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]]>Stichting Bildung aims to build bridges within society—from excluded groups to wealthy ones, from low to higher educated—in a space filled with culture, altruism, and social connection. The project is being designed and implemented by a small group of people from different countries and backgrounds that live and work together, as an act of resistance, offering an alternative to the common subsidy-based initiatives that rely on policy regulations.
The location, a derelict Catholic church renamed DeKerk, is their current setting. Several meeting and social spaces including a bar and a dedicated music area have been built – all done at the lowest cost possible thanks to using recycled materials and waste, personal savings and crowdfunding campaigns. Lights, electricity and heating were installed, alongside a stage, and a wood workshop.A shop, located at the main entrance of the building, opens two days per week and provides a good gauge of the social situation in the neighborhood, as people come in to talk and share their stories. It gives away donated items such as clothes, shoes, furniture, books, games and toys to those in need.
Today, DeKerk hosts a variety of organisations and events. As the building was set to be demolished in 2020 as part of a residential redevelopment, Stichting Bildung is now working to get more people and organisations involved to extend their activities programme and they are already looking for more places to continue its vision.
“Social centres are often the backbone on which broader urban social movements are built. The establishment of new centres is always a cause for hope.”
– Evaluator Bert Russell
Would you like to learn more about this initiative? Please contact us.
Or visit bildungamsterdam.nl/
Transformative Cities’ Atlas of Utopias is being serialized on the P2P Foundation Blog. Go to TransformativeCities.org for updates.
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]]>The post Collaboration Incubators for Practicing Democracy appeared first on P2P Foundation.
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I felt I needed something of a different order to grow further’
Yet after enrolling, I thought, why would I want to contribute to this movement? Why did I feel so strongly that this movement was something through that I could develop myself further. Also, I have never considered helping building a global democracy? For many years, I had been pondering, searching and diving into the deep of the big questions. I learned a lot from different people, literature and by designing and developing initiatives for communal healing and transformation to make collective sustainable development possible. Since a while, I felt I needed something of a different order to grow further and improve my work.
I had an inspiring talk with Manuela Bosch, one of the initiators of the Collaboration Incubator about the intentions and drive that lead to this program. She explained to me, that this program isn’t about building a global institution. It is about finding creative and innovative ways to address local issues that impact us all globally – issues that cross borders and therefore can’t be resolved solely by one institution, one country or the existing global institutional governing bodies.
What if everything we ever tried were only prototypes of democracy? What if we don’t actually know how real democracy could look like? This thinking by Otto Scharmer (Theory U) inspired the tagline of the Collaboration Incubator: “Momentum building for global democracy”. Within the Incubators, different existing local initiatives and movements are called to work on a vision and potentially also projects for a democratic society across boarders. Boarders not only in a geographical sense, but also in sense of sector, culture, class and any paradigm.
Participants of the Incubator in Berlin in May 2018 are putting their names up on the collaborative projects they want to support.
Facilitated through social technologies like Dragon Dreaming, Evolutionary Work and Social Presencing Theater, we are learning to maximize the knowledge, tools and resources that are available, to connect with others and organize change. This is particularly powerful when combined with the increasing awareness of the importance of a more conscious lifestyle whether on an individual, community or organizational scale. Our assumption is, that the required solutions are already existing, but there is a lack of cohesive effort that can only come from stepping out of our comfort zones for interdisciplinary organizing. This is what the people from the Vanilla Way network believe they can help to facilitate: connecting people with shared intentions and addressing issues that can’t be coordinated from top down with tools made for collaborative grassroots organizing.
we can only be as global as the reach of the network is
Enlarging the pool of diversity among the participants is one of the highest goals and greatest challenges. Diversity comes for example by bringing people together from different socio-economic-religious-political backgrounds, but also from the wealth of experience an individual brings from their work and field of interest. The diversity topic is challenging, since first: we can only be as global as the reach of the network is; secondly: Diversity is dependent on our financial resources, too – this is why we i.e look for patrons for one-on-one scholarships and other ways of independent funding; and thirdly: Levering diversity depends more than ever on our own leadership capacity to deal with race, gender and inclusivity topics.
Through her work as trainer for the collaborative project design framework Dragon Dreaming, Manuela experienced that workshop participants are connecting fast and deep, but after meeting in a workshop focused on skill learning, it’s difficult to keep collaborating, even though good intentions are there. “There needs to be a reason for people to keep reconnecting. The activists and leaders I am speaking to, seem to have no more time to waste in workshops. At the same time people do want to network, connect on a deeper level and learn. Why not use the combined intelligence of a diverse group of people coming together interested in the collective change processes that are necessary? When we make time to travel and meet over three days, let’s work on the pressing question of what we can do for global issues! Could it be possible to work on a collective dream and also not let it’s realization be left to chance, but intentionally work on it? There is no guarantee to come to conclusion on this over the three days, but it’s worth to try!”
find good ways to use the resources we have wisely, plus all of our creativity
There seems to be an opening now, a commitment to come together and collaborate better. This program is contributing to what is already happening on so many levels and places. And, there is still so much work to do. Many active in organizing societal change feel there is no time to rest! Therefore another main goal of the incubator is about inspiring for self-care, so that we don’t burn out on the way. It is so important to find good ways to use the resources we have wisely, plus all of our creativity, to make sure that our power and energy endures all the way. The way of activism this Incubator supports is meant to be straight forward and honest, yet unexpected and joyful.
In the recent Collaboration Incubator in May 2018 in Berlin the participants learned through a Social Presencing Theater 4D Mapping Report to May 2018 Incubator experiment about the importance of borders. We learned, they are not only separating us. They really help us to collaborate better across our fields and different stakeholders. If we look at borders that exist in the natural world, for example the zone between the river and the forest, this is where the most biodiversity can be found. In permaculture this zone is called ecotone. Also personal relationships provide a classic example. Maybe others experience this, too: When we put too much attention onto another person, trying identifying with them and their actions, we are faster questioning whether we agree with them or not. The possibility of conflict can become greatly increased.
connect with many people, interdisciplinary and diverse, with less resources or effort!
When we focus on the third identity, though, the in-between or intersections that exists between A and B, our collaboration can be more effective, lighter and even deeply strengthen both individuals or fields. We don’t have to agree on everything, yet accept each other as the mutual partners and siblings in a global family, that we are. Each with our own skills, strength and knowledge to work on collective solutions. This way it might become possible to connect with many people, interdisciplinary and divers, with less resources or effort. It is the art of connecting through the heart in seeing and acknowledging each other and at the same time staying focused around our own work, own needs and shared vision.
Beyond envisioning and planning, practicing collaboration by creating a shared piece of tape-art in the Incubator in May 2018 in Berlin.
The program can be called a success, when every participant has been able to take away at least one key learning or key link to a resource crucial for their current work or life. The contribution to global distributed democracy can be a side-effect and will keep building its momentum through continuous commitment of many over time. “If we are going to support the creation of a giant collaborative field, will depend pretty much on the participants and outcomes of the Incubators and especially what will happen between the ongoing workshops. If the Collaboration Incubator is helping unleash the connections between the existing movements, so that they can better recognize their own qualities and give each other direct help, we will move into this direction”, the organizers of the Collaboration Incubator hope.
the wisdom and spirit that is already in our bodies, heads, hearts, souls can come to the surface more easily’
To share the knowledge and keep developing and integrating internet based technology to coordinate our efforts and make our network power visible is important. As an underestimated addition to this I believe in connecting people and their visions on a deeper level face-to-face. The wisdom and spirit that is already in our bodies, heads, hearts, souls will come to the surface more easily. After writing this article I know that this is my motivation and intention to participate.
Lead photo, Celebratory activity during Collaboration Incubator in Berlin in May 2018. All photos, ©Momo-C.Gumz .
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]]>The post In the Netherlands, water policies are protected from politics for the common good appeared first on P2P Foundation.
]]>Here’s how the country is working on the problem: Fortunately, the Dutch have created water policies that ensure that communities are safe and resilient despite changing conditions. They have done this by taking the mandate of water management out of central government control and putting it instead in the hands of “Waterschappen” — regional water governments around the country.
In each municipality, the board members who will lead these governments are elected every four years. These organizations then determine what their bioregion’s water-management needs are, covering water levels, sewage treatment, infrastructure management, water quality control, and aquatic ecosystem health. Based on the projects that must be completed, they calculate how much they will need to perform what is required of them. The water governments are supervised by the higher government (the province) to ensure that mandates are met, wage increases are fair, and project costs are reasonable. Once their budgets are approved, the public is taxed according to property ownership, with the reasoning that water management is helping to protect land and properties, and those who own more should pay more.
Results:
Learn more from:
This case study is adapted from our latest book, “Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons.” Get a copy today.
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]]>The post The Repair Café Foundation builds community by fixing things appeared first on P2P Foundation.
]]>Here’s how one organization is working on the problem: In 2009, Martine Postma organized the very first Repair Café in Amsterdam, Netherlands, to do something good for the environment and build social contacts within local communities. The Repair Café connected people who were skilled in fixing things with community members who needed items to be fixed once a month at a convenient neighborhood location. The repair experts shared their knowledge with the community members, who learned that repair is possible, and often not that difficult, with a little bit of community support. People got to experience firsthand the value of repairing things instead of buying new stuff to replace them.
Results:
Learn more from:
This case study is adapted from our latest book, “Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons.” Get a copy today.
Photo by Darwin Bell
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]]>The post Stad in de Maak – from crisis to a shared ownership model appeared first on P2P Foundation.
]]>“Our ambition is to bring properties into collective ownership and use”
This interview is an excerpt from the book Funding the Cooperative City: Community Finance and the Economy of Civic Spaces
In what context did you begin to work on Stad in de Maak?
This is an initiative that started from – and currently thrives in – the afterlife of the current financial crisis. A crisis that started out with toxic debts and real-estate speculations, emblematically bringing down Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008. Amidst the unfolding of this crisis, the non-for profit housing developer Havensteder bought these two buildings where we are today with the idea of demolishing and redeveloping them. At that time, in 2009, this probably still looked like a viable plan but that did not last very long. When the mortgage crisis hit the market in the Netherlands a little bit later in 2010, for real-estate owners, the world in which they operated suddenly changed.
For instance, the value of real-estate started to drop. As a result, they had buildings that in their accounting books were still listed at the pre-crisis value, while their actual value in the real-estate market had diminished significantly, which brought them into financial trouble. At the same time, during the years leading up to this financial crisis, the group of non-for-profit developers, to which Havensteder belongs, would move away from their core mission of providing affordable housing towards other products with a higher return on investment. The government also encouraged them to experiment to yield more return, which could then be invested into housing. During the crisis however, these risky operations started turning against them, resulting in financial deficiencies of billions of Euros. For instance, one of these non-for-profit housing developers, Vestia in Rotterdam, embarked in derivatives for almost 10 billion Euros, something that went terribly wrong. All the non-for-profit housing developers had to come together to rescue the ones which were about to go bust, which made a huge dent in their financial reserves. To add insult to injury, they were subsequently forced to make contributions to the state budget, because the government also found itself in trouble due to the financial crisis. As a result, the investment budget of these developers withered away.
How did housing developers react to this situation?
Building renovated by Stad in de Maak. Photo (cc) Eutropian
At that moment Havensteder found itself in a situation in which it could not any longer sustain part of its real-estate portfolio, so it had to focus on keeping the healthy parts. This means that there was suddenly no budget anymore for troublesome locations such as this one. In 2010, Havensteder made a quick-scan of the two buildings, with the help of two collectives from Rotterdam, Superuse Studio and Observatorium, to see what to do with these locations. It must be understood that within Havensteder this is seen as a controversial idea: why would they start investing in derelict places in times of crisis? There are other priorities. But there were also people within the organisation, who challenged this idea and wanted to protect the quality of the street and maintain the value of the assets, as they owned the majority of the buildings on the street. The commissioned quick-scan revealed that if Havensteder wanted to keep the buildings up and running, they would have to accept a loss of 60,000 Euros in the coming 8-10 years. That is actually not so much, even though it is in a period of crisis.
Following this, things slowed down, and it looked as if the study to revive the buildings would end up in a drawer. One of the people involved in the study, the artist Erik Jutten, took the initiative to push things further. He came up with an unconventional proposal: if Havensteder is willing to take the loss of 60.000 euros anyway over the period to come, why not take that loss entirely in day one instead? In this way, it can be handed over as an investment budget to a group of people that would take care of the two buildings and any remaining risks. In a certain way, this would allow us to ‘common’ the buildings with this group of people for a period of ten years, after which the properties would go back to the owner, if it was still there.
What role did you take in this process?
Meeting in front of the Growery. Photo (cc) Eutropian
Ana Džokić, Piet Vollaard and myself joined Erik and put this proposition together. Our common motivation in the beginning was mainly curiosity: to see if we could do things differently. We spent a lot of time going through the details, like the economic model we had to get in place. The big challenge was of course finding a way to manage the buildings for ten years without us defaulting on it. We figured that, if Havensteder was ready to put in 60,000 Euros, around 75% of it would have gone into contractor costs, therefore we proposed to execute half of that work ourselves instead of outsourcing it. By doing so, we could free up a substantial part of the budget – because we could do things ourselves cheaper than a contractor, but it would also allow us to schedule and prioritise works differently, as we needed to urgently divert money to make some of the spaces inhabitable and create a cash-flow through renting them out. This is because we have to pay the bills, we have to pay the insurances, we have to pay the taxes… And we basically had no money ourselves, so to prioritise works to create an economically sustainable cash-flow was very urgent for us.
How did the housing developer like these ideas?
New workspaces and housing. Photo (c) Stad in de Maak
For Havensteder it was a deal with an untested partner: we had never worked with them before. But it was interesting for them because they hardly had any financial risks, no contingencies, and no management costs any longer. We would take all of this upon us for the next 10 years. After that, we just give back the property with no further economic loss than the 60.000 they had already booked. And while we negotiated over a period of many months, some level of trust began to develop amongst all the parties involved.
In October of 2013, we signed the agreement. A month later, work on site began: the buildings were in ruin and we had to quickly make them inhabitable. We had gone through a huge excel sheet for months and months, but we did not have much experience with doing these sorts of things, so we took on things quite intuitively. Meanwhile, we have grown a handful of buildings, and a few principles have emerged.
How do the buildings function economically?
The principles of Stad in de Maak
First of all, we try to make each building a self-sustaining node (in economic, social and environmental terms) within a network. This is done to foster a more robust network, in which difficulties (or even the ‘collapse’ of one node) do not pose a threat to the viability of the overall network of buildings. In economic terms, this means that each building should generate enough resources to cover its own costs. In social terms, each building should take care of its own governance and use. In environmental terms, it should aim to become resource flow neutral (energy, water, etc.). We aim to create a common finance pool for the maintenance and expansion of this platform. All the inhabitants and users of the buildings, through payment for the right of usage, generate a (modest) flow of finance that contributes to this common finance pool. From this, the activities to sustain the platform (a baseline income for those responsible) are being financed. Given enough nodes in the network (scale), a revolving investment fund to expand the network could be created.
From the very beginning on, we have maintained a minimalist (or no-nonsense) approach to investments. If affordability is at the core, invest what is minimally necessary. For instance, by putting functional, rather than aesthetic concerns at the core. By re-using, upcycling, or working with donated materials. By improvising if the use span of a building is limited, as long as safety is not compromised. And by being prepared to lower the comfort threshold in exchange for lower existential pressures (usage fee).
While working on the first buildings, we discovered that it would be important to replace monetary flows with non-monetary alternatives, where possible. As both the inhabitants and users of buildings and the platform itself face a lack of mainstream money, part of the financial pressure can be diverted by conducting transactions in other ‘currencies’: worktime or materials, for instance.
How do the activities taking place in the buildings impact the neighbourhood?
Stad in de Maak process diagram. Image (c) Stad in de Maak
We try to bring community activity, but also production back into the buildings, into the streets, and into the neighbourhood. Some things are being tested right now, like a workshop. There is a community brewery starting up, a micro-cinema, a launderette, even some production of detergent … In the coming months there we will have a number of trials to see how we can create a neighbourhood economy. It is crucial to keep space open for such uses and experiments. Each building therefore, has a commons (“meent” in Dutch), accessible for social or productive undertakings. We decided to keep financial pressures away from these common spaces, and cover the costs to keep them open through a contribution from all the users.
We said straight from the beginning that City in the Making – with its current temporary use of buildings – is a sort of training condition for what is yet to come. For us, the next step is to go beyond this temporary exploitation of vacant properties. Now we can do this because there has been an economic crisis but this is not sustainable in the future. Our ambition is to take the properties out of the market, to make them available for affordable housing and work, and to bring them into collective ownership and use.
Interview with Marc Neelen on 26 May 2016
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]]>The post James Ehrlich on the Self-Sustaining ReGen Villages appeared first on P2P Foundation.
]]>From TedX: Smart house inside of the dumb neighborhood does not make sense! James explains in his talk how to build regenerative communities that produce more organic food, clean water, renewable energy and mitigate waste.
James Ehrlich is the Founder of ReGen Villages, a Stanford University spin-off company, which aims to develop the “Tesla of Ecovillages“ with an infrastructure that creates a surplus energy, water, and organic food. As a Senior Technologist at Stanford University, Senior Fellow at Opus Novum consortium at NASA Ames Research Center and an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Stanford Peace Innovation Lab at the Center for Design Research he is indeed an expert in the area of sustainable development.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
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]]>The post De Besturing – From tenancy to collective ownership appeared first on P2P Foundation.
]]>De cultural center De Besturing in The Hague found an interesting individual solution. They started paying rent for the free space, and used the accumulated capital as down payment for rebuying the space from the city.
From Cooperative City:
De Besturing was founded in 2006 in an industrial area of The Hague and over the years it has been transformed from a temporary studio complex into a sustainable collective of artists and designers. Initially rented out for free on a temporary basis from the municipality, the community nevertheless collected the rent from tenants, constituting a capital that made possible the building’s purchase in 2017.”
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]]>The post Koppelting: the great gathering of the commons appeared first on P2P Foundation.
]]>Koppelting is an annual grassroots festival about peer production and free/libre alternatives for society. It is filled with projects, lectures, debates and workshops, and is co-created by the attendees. Anyone can contribute, whether by giving a lecture, a workshop or demonstration, or by simply participating, helping out and engaging in good discussion.
Koppelting is held at De WAR in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, home to the world’s first 100% open source fablab and the experimental cooperative University of Amersfoort.
The weekend of 26 and 27 August will be used for lectures and workshops, in the week before an open hackathon will focus on a number of dedicated projects.
Participation in the hackathon during the week is free. For the weekend, a fee is required, using a decide-yourself pricing model aiming at an average of €50 per person. This will cover basic costs of the location, breakfast, lunch, coffee and tea, video-registration of the talks and travel expenses for some of the speakers. See the costs for details.
If you would like to present something, have an idea for a hackaton project, suggest someone else for a presentation, or otherwise want to contribute, we are happy to hear about his. Registration for the festival and submission of presentations can be done on the sign-up page.
Projects for this year’s hackathon include:
Koppelting is a continuation of the FabFuse unconferences that took place from 2012 to 2015. During these years the scope widened from fablab-oriented topics to grassroots organisation, open knowledge and peer production. For more info on the previous conferences, including extensive video registration of the talks, see the archive page.
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]]>The post Dutch P2P Foundation Blog relaunched today appeared first on P2P Foundation.
]]>With Michel Bauwens working on the commons transition plan in Ghent and multiple initiatives in the Netherlands we will have a lot to discuss this coming year. Our network it steadily growing and I am very happy to be part of it. I am Walter Dresscher and will be the coördinator of the Dutch language blog. I work on the relation between peer to peer practices and the potential improvement of city life and public space that is enabled by P2P practices. I will initiate multiple projects this year that I will be sharing on the blog.
So next to our already very successful Greek an French blog we re-add the native tongue of the two main figures of our community: Jean and Michel.
I hope to find all Dutch speaking commoners on our blog to discuss how we can help orchestrate the transition to a post-capitalist society.
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]]>The post The Great Transition in the Netherlands – Manifesto for a fair and green economy appeared first on P2P Foundation.
]]>Here is one of the platforms, from the dutch Great Transition Initiative, which I co-signed, even though to my taste, it still underplays the key role of the commons in this process. But all the policy planks make sense and represent steps forward.
Secured livelihoods and sufficient employment. One hundred percent renewable energy. Clean manufacturing processes that use scarce resources smartly and efficiently. A local democracy that puts people at the center stage. We have everything to accomplish this: the knowledge and technologies, the funds, the tools and the organizational ability. What’s keeping us, then?
What is keeping us are vested interests and powers that cling to their positions and to an economy fixated on growth, with minimal rules and maximum profits at the lowest cost. Social and environmental costs are passed on to the society at large, disrupting communities and countries and leaving an uninhabitable world to future generations.
Whe are not going to let that happen any further. We are going to bring the economy into balance with people and the environment. Environmental degradation undermines the basis of human life. Because its effects show up with delay and then turn out to be irreversible, the moment to act is now.
The vision behind The Great Transition is focused on quality and well-being, not on wanting more and more. In this vision human and ecological values precede financial values; money is only a means. There is simply much more of value than money can express. That is why we choose an economy that remains within the limits of nature and that is not dependent on growth: a circular and regional economy, that does not rely on intractable world markets for the satisfaction of our basic needs. An economy in which knowledge, work and income are fairly shared. In short, we choose an economy at the service of women and men, young and old, not of money.
This requires active citizens who take their responsibility. Citizens who work together and make an effort for their surroundings. Citizens who also hold their politicians accountable. Citizens can take many initiatives but if politics-at-large does not cooperate, we will not escape social and ecological hardship. We need political leaders who reclaim power from the markets and limit the influence of (large) companies. Leaders who abandon the dogma of economic growth as an end in itself. Leaders who understand how the ecological crisis removes the ground from under our feet and who dare to tackle the crisis at its roots.
The compulsion of constant economic growth and a limited understanding of true prosperity are the forces that underlie the ongoing economic, social and environmental problems. These problems are intertwined and can therefore only be addressed in concert. Thus, a relaxed society cannot be achieved without redistributing work. And that is only possible by shifting the tax burden: less on labour and more on pollution and on the use of raw materials, on profit and on wealth. As a natural consequence, energy transition becomes more attractive. Also the circular economy will come in sight.
Trust can overcome the fear of change, only when the economy is in balance with the Earth and is subservient to society; and when inequality decreases. Platform Fair and Green Economics shows the ten changes that are possible and necessary to achieve the Great Transition. If we all contribute, the transition will come!
We are aware that we live in a globalized world with strong interdependencies. We can use them to our advantage by jointly undertaking what we can do in and from the Netherlands and Europe. This will show how anywhere in the world we can contribute to a good live for all.
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