{"id":5302,"date":"2023-05-31T17:25:42","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T15:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/femprocomuns.coop\/?p=5302"},"modified":"2023-06-05T18:46:07","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T16:46:07","slug":"visit-to-quebec-the-social-economy-and-community-projects-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/femprocomuns.coop\/en\/visit-to-quebec-the-social-economy-and-community-projects-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Visit to Quebec, the social economy and community projects (I)"},"content":{"rendered":"

For two weeks in May 2023, part of the femProcomuns team went to Quebec (Canada) to give some talks and workshops on the Commons Sustainability Model<\/a>, to learn about experiences, community projects and the solidarity economy and also to participate in La Grande Transition<\/a>. This trip was\u00a0 possible thanks to the collaboration we\u2019ve had for some time with Projet Collective, Cultiver les communs and the research collective Critic<\/a>. Quebec has a strong solidarity economy and a growing interest in recognising, promoting and articulating the commons.<\/h4>\n

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Montr\u00e9al<\/h2>\n

Montr\u00e9al is the largest city in population in Quebec and the second in Canada, located on an island at the confluence of two rivers. Cooperativism, the solidarity economy and community projects stand out. Project Montr\u00e9al governes the city since 2017, with similarities to the municipal government of Barcelona over the last two terms, both in the transformations that have been possible and those that have not been possible, in the principles and in the contradictions.<\/p>\n

We arrived and it was unseasonably hot, over 25 degrees. After a few days it cooled down to zero, then it got hot again. In the neighborhood where we were staying, the houses are two-story buildings with external stairs leading to each apartment, with an open garden in front and access from the back to the “ruelle”, an alley where the electricity and internet cables run, where clothes dry on clothesline pulleys. The “ruelles” have been reclaimed as neighborhood and community spaces, there are murals on the walls and plants and flowers have been planted. Traffic has also been pacified and children play freely.<\/p>\n

Temps Libre coworking at Mile-End<\/h3>\n

In the Mile-End neighborhood, a metal ramp with a mural painted on the railing, leads to the entrance to the co-working space \u00abTemps Libre<\/a>\u201d, managed by a solidarity<\/em>\u00a0cooperative<\/em> founded in 2015. Inside the space, a text in French and English announces that \u201cTemps Libre is a neutral and non-commercial place that favors exchanges and meetings\u201d. This has been one of the reference spaces on our visit to Montreal. We have held three meetings there, one with the Projet Collectif team, one with the CRITIC research collective and one with participants from the Solon project.
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Projet Collectif <\/b><\/a>is an OBNL (a legal formula for non-profit entity, in Quebec) with 350 members (half organisations and half individuals), representative of various sectors and regions of Quebec, who support the project. The objective of the meeting was to get to know the team and explain what femProcomuns is, how we work and what projects we develop at the cooperative.<\/p>\n

Project Collectif is developing encommun.io<\/a>, a digital space to strengthen collaboration between sectors and to connect knowledge and people. The platform unites two tools: Passarelles<\/em> and Praxis<\/em>. Passerelles facilitates the meeting between people according to themes and areas of interest; its development began within TIESS<\/a> (Territories Innovative Social and Solidarity Economy) to create links and knowledge transfer and has continued with Projet Collectif. Praxis makes it easy to document knowledge, initiatives and resources in tabs that can be tagged and linked together. Behind Praxis there are purposes and concepts very close to those we work with Teixidora.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But this is not the only project they are working on. They also work with the Network of Digital Cultural Development Agents (ADN<\/a>, R\u00e9seau des agent.es de d\u00e9veloppement culturel num\u00e9rique<\/em>), which have similar functions and activities to the digital literacy spaces that in Catalonia make up the ICT point<\/a> and the Omnia Network<\/a>. With the DNA facilitation team we held a session on the practical use of Model of Sustainability of the commons<\/a>, so that they can assess its usefulness as a methodological tool. With the team at CRITIC<\/a> (Commons Initiatives, Transformations and Institutions Research Collective or Collectif de Recherche sur las Initiatives, Transformations te Institutions des Communs<\/em>) we also worked on the use of the Commons Sustainability Model<\/em> for the analysis and monitoring of projects in Qu\u00e9bec. The session, face-to-face and online, was attended by academics and doctoral students from various universities such as Laval University from of Qu\u00e9bec City, HEC Montr\u00e9al, Concordia (Montreal) or Saint-Paul University (Ottawa).<\/p>\n

In the same space as Temps Libre<\/em> we meet two of the 30 people who work for the non-profit organization Solon<\/a>. They launched in 2015, as a result of their involvement in the transformation and revitalization of the “ruelles”. In 2019 they received an important grant, within the Smart City Challenge, with the aim of working on mobility for 5 years. Starting from this project and promoting the reduction of car dependency, other areas of work emerged: 15-minute cities, where you can meet your needs within a 15-minute walk radius, the promotion of the exchange of cars and bicycles, the promotion of local commerce, access to healthy food in neighborhoods that have become “food deserts”, etc.<\/p>\n

They mainly work on the project LocoMotion<\/a>, with activities to mobilise and raise public awareness around mobility, and in the so-called At\u00e9liers de Transition and Espaces des Posibles. The latter are spaces for public use, dynamic and self-managed, to respond to the needs of the neighborhood. There are two spaces, one in the Petite Patrie neighborhood and the other in the Ahuntsic neighborhood, conceived as Tiers lieux<\/i> (“third places<\/a>“) as defined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg. They are spaces to facilitate informal social interaction and promote participation in self-management by the neighborhood that uses them.<\/p>\n

A few days after the meeting we went to the Espace des Posibles at Ahuntsic <\/a>, located on one of the two “bike highways” that run through the entire city, and which is one of the most significant policies of the government of Projet Montr\u00e9al<\/a>. It makes sense that it contains a bicycle repair space. The projects in the Espace des Posibles<\/em> arise from the neighbourhood’s needs. They are facilitated by Solon and seek to involve people with the perspective of becoming self-managed. The workshop has open and free activities where people are trained, both in bycicle use, maintenance and repair. The facilitator of the workshop is also responsible for a feminist mechanics project. The day we vistited, there was a barbecue open to the neighborhood, a situation that favored the debate on food. In a circle, a ball of the globe was passed around and the person who received it explained how their diet had changed since the pandemic. Many stores and the only supermarket have closed in the neighborhood, now to be able to buy certain products they need to use the car. The round was completed with the presentation of a few community projects and the solidarity economy in the field of food. The space is set in a rented house, similar to other houses in the neighborhood, with a large living room and a kitchen. They have also rented the house next door with the idea that the two combine free open activities with activities that generate an income to support the project as a whole.<\/p>\n

The Upop at Les Oubliettes<\/h3>\n

Two Thursday afternoons we were at Caf\u00e9 Las Oubliettes<\/a>, where for 5 weeks the course \u201cTaking care, sharing and deciding together. Little guide to the commons\u00bb <\/b>(\u00abPrendre soin, partager et d\u00e9cider ensemble. Petit guide des communs\u00bb) from the Upop<\/a> (the People’s University of Montreal). \"\"<\/p>\n

We had missed the first introductory session by Jonathan Durand Folco on May 4th. We were able to attend the second session held by Marie-Soleil L’Allier on May 11 on “Commons practices in Qu\u00e9bec: typology, challenges and levers”, with the results of an empirical study on commons practices (“commoning”) that have emerged in the territory of Quebec since the financial crisis of 2007-2008. These are 70 urban and rural complexes, covering nearly 20 areas of activity, studied with the aim of producing a typology of commons practices. We participated in the third session, on May 18, given by Marie-Anne Perreault, entitled “Unlinking internal tensions: the governance of the commons in practice” (“D\u00e9nouer internal tensions: la gouvernance des communs en pratique” ). They talked about how creation, collaboration or joint activity imply the use of self-management principles, the presumption of equal intelligence and collective intelligence. Tools were explored to facilitate decision-making, the sharing of ideas, conflict resolution and the creation of a security framework for exchanges to facilitate a viable and collective management of the commons. We also presented the Commons Sustainability Model<\/em> as a tool for analysis and construction of commons projects, we talked about the game of the economy of the commons <\/a>and of the texts that we have already translated into French.<\/p>\n

Transition en commun<\/h3>\n

On May 24, it was heavily raining in Montreal. We watched the rain fall on the Mont Real hill on one side and the Milton-Park neighborhood on the other from the windows of Cit\u00e9-des-Hospitali\u00e8rs. An old religious building today “in transition” to incubate projects by the Montreal city council. Marie-Soleil L’Allier and M\u00f2nica Garriga facilitated part of a session of the group Transition en commun<\/a>. They analised their project with the pillars of the Commons Sustainability Model. Transition en commun<\/em> is an alliance between some fifty entities, citizens, actors and civil society organizations, the city of Montr\u00e9al and other institutions, to mobilise the city around a shared vision of socio-ecological transition. They have received a grant from the Fundation Lucie et Andr\u00e9 Chagnon<\/a> to implement this transition in the neighborhoods. His priority is to work to reduce the use of cars in the city, housing and participatory democracy.<\/p>\n