustainability and inclusivity. They foster bottom-up initiative and community self-determination, while keeping a close watch on the needs of the wider public. The mission of the Chamber of Commons is to raise public awareness on the commons, tickle the senses, and demonstrate new models through which the commons can address societal questions.

Politics of Nature

“Politics of Nature” is the first initiative to be invited to the Chamber of Commons to explore new ways of relating between humans and nature. Politics of Nature is a brand new initiative experimenting with democratic methodologies, game design and immersive tech, inspired by the ideas of Bruno Latour, Baruch Spinoza and the concept of the Cratic Platform. “In times of democratic and climatic decline, we will need to experiment with and practice new methods and methodologies for addressing difficult issues and respect the beings we co-exist with,” says Jakob Raffn, co-initiator of Politics of Nature.

The case – Amsterdam Rainproof

While Europe this summer has faced one of the most intense regional droughts in recent memory, for a city like Amsterdam the main problems are with excess water: downpours of rain that put the infrastructure of the city under severe pressure. The city has become more densely populated, more intensively used, and more heavily paved; at the same time, climate change brings more extreme weather.
Overall we need to develop a better relationship with water. “Politics of Nature” is a method, a game with which a stronger democratic legitimacy can be created in which not only people, but also plants, animals and buildings can raise their voices. It’s about increasing the number of affected actors in the networks and find consents for coexistence.

We hope to see you for an event dedicated to abstraction, warmth and multi-perspectives.

This edition will take place on Thursday 11th of October at  Waag, Nieuwmarkt 4, Amsterdam. Admission is € 5,-

Program:
16.00 Doors open
16.30 Welcome by Socrates Schouten (Waag, Chamber of Commons) and introduction to the case
17.00 Game round 1
18.00 Sandwich dinner
18.45  Game round 2
20.00 Plenary synthesis
20.45 Drinks

This edition of Politics of Nature will have a technological afterlife the 25th of October at the VRDAYS.

Photo by Luc Mercelis

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Today Commons Network publishes a new policy paper that takes on the pharmaceutical system and presents real alternatives, based on open source research and the knowledge commons. Commons Network proposes a new vision for the biomedical research system that safeguards universal access to affordable medicines and scientific advances.

Taking the commons perspective allows us to offer a diagnostic of our biomedical innovation system and to put forth a political programme for a transition to a new public interest model. The EU’s market-dominated pharmaceutical policies are sized up from the ‘outside the box’ viewpoint of the common good.

This paper responds to the questions: How does the present pharma model work in Europe, what is wrong with it and what can be done right now to change it. This includes a comparison between the existing model, positive transitions and the transformative commons model with practical examples, principles and outcomes.

The paper also describes a broken pharmaceutical system, that in its current form prevents millions of people in Europe and around the world from getting the medicines they need. It goes on to show how ‘Big Pharma’ creates artificial scarcity by enclosing scientific knowledge resources which could easily be abundant and universally accessible.

The skyrocketing prices of medicines and the lack of affordable access to treatments are key traits of our pharmaceutical system. We are told there are no alternatives. This is not the case. There are alternatives to the current broken pharmaceutical innovation system that do not thrive on high prices nor the privatization of knowledge. Some of these alternatives are already in place on a small scale. Yet policy will have to support a transformation of the entire system for it to be sustainable, efficient and just.

The of medical treatments and knowledge based on patent monopolies, regulatory capture and unfair trade rules means a ‘tragedy of the anti-commons’ where over-medication and under-treatment are two sides of the same coin.

The solution to this conundrum of problems is to unleash the potential of the commons. In short: let’s commonify health-care treatments. We have to unlock the gates around medical knowledge and allow it to be governed democratically both by scientists and citizens as a whole.

This new paper by Commons Network presents the commons approach to biomedical innovation at a time when a new comprehensive approach is so direly needed. The biomedical commons represents a paradigm based on the sharing of knowledge, cooperation, stewardship, participation and social equity.

You can download the summary here,

Or you can read the entire paper embedded in Commons Network’s website.

For more information or collaborations please contact Sophie Bloemen at [email protected] or [email protected]

Photo by mag3737

The post From Lab to Commons: Shifting to a Biomedical System that’s in the Public Interest appeared first on P2P Foundation.

Photo by Lynn Friedman

The post Can the Commons offer a renewed vision for Europe? appeared first on P2P Foundation.

You can still be a part of it: Click here to join.

In cooperation with the Transeuropa Festival and MediaLab Prado, the assembly features 4 days of workshops, visits to local commons initiatives, debates, talks, art and parties in the heart of Madrid. An eclectic mix of commons activists from all over Europe will get together to discuss the commons and the future of Europe.

The European Commons Assembly starts on Wednesday (the 25th of October) and ends with a closing assembly on Friday (the 27th of October). Saturday (October 28th) will be filled with trips to local commoning sites around Madrid and exciting sessions organized by Transeuropa Festival in the afternoon.

Workshop themes include ‘Participatory Tools for Democracy’, ‘Right to the City’, ‘Law for the Commons’, ‘Data Commons and the Collaborative Economy’, ‘Food’, ‘Health and Leisure’, and ‘Solidarity as a Commons: Migrants and Refugees’.

Are you interested in the Commons?
Join us! Click here.

For more information about the program, click here.

For more updates, follow us here on Twitter or join the event here on Facebook.

We hope to see you in Madrid!

Reposted from the Commons Network newsletter.

Photo by Liisa Maria

The post Join us in Madrid for the next European Commons Assembly appeared first on P2P Foundation.

The prevailing EU neoliberal economic and social policies have a familiar, retrograde focus: Increase market growth at all costs, deregulate and privatize while reducing government spending, social protections and services. This approach is failing miserably and highly unpopular, especially in France, Italy, Spain and Greece. But politicians cannot seem to escape this box, and even where leftist reformers win state power, as with Syriza in Greece, international capital (in the guise of neoliberal politicians) overwhelm them. Even state sovereignty is not enough!

So how might the commons help instigate a new political discussion?  The Commons Network report makes clear that the challenge is not about policy tweaks. A new worldview is needed. A holistic systems perspective is needed.

The report opens with a fitting quotation by , the great environmental scientist:

“Pretending that something doesn’t exist if it’s hard to quantify leads to faulty models. … Human beings have been endowed with the ability to count but also with the ability to assess quality. … No one can define or measure justice, democracy, security, freedom, truth, or love. No one can define or measure any value. But if no one speaks up for them, if systems aren’t designed to produce them, if we don’t speak about them and point towards their presence or absence, they will cease to exist.”

Who is going to stand up for all the uncountable forces that make our lives liveable?  How can The System begin to take account of those things that can’t be tabulated on budget spreadsheets or aggregated into Gross Domestic Product?

Authors David Hammerstein and Sophie Bloemen write:

“The current crisis facing the European Union demands new, unifying and constructive narratives.  The commons is an emerging paradigm in Europe – one that embraces reciprocity, stewardship, social and ecological sustainability. It is also a movement, one that can reinvigorate progressive politics and contribute to a more socially and ecologically sustainable Europe.

“….The commons perspective stands in stark contrast to the policy priorities that currently dominate in Europe,” they add, citing “individualism, private ownership and zealous free market-thinking” and the “major fault lines [that] are starting to appear in that dominant worldview….At the moment, almost all EU economic policy is focused on the promotion of purely commercial actors and the uni-dimensional view of people having the exclusively individual aims of selling, owning or buying goods or services. The dominant paradigm is rarely evaluated by applying clear indicators of social and ecological well-being to judge the success of an economic endeavour.”

It remains to be seen whether politicians will want to explore and develop a commons framing or try to re-imagine politics. The right has generally seen more advantage in striking an angry, reactionary pose against immigrants and elites, while the left generally sees few alternatives than to try to humanize the neoliberal agenda using old-style bureaucratic systems and more government money.

However, there are some fascinating new attempts to develop a pan-European approach to democratic renewal, as seen in the DiEM 25 project and the European Commons Assembly, among other initiatives. The Commons Network report is an attempt to outline the logic, ethic and social practices of a new kinds of politics, with a focus on several promising policy areas such as participatory democracy, the urban environment and knowledge in the digital environment.

Hammerstein and Bloemen:

“Commons…stand for a worldview and ethical perspective favouring stewardship, reciprocity and social and ecological sustainability. This outlook defines wellbeing and social wealth not in terms of narrow economic criteria like GDP or companies’ success. Instead it looks to a richer, more qualitative set of criteria that are not easily measured – including moral legitimacy, social consensus and participation, equity, resilience, social cohesion and social justice.

“The commons discourse considers people as actors who are deeply embedded in social relationships, communities and local ecosystems, instead of conceiving of society as merely a collection of atomised individuals principally living as consumers or entrepreneurs. Human motivation is more diverse than maximising self-interest alone: we are social beings and human cooperation and reciprocity are at least as important in driving our actions.  This holistic perspective also tends to overcome dominant subject-object dualisms between, for example, man and nature, and to consider human activity as part of the larger biophysical world. Recognising the multiple domains of people’s lives, these bottom-up, decentralised and participatory approaches to our major social and environmental dilemmas provide functional solutions to the crises facing our continent.

“…..New social values and practices are enabling communities to be generative instead of extractive, outside of the market and state. This is creating a new civic and cultural ethic that is breaking with conventional notions of citizenship and participation. The regeneration activities of commoners showcase, above all, cultural manifestations of new ways of daily life. Community supported agriculture, cooperative housing initiatives that ensure reasonable and lasting low rents, local energy cooperatives, do it yourself (DIY) initiatives, decentralised internet infrastructures, the scientific commons, community-based art, music and theatre initiatives, and many other activities, all provoke practical on-the-ground cultural change.”

There is a cultural shift going on at the ground level, mostly outside the view of conventional electoral politics. But since politicians are averse to wading into new and unfamiliar lines of discussion – oh, the risks! – it is likely that the cultural rumblings will first burst out in the style of Occupy, the Indignados or the Arab Spring: an abrupt surprise. We may have to wait for a cultural paroxysm for political leaders to develop the courage to think big and be bold.

The sick thing is, Trump actually understood these deeper shifts. He just chose to exploit widespread resentments and frustrations in all sorts of manipulative, demagogic and self-serving ways. When will the pragmatic realists of the left and center begin to see the virtues of embracing the coming paradigm shift, and champion a humane social reconstruction?

Photo by fusion-of-horizons

The post Can Commons Thinking Break into the European Mainstream? appeared first on P2P Foundation.

‘Supporting the Commons: Opportunities in the EU Policy Landscape’ is an appeal to the European Union to truly become an ally to commoners and commons-thinkers. With this paper, Commons Network lays out a clear unifying political vision for the future of Europe, a way for the EU to renew itself as a democratic and constructive force.

Commons Network co-director Sophie Bloemen: ‘A Europe by and for the people will have to be a Europe that protects and supports the commons. We hope this publication will help make European leaders aware of the urgency of this unmistakable fact, while also giving some pointers on how to go about it.’

The current crisis facing the European Union demands new, unifying and constructive narratives. The commons as way of thinking encapsulates these narratives in one fresh political framework. The ‘commons’ is an emerging paradigm in Europe-one that embraces reciprocity, stewardship, social and ecological sustainability. It is also a movement- one that can reinvigorate progressive politics and contribute to a more socially and ecologically sustainable Europe.

The commons perspective stands in stark contrast to the policy priorities that currently dominate in Europe. The European political scene is built around individualism, private ownership and zealous free market-thinking. Right now, major fault lines are starting to appear in that dominant worldview. Commons often emerge from the bottom up; they are dependent on community processes, and their logic is mostly at odds with the EU’s institutional logic.

‘We believe, however, that there is an important role for EU politics and policy to create the right incentives, to remove hurdles and to bring support to this re-emerging sector’, says David Hammerstein, Commons Network co-director.

So how do we as Europeans move forward? This policy paper reflects some of the EU policy barriers and opportunities in the areas of participatory democracy, the urban environment and knowledge in the digital environment.

Download the paper here (or the executive summary here).

Accompanying this paper, Commons Network will soon publish a strategy document & tool that will give an overview of the various policy processes’ timelines, key actors, and entry points.

What’s next for the commons movement? Commons Network is one of many organisations collaborating in the European Commons Assembly, which will reconvene in Madrid in October. Partnering with the Transeuropa Festival, commoners, activists, thinkers and politicians from all over Europe will gather in Madrid to continue building this movement. You are cordially invited to join us.

The post Commons Network Releases Urgent Call To Europe appeared first on P2P Foundation.

I’m excited to announce that I’ve been elected to the DiEM25 Advisory Panel to help lead a new initiative with Renata Avila to craft DiEM25’s 7th pillar: a progressive tech policy for a democratic Europe. 

>Diem 25: The 7th pillar – a progressive tech policy that guarantees individual sovereignty and a healthy commons from ind.ie on Vimeo.

I’m joining the DiEM25 Advisory Panel to help lead a new initiative with Coordinating Collective member (and good friend and long-time ally) Renata Avila to craft the 7th pillar of DiEM25’s Progressive Agenda for Europe: An Internet of People.

Beyond surveillance capitalism

Today, we see a Europe in the throes of wholesale capitulation to the digital imperialism of Silicon Valley. We are worried to observe Europe’s growing dependence on the centralised, surveillance-based technologies of a handful of American platform monopolies that share an intimate relationship with the US government. This state of affairs doesn’t bode well for the individual sovereignty of Europe’s citizens or for the national sovereignty of Europe’s member states.

We also see, however, a unique potential in Europe – with its unique history, culture, and approach to human rights – to diverge from this current system of surveillance capitalism and mark its own progressive path ahead.

Progressive tech policy for a democratic Europe

The mission of our initiative is to start a Pan-European process, working together with members of the DiEM25 Network from across Europe, to draft a progressive tech policy for a democratic Europe.

DiEM 25: Next stop 2019? May 25-26, 2017 at the Volksbühne, Berlin

Our policy must achieve two important goals. First, in the short term, we must effectively regulate Silicon Valley’s abusive business model in Europe. Second, in the medium-to-long term, we must fund and create an ethical alternative to surveillance capitalism.

Imagine an Internet where everyone owns and controls their own space.

Our guiding principles in drafting the 7th pillar of the Progressive Agenda For Europe are the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Four Freedoms of the Free Software, the Ethical Design Manifesto, the “Share Alike” philosophy of Creative Commons, and a profound respect for – and a desire to protect and encourage – individual sovereignty and a healthy commons as prerequisites for democracy and progressive internationalism.

An Internet of People

In the words of Audre Lorde, “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house”. A democratic Europe and a progressive internationalism cannot be achieved without democratic, progressive technological infrastructure.

We will take the first steps of drafting the 7th pillar in Berlin this Thursday.

The Internet of People imagines a decentralised, free and open, interoperable, sustainable, and democratic technology infrastructure for a democratic Europe and beyond. It is our progressive counter-narrative to the exploitative, centralised, and feudalistic mainstream narrative exported by Silicon Valley.

Imagine an Internet where everyone owns and controls their own space. Imagine a world where the ability to do this is acknowledged as a basic human right.

In such a world, all of your smart devices – the various technological extensions of your self – connect to your own sovereign node (and to each other) instead of to faceless corporations. That is the Internet of People. The Internet of People is an Internet that respects and protects your human rights and the integrity of your self. It is a basic prerequisite for personhood in the digital age.

It starts in Berlin on May 25th…

We will take the first steps of drafting the 7th pillar in Berlin this Thursday as DiEM25 meets to answer the important question: How can we take our European New Deal to the ballot box in every corner of Europe, and make it a reality?

Renata and I will be holding a 90-minute panel on the 25th to introduce the core philosophy and goals of the 7th pillar. During the first-half of our panel, we will be joined for short presentations by representatives from Free Software Foundation Europe and The Commons Network, Polina Malaja and Sophie Bloemen. The remainder of the panel will be an open round-table discussion with DiEM25 members. In the evening, Renata and I will take to the main stage to introduce the initiative alongside DiEM25 founders Yanis Varoufakis and Srećko Horvat.

Renata and I look forward to working together with the DiEM25 Network across Europe and beyond to craft a progressive, democratic, inspiring European vision to counter Silicon Valley’s neoliberal narrative of surveillance capitalism.

Here’s to an Internet of People, a democratic Europe, and to progressive internationalism.

About the author: Aral Balkan is an activist, designer, and developer. He’s ⅓ of Ind.ie, a tiny social enterprise working for social justice in the digital age.

The post Introducing the 7th pillar of DiEM25: An Internet of People – a progressive tech policy for a democratic Europe. appeared first on P2P Foundation.

Amsterdam. September 2-3, 2016

Peer Value: Advancing the Commons Collaborative Economy is a conference integrating conversations and plans of action for shaping and connecting the Commons on a global level.

Our final program is listed below,  please join us in Amsterdam!

The conference is organized along three tracks:

• Track 1: P2P: Inclusive Politics, Activism and Law for the Commons
• Track 2: Decentralized Tech and Beyond:Global Design,Local Production
• Track 3: From Platform to Open Cooperativism

We will explore questions such as:

• What are the conditions that encourage communities to work as peers, creating commons?
• What are the best practices communities can adopt to safeguard their resilience?
• Decentralization – why is it important, and how is it implemented and maintained?
• How can the working methodologies honed by well-established digital communities act as transitional guidelines for sustainable “material” manufacturing?
• What about social innovation and livelihoods – how does contributory and open accounting work with the systems of value creation found in CBPP?
• How can civil society participate in recommending policy proposals that support CBPP for governments at the local, regional, national – even global – levels?

Join your peers, add your voice and take part in the growing conversation about the Commons as an important, emerging collaborative social model.

Register here

SCHEDULE:

Day One: Friday 2/9/2016

8:30: Registration and Welcome coffee
9:00: Opening and Intro Day 1, Frank Kresin
9:30: Commons policy for collaborative economy & knowledge Plenary Session – Mayo Fuster, moderator. Steve Hill, Vasilis Niaros, Speakers.
9:30: Blockchain for the commons and Foundups – Amanda Jansen
10:30: Break
11:00: A Lab for the Urban Commons and the City as a Commons: LabGov AMS and the CO-Ams process. Debate – Moderator: Sophie Bloemen. Speakers: John Grin (UvA), Stan Majoor (HvA), Faiza Dadi (Gemeente Amsterdam), Christian Iaione (LabGov Bologna), Thomas de Groot (Deelraad Amsterdam West, Piraten Partij), Joachim Meerkerk (Pakhuis de Zwijger).
11:00: Online Participatory Cultures Plenary (90min), Q&A (20min) – Moderator: Frank Kresin. Speakers: Lisha Sterling, Craig Ambrose, Rachel O’Dwyer, Samer Hassan, Pablo Oranguren.
11:00: Design Global, Manufacture Local Plenary (90min), Q&A (20-30min)
13:00: Lunch
14:00: Is the EU only a problem or can it also be part of the solution?
Debate – Moderator: David Hammerstein. Speakers: Sophie Bloemen, Michel Bauwens, Carmen Lozano, Mayo Fuster, Melanie Dulong, Jaromil.
14:00: From Platform to Open Cooperativism.
Plenary – Moderator: Josef Davies Coates. Speakers: Jessica Gordon Nembhard , John Restakis, Alex Pazaitis, Douglas Rushkoff (VOIP), Trebor Scholz (VOIP).
14:00: A Lab for the Urban Commons and the City as a Commons: LabGov AMS and the CO-Ams process.
Presentations and panel
14:00: Design Global, Manufacture Local.
Plenary – Moderator: Michiel Schwarz. Speakers: Vasilis Niaros, Tiberius Brastaviceanu, Lisha Sterling.
15:30: Break
16:00: Policies and Law for the Commons. Presentation and panel – Moderator: Lisha Sterling. Speakers: Janelle Orsi (via VOIP), David Bollier.
16:00: Licensing for the Commons.
Plenary – Moderator: Vasilis Niaros. Speakers: Bruno Carballa, Baruch Gottlieb, Michel Bauwens.
16:00: A Lab for the Urban Commons and the City as a Commons: LabGov AMS and the CO-Ams process.
Workshop – Joachim Meerkerk
16:00: Empowering People: Renewable energy as a commons. Workshop
16:00: Workshop Pro commons policy & collaborative economy. Workshop – Moderator: Mayo Fuster.
16:00:  EU and the Commons: Proposals for European policy to promote the common. Workshop 2
17:10: Wrap up of Day 1, Frank Kresin
17:30: Closing drinks.

DAY 2: Saturday 3/9/2016

9:00: Registration and Welcome coffee
9:30: Welcome and Intro day 2, Frank Kresin
9:30: Sustainable Livelihoods and Alternative Financing Plenary – Moderator: Stacco Troncoso. Speakers: Sarah de Heusch, Carmen Lozano Bright, Lisha Sterling.
10:00: (Em)powering People: Renewable Energy as a Commons
Plenary. – Moderator: David Hammerstein. Speakers: Cecile Blanchet, David Bollier, Abdelhulheb Choco (tbc), Zuiderlicht (tbc).
11:00: Break
11:30: State Power and Commoning: Transcending a Problematic Relationship Plenary
11:30: Workshop (Em)powering People: Renewable Energy as a Commons. Workshop. – Host: David Hammerstein.
11:30: Meta Economic Networks. Plenary. – Moderator: Stacco Troncoso. Speakers: Dmytri Kleiner, George Dafermos, Genevieve Parkes, Stephanie Rearick.
13:00: Lunch
14:00: From Platform to Open Cooperativism. Plenary, – Moderator: Josef Davies Coates. Speakers: Donnie Maclurcan, Josef Davies Coates, Nathan Schneider (VOIP), Pat Conaty.
14:00: State Power and Commoning: Transcending a Problematic Relationship. Plenary. – Moderator: Alex Pazaitis. Speakers: David Bollier, Michel Bauwens, Jessica Gordon Nembhard, John Restakis, George Dafermos, Mayo Fuster.
14:00: State Power and Commoning: Transcending a Problematic Relationship. Q&A Lounge
15:30: Break
16:00: Introducing the European Commons Assembly. Plenary. – Moderator: Lisha Sterling. Speakers: Martin Kirk, Bayo Akomolafe, Hilary Wainwright.
16:00: Ditigal Democracy for the Commons by Oview App. Plenary. – Moderator: Amanda Jansen. Speakers: Coby Babani.
16:00: Sustainable Livelihoods.
17:10: Closing remarks. Plenary. – Speaker: Michel Bauwens.
17:50: Wrap up, Frank Kresin
18:00: Closing drinks

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Assimilation seems to be a theme of their project. They integrate work and daily life. They bring together practitioners, fans, and supporters. They involve their extended communities, including local government. Their most recent innovation, a network of companies called the Borderland, aims to integrate their ecovillage with the economies of  those of the surrounding valleys.

__________________________________________________________________________

Extracted from: http://www.torri-superiore.org/chisiamo/

Who we are

Torri Superiore Cultural Association was founded in 1989 with the social aim to restore and repopulate the medieval village in a state of neglect, to support the creation of a living community, and to contribute to the creation of an Ecovillage and an open cultural center to the public

L ‘Association has about 30 members, both resident and non-resident, and follows principles of sustainability, cooperation and solidarity. The Association has no political positions, ideological or religious.

The general objectives of the ‘Association and ecovillage, including ecotourism programs, are decided by the members, which meets twice a year (April and November). The Executive Council, composed of nine members elected every two years between residents and non-residents, normally meets every two or three months.

Extracted from: http://www.torri-superiore.org/restauro-del-borgo/(translated)

The Village Restoration

During the twentieth century, the medieval village of Torri Superiore was gradually abandoned by all the inhabitants, falling prey to decay and slowly turning into a ghost town.

Over the following years, a detailed study of the structure of buildings has led to the development of a restoration project that balances the complex for public use parts and those for private use.

For the management of construction sites they have been used small local companies with the constant support of the Association members and residents, and with the generous contribution of volunteer groups from around the world.

The restoration began in 1997, and in 2012 work on the accommodation and 21 private housing units of 22 solar panels were also installed to produce hot water and electricity have been completed.

Extracted from:http://www.torri-superiore.org/sostenibilita-in-pratica/(translated)

Sustainability in practice

Torri Superiore and ecovillage are one: the eco-village includes all members of residents and non-residents and guests of the accommodation are invited to follow the principles. From the beginning, the idea of restoring the village was based on ecological principles. Participation in the networks of ecovillages GEN RIVE and movement of Permaculture has spurred the group to focus and achieve their goals in an increasingly sustainable.

Extracted from:http://www.legaliguria.coop/decolla-la-rete-di-imprese-le-terre-di-confine-ture-nirvane-e-spes-tra-i-protagonisti/(translated)

Establishing the Network of Companies “The Borderlands.

The fledgling network consists of six companies. It in fact come within the Cooperative Ture Nirvane (which manages the Ecovillage Torri Superiore), the Cooperative Spes, the company Bees of Airole, and farms Cristina Doctors, Wilna Benso di Gianni Ballestra and Estates San Gregorio Patrizia Basso. The Ortinsieme Association acts as the supervisory body.

At the official presentation of the network, which took place in the Council Chamber of the City of Ventimiglia, was attended, among others, the mayors of the municipalities, being to close to the border with France, fall in the territory in which they operate, ie the towns of Ventimiglia, Airole, Olivetta San Michele, Dolceacqua, Rocchetta Nervina, Pigna and Triora.

The network, in fact, aims to operate and support the revitalization of the whole area that, in the four valleys Bevera, Roja, Nervia and Argentina, extends to the border with France.Leitmotif is the sharing among the parties belonging, of sharing a common desire to support and implement a strong impetus to social recovery, economic and territorial environment, based on essential values such as sustainability and solidarity.

“The network – he said the president Gianni Ballestra – has as its main purpose a holistic view of work, understood as a recomposition of knowledge, humanization of assistance and action on lifestyles. Piecing together the knowledge and integrate them with new knowledge, such as organic farming, permaculture, renewable energies, closed cycles and integration, it means creating a new world of work representation seen as a single entity composed of several elements (companies, associations, cooperatives) but above by people. An organism, ultimately, in which each change the state of things, every crisis, every change is processed and cured in a common activity. The idea of a network was established almost two years ago, driven by the need and desire to bring together under one project friends who share a certain type of path related to experimentation, knowledge, dissemination and monitoring of the territory. ”

Photo by hans s

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The Commons Network‘s David Hammerstein summarizes his intervention at the recent Temps des Communs festival in Paris

On October 10th Commons Network’s David Hammerstein talked about urban commons  at the festival ‘Temps des Communs’ in Paris. Here are some notes from his talk.

The post Le Temps des Communs in Paris: Urban Commons appeared first on P2P Foundation.