This post is also available in: Català (Catalan) Español (Spanish)
In 2022, at Transitioning we have carried out the project Transitioning Ecosystem with the purpose of identifying people and entities related to the idea of the commons, and to think with them about some of today’s challenges, looking at their production, supply and environmental impacts. But we have also continued holding conferences, workshops and postgraduate courses, and documenting events with The Weaver. In addition, we have become one of the driving cooperatives of the Barcelonès Nord.
Transitioning has the purpose of contributing to the communication of the economy, culture, and society by accompanying projects that are exploring their viability and consolidation; at the same time as making known and inviting reflection on this economic model differentiated from the market model and the possibilities of transition from one to the other.
Transiting ecosystem in Catalonia and beyond
In recent years, we have worked to support projects interested in the social and solidarity economy which wanted to make a transition towards more common, sustainable models, with a strong relational dimension of the communities, forged on relations of equality, free technologies and open knowledge, which respond to the real needs of the economy. We have tested the Model of sustainability of the commons, we have prepared explanatory texts that detail its theoretical and conceptual framework, and we have developed a resource kit with visual canvases and games to explore and work on the projects from a more common, ecological and feminist perspective.
In 2022, we have shared this accumulated experience with agents who have that vision, commons, ecological, democratic, feminist and who are sensitized by the activation of local economies, by community action and by citizen innovation; of actors (grassroots initiatives, social enterprises, cooperatives, citizen laboratories, …) active in Catalonia, Europe and beyond, with whom we can share infrastructures, knowledge, methodologies, and tools to make this Transitoing Ecosystem emerge and articulate.
In collaboration with various entities from all over Catalonia, we have organized and documented eight face-to-face thematic sessions. (on energy, volunteering, defence of the territory, housing, care, food, water, and methodologies). Each session has been held in a different place (Tarragona, Mataró, El Prat de Llobregat, Olot, Manresa, Hospitalet, Olesa and Salt) working with the Commons Sustainability Model.
Throughout these sessions, we have detected a need (a demand) from the participating projects, to explore ways of intercooperation and sharing tools and resources between community initiatives. We have worked on this demand, in a final intercooperation meeting, in Lleialtat Santsenca. In this session, we have also explored seven projects from the perspective of the Commons sustainability model.
In parallel, with the Ecosystèmes de Transition working group, mainly French and Italian, we have been working around various tools and artefacts for the sustainability of the commons. We have carried out a series of work sessions specifically on the Commons Sustainability Model; an international online meeting to discuss this model and other models and methodologies for moving to the commons, with a face-to-face meeting in Mondeggi (in the Italian Tuscany) and workshops in the Chapelle neighborhood of Paris, within the framework of the École des Communs.
Conferences, workshops, postgraduate courses and documentation with Teixidora
We have started to work with Food Justice in the organisation and documentation of the Seminar on sustainable food public procurement and in an online course on the same topic. We have worked mainly on the knowledge of the social and environmental clauses of the contract documents that allow a paradigm shift in collective public catering, and the legal framework against food waste and for the protection of health. In the seminar, we have also used the Common Sustainability Model to understand the role and determining factors of each of the parties that participate in the definition of the processes linked to public sustainable food procurement.
In addition, we have participated in La Grimpada, a training program of the Ateneu Cooperatiu Terres Gironines, we have continued to participate in the ESS and Degrowth Postgraduate Programs of the UAB, with practical and playful sessions, where we have practised the Game of the Commons. And we have documented in Teixidora the 1st School of SomConnexió, a space to learn and reflect on the conscious and critical consumption of telecommunications, you can access the contents of all the sessions (notes, metadata and projected slides) on the school’s page in Teixidora (only in Catalan): https://www.teixidora.net/wiki/ESCOLASC22
The Ateneu del Barcelonès Nord
This year we have also become one of the cooperatives leading the Ateneu cooperatiu del Barcelonès Nord, in a new edition of the Ateneus Cooperatius de Catalunya network project, promoted by the Department of Labor and Business of the Generalitat de Catalunya. It is a triennial edition, until 2025, which coincides in 2023 with the 125th anniversary of the 1st assembly of Catalan cooperatives that was held in La Bienhechora de Badalona. We are inspired by historical cooperativism to strengthen the cooperative economy of the present and the future.
At femProcomuns we take care of the migration of AteneuBNord’s digital tools to free and techno-ethical software. In 2022, the SomNuvol.coop videoconference tools (bigbluebutton) have started to be used for meetings and training, as well as an Advanced Office (Nextcloud) to share files, share calendars, create forms, organise tasks and communicate internally. CommonsCloud (Zimbra) mail is also being used for emails and mailing lists. In 2023, the Dolibarr CRM tool will begin to be used for managing contacts and newsletters. On the other hand, we coordinate communication, we take charge of compiling good practices, and we participate in providing training, workshops and other activities. In addition, we have participated in territorial tables and activities on energy communities, agroecology or local commerce, among others.
To stay up to date and read about Transitioning
If you want to know what we do at Transitioning, we encourage you to subscribe to the femPinya irregular newsletter (in Catalan), and to follow us on the Twitter accounts of Transitant_fP, SeguimFils and AteneuBNord.
You can read some articles that we have published and translated into English:
Facing the common challenges of life through collective management The Sociedad Minera Olesana cooperative, the Solbrai energy community or the group that lives in Can Tonal, from Vallbona, are various initiatives that organize their governance collectively .
Do we have to live in a world of competing providers? Can we find models that serve to strengthen the community fabric in the face of the crises of capitalism and not have to rely on business models that divide us between customers and suppliers?