Nowadays, there are some powerful people (big companies and governments) who are focusing their interest on increasing consumption to solve the economical crisis (neoliberalism). In spite of that, some other approaches show a new way to think about the consumption concept.

Collaboration is not a new answer but its potential is rising. Sustainability is the main goal. However, the most difficult thing is changing each person’s attitude. Rachel Bostman highlights not only the things we consume, but also the way we consume.

Analysing the next points, we could realize how this new way to consume works:

• Increasing the interest of people around the products they consume. My farm, for instance, is trying to involve more people in the process of producing agricultural products. Technologies help the people to connect themselves, to share knowledge and to take collective decisions. In fact, they have the same goals (sustainability, environment, health, economy…) and they are able to build a community around these issues.

• Matching production and education communities get the best results. Fresh Roots Urban Farm Society activates people to participate in community food systems by growing neighbourhood market gardens that create equitable access to healthy food. This approach allows the engagement of the community members to work together.

• Connecting buyers and sellers. Farmbook helps consumers and producers of goods or services meet in the same place. This tool works in two directions. On the one hand, the website allows to choose among your food interests. On the other hand, it is possible to focus on your geographical area.

• Controlling business. On People’s supermarket the members have their own shop. They spend four hours of their time every month and pay 25 pounds each year to be the owners. The community has the control of the costs and benefits. In addition, they can choose the products they want to consume.

In conclusion, if you look at the global data there are not many people who are trying to follow this way of consumption. Despite that, some groups are changing the way they consume, especially regarding goods. The transition groups are one of the most important representations of global changes in community, but through the above mentioned points we realize about our opportunity to transform food consumption. The benefits are clear: more health, more knowledge about product origin, less environmental effects (transport, packaging, etc.), more local economy… all in all, more sustainability.

References:

Connecting buyers and sellers of agricultural goods&services (Springwise, 14.04.2011)
El cliente es el dueño en ‘The People’s Supermarket’ (H. Llanos, Yorokobu, 26.03.2012)
My Farm lets the crowds take control of a real-world farm (Springwise, 11.05.2011)
Reflexiones sobre el modelo de consumo. La opción colaborativa. (Openideiak, 27.02.2012)
Scottish barley farm build son site brewery (Springwise, 14.09.2010)
Urban farming expands on to school grounds (Springwise, 11.05.2011)

The conversation with Núria shows the experience of a Catalan resident in Sweden, who discovered a new bank model and she told us her vision as an active volunteer. We recorded the conversation in English because I want to share it on my research website.

In mid-60s, in Sweden, a group of citizens decided to associate to begin their own bank model. They were worried about ethical values and they wanted to choose what the bank used their savings for. JAK Medlemsbank was born.

In JAK nobody pays or gets money from interests, neither the money the bank lends them nor the money somebody saves in the bank. If you need money, you must present your proposal, which will be evaluated and the bank will give you the money. You must return the double of the quantity the bank has given you, but at the end of the credit, the money will be returned to you. Indeed, the bank encourages the culture of saving money. In addition, the members could save money without starting any project. These savings allow them to get some points. Later, they can ask for a credit with no need to return the amount obtained from their savings. They can also have the possibility to assign their points to promote some project with a personal interest rate.

Democracy is one of the main goals of JAK. Every year, the assembly is celebrated and their members decide about where their money goes: one vote each. Therefore, transparency is the key for the bank daily action. However, ITC allow developing models related with direct democracy and models encouraging the deliberative democracy.

The bank has its headquarters and also more than 20 local associations distributed through the country with more an ideological than an economic aim. These local associations manage their own budget to organize activities (courses, study circles, parties, films exhibitions, debates, etc.). These local associations also help to amplify the ‘support projects’, which have a special interest for local needs, and they encourage their members to back these projects through their points.

JAK gives priority to sustainable growth. Thus, the bank doesn’t spend money in advertisement. Instead, JAK does training for their members, because the bank wants to be sure growth follows the model defining it: the ethical bank values. Currently, JAK has a staff of 30 employees and 700 volunteers who explain the principles of the bank around the country. The consideration of JAK as a bank, allows to get the revision of regulator bodies and JAK members have the security the Swedish government would be able to return the money if the bank broke down. The members pay for a membership fee to sustain the cooperative cost. The complexity of JAK shows the interest of this bank model. Its approach has different faces, not only economic, also ecological, educational, cultural, etc. Indeed, JAK is involved in a way of life focusing on sustainability, with deep ethical, ecological, economical, civic values, which had been forgotten by past models of development.

References and interesting links:

Gemma Urgell is also speaking about this conversation
Miguel Ganzo (23/11/2011) speaking about JAK (Video – in spanish)
El dinero no crece en los arboles (blog by Miguel Ganzo)
Christian Felber – La Economía del Bien Común
Coop57, Serveis Financers Ètics i Solidaris
Joan Antoni Malé (27/12/2011, La Vanguardia) ¿Dejas que tu dinero financie armas y contaminación?

At first and through this post I would like to start a new tag (#transitiontowns) to collect the information about the news of the transition movement. In fact, since I have started to study some uses related with this topic, I have been finding new examples, some of them close to my surroundings, which inspire me to concentrate on it.

What does Transition Towns mean?

“Transition Towns (also known as Transition network or Transition Movement) is a brand for environmental and social movements “founded (in part) upon the principles of permaculture” [1], based originally on Bill Mollison’s seminal Permaculture, a Designers Manual published in 1988. The Transition Towns brand of permaculture uses David Holmgren’s 2003 book, Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability. [2] These techniques were included in a student project overseen by permaculture teacher Rob Hopkins at the Kinsale Further Education College in Ireland. The term transition town was coined by Louise Rooney[3] and Catherine Dunne. Following its start in Kinsale, Ireland it then spread to Totnes, England where Rob Hopkins and Naresh Giangrande developed the concept during 2005 and 2006.[4] The aim of this community project is to equip communities for the dual challenges of climate change and peak oil. The Transition Towns movement is an example of socioeconomic localisation. In 2007, the UK-based charity Transition Network started up in order to help spread the ideas of transition and support communities around the world as they adopted/adapted the transition model to turn their locale into a more resilient, lower carbon settlement.” (Wikipedia, read more)

Reference

Maybe Totnes is the most amazing example to show how the community empowerment works. However, behind a great successful project there is somebody who has worked hard to achieve the best. Rob Hopkins has been working to teach the Totnes experience to other cities around the world. Obviously, the most important number of transition groups are in United Kingdom but if you look at the world map, you will see an increasing number of them.

Nottingham Transition Group

Matthew McVeagh is the activist I spoke to last August. He is a member of Nottingham Transition Group. Matthew told me about the different things related with the local group. Even though Nottingham community is the only one that I have studied, some of their knowledge seems to be similar to other communities.

I am sharing some recordings about our conversation and I am herein summing up the main points of the different things we commented.

• It is a grassroots movement (action and encouragement are very important).

• The community work around the aim of transforming the way they live. The peak use of oil is here, or near here, and humans need to find other methods to live on.

• Consumption is one of the main topics of transition movement. It is necessary to engage members to take advantage of planting their own products.

• Recycling and natural resources are other main aims.

• The ICT could allow the community to organize better on digital spaces: calendar, wiki and a forum are good tools to take advantage of.

• Involving young generations is very important.

• However, big cities have some advantages and disadvantages at the same time. There are more people to be involved in transition but it is difficult to encourage all the community. The solution is working in little groups (different districts).

New things to do

In my country, there are some nice examples of rural transition communities, one of them, in Tous. It is very near my home and I am thinking about preparing a little investigation about how the community is built and how they use technology to work together.

References and interesting links:
Barcelona en transició

For this reason, in most countries, governments carry out rural development policies. The EU encourages policies at an European level for rural economic development through the LEADER programme.

Throughout history, rural world has needed to develop collaborative ways to work together. These relationships have turned into communities: social and economic spaces. These organizations responded to their member needs to share and create more beneficial ways to collaborate. Beyond traditional forms of collaboration (guilds, associations, organizations, etc.) the rural world has developed other ways of synergies to benefit their members.

This project deals with analysing how the new tools associated with the Knowledge Society allow the rural world to begin new ways to relate (socially) and to develop (economically) on the Net. However, the existing organizations have the opportunity to adopt new structures and new forms to communicate through technological tools and to collaborate online.

My focus is Catalonia, where rural areas were the most important communities from the IX century until the second half of XIX century, when the Industrial Revolution changed the demography, social-economic relations and led the rural areas to a non-developed stage.

The investigation is focused on the observation of the agricultural food product launched by a producer or a community of producers. A community of consumers concentrates around the product. The project herein focuses on the influence of the ITC in those communities, which is the aim of this research.

Read full document (in catalan)

Recently, reading the book edited by J. Fuguet/A.Mayayo, with contributions by several authors such as Antonio Gavaldà, I found what I consider to be some very remarkable references.

The origin of the Catalan cooperatives in Conca de Barberà and Tarragona is the first data that fills the potential connection between this study and the research performed until now around how and why rural Catalonia was organized in the late nineteenth century.

Today we associate the use of ICT as a tool to unite common interest profiles with a more or less rigid power or a traditional structure. Reviewing the process, because there is a need to generate forms of association in rural areas, finds interesting parallels:

“The process of social differentiation due to the agrarian crisis and the development of the liberal state will cause major changes in the methods and radical associations of rural communities. Owners and farmers will form their own organizations and independent projects related to social and national political projects. The vertical and interclass solidarity, often through the shelter of the parish, give way to horizontal solidarities of class. In other words, in the late nineteenth century, farmers realized that Barbara had more in common with the peasants of Pira or Cabra, than with the Barberà landwners. “(Mayayo, A., 139)*

The effect caused by the possibilities of the association spread. like wildfire. It is in this moment, when their own historical needs give value to connection between nodes: network society. It seems obviously interesting to explore how ICT can perform a similar function in our day. Not just for today, but to reinvent organizational structures and to explore new systems.

“The first structured cooperative that we know of was surely the consumer cooperatives. This was based on supplying products to members at prices more affordable than the market, followed, in the second half of the nineteenth century, by consumer and production cooperatives, whose aim was to produce quality control of the product, as well as to create more acceptable working conditions”.

It is documented that the cooperative movement was born in the UK, created by the people of Rochdale in 1844. “It was born thanks to a group of workers at a time when the situation of workers was miserable”. The cooperatives were born with an ideology focused on the economic advantages of its members in order to “establish individual, family and social welfare; create a self sufficient colony serving itself, beginning with consumption and followed by production, credit, agriculture etc. until reaching power supply production, credit, agriculture etc. and finally, to provide assistance to other cooperatives, specifically by improving the individual, group help and expansion of the movement.”

The cooperative principles that were born in Rochdale “are those that have dominated the world movement cooperative, highlighting its four over the other: democracy, the return, the door is open to anyone who wanted to enter or leave, and pay the capital interest. This has prefigured the cooperative movement goals of democracy, solidarity and participation, issues that only the trade union movement also advocates in its birth, but for other purposes. Therefore, the cooperative movement and the trade union movement have gone hand in hand at certain moments in history.”

The Catalan agricultural cooperatives, through these four principles brought items that influenced the whole society. Democracy in the late nineteenth century was far from an element of Catalan society,so it had, as part of a cooperative space, to be formulated. Another interesting element is the mutual assistance between members in case of illness or distress. A third important contribution was the participation in the meetings as an item of value. A fourth vital element was the sections that were generated within the cooperative. The sections, on one hand production (the cellar, the oil mill, …) also added that the service given by farmer (the store, shop, etc.).. This, together with the social spaces of the cooperative, such as the cafes, stimulated the socialization of the cooperative with new venues for leisure (theater, for example) or knowledge spaces (schools, conferences, etc.).

“The Catalan agricultural cooperatives, as we have always understood it, that is the format for the farmers who decide in advance to work together, was born in the province of Tarragona and Conca de Barberà”.

“La Societat Agrícola de la Conca de Valls was born in 1888, which followed those of Barberà de la Conca, in 1891, Vila-rodona, 1892-1893; Blancafort and Vallmoll, in 1896, Catllar, 1897; Vilaseca, 1898; Cooperativa Pràctica de Lleida, in 1902, La Selva del Camp, in 1903, and Cornudella Montsant, 1904. Then, from 1906, the increase was incredible, and it may well be said that few were Catalan municipalities that did not flourish in the spirit of creating a cooperative.”

In this initial process, there are three reasons for its creation: the union between aid needy farmers (Agricultural Societies), the organized owners (sindicates) and the grouping strictly cooperative for specific purposes. The differences between the three reasons were very different: whereas in the first one man one vote arguement prevailed (democracy) in the other two imposed more partial currents were imposed.

During the period of the republic cooperative action in the Catalan countryside was strengthened. Later during the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship, “tempering the association was lost, and committed participation that characterized the agricultural cooperatives”.

“This situation changed in recent years the system, since the emergence of the Unió de Pagesos, as opposed to the union class Central Nacionalista Sindicalista Union, represented a breath of fresh air to the farming sector, and for the cooperative.” Moreover, the Catalan countryside had changed a lot, and there was a renewal of generations of farmers. The situation which has continued to the present day, must “rediscover the meaning of the agricultural cooperative, as the individuality assumed by previous generations does not lead to anything. With ingenuity it is possible in small quantities in small, but in many sectors of the wholesale marketing channels need to own more than one cooperative. Obviously the memory of the badly organised second degree cooperatives hangs like lead on the producer, but it has to be agreed that this form of union is one of the major systems of the future, which, if they are used effectively and with business management, with control, should generate profits. “

I have written some conclusions and a short summary of the chapter: “L’associacionisme agrari a Catalunya” by Antoni Gavaldà.

Short historical review

The origins of the associations are different but from the fifteenth century there is evidence of societies: the pòsits. The pòsits were foundations which, under the encouragement of piety, had the mission of providing “loans, in kind, to poor farmers at a modest interest.”

From the eighteenth century we find another form of agricultural organization: the brotherhoods or germendats of “mixed, religious or civil” nature. Also during the eighteenth century the Societats Econòmiques d’Amics del País was created. These organizations were born in the heart of the nobility, aided by the church, had “no commercial ties with the bourgeoisie” and were concerned about improving the “technical processes and changes in the regime of property.”

Moreover, the first organization-agricultural institution to work consistently in this area was the Institut Agrícola Català de Sant Isidre (IACSI), founded in 1851 and successor to the Junta de Comerç de Barcelona (1758-1847). This institution, which had a conservative character and interests, sought to exploit the lands of its members. This institution promoted the reorganization of the sector through the mediation of other associations such as the Unió Agrícola de Catalunya.

(USAC, 1889), the Federació de Gremis Agrícoles de Catalunya (FAGC, 1993), the Federació Agrícola Catalana (FAC, 1899), the Unió de Viticultors de Catalunya (1911),…

The landscape of Catalan association has another important component: the organization of the labor unions in a cooperative way. One of the first trade unions was the Federació de Treballadors de la Regió Espanyola (FTRE), created by Catalan anarcho-syndicalists from 1891, which has its origins in the Federació Regional Espanyola of the AIT, founded in 1870 in Barcelona. At the same time the Federación de Trabajadores Agrícolas de la Región Española (FTARE), composed of rabassaires* growers and tenants, appeared, based mostly in Tarragona, Conca de Barbera and Penedès. It had a federal and republican ideology of class separation, so there was no participation by landowners, and promoted acts of solidarity among the members, either farmworkers or harvest the products.

It was at the beginning at the nineteenth century when the Catalan association gained strength. During the nineteenth century various organizations appeared that would weave the base of the Catalan association that is still conditioned by the logical political and ideological highs & lows today.

* Person who had a farming contract set to transfer a piece of land to grow vines on it.  The contract was dissolved when two thirds of the first vines planted were dead.

Geographical reality
The situation of the rural communities allows them to take advantage of the natural environment. The geographical limits, in most cases, define the possibilities of community activity when looking for other communities to start a large action.

Demographic reality
In relation with demographic investigation we can observe a diversity which depends on the interests of the community. There is a relation between community activity and personal interests. A lot of these communities have involved the same leaders always, and it’s very difficult for the communities to find different people to relieve them.

Economic reality
The communities get their resources from the contributions of their members and public grants. It’s very interesting to observe that the members of the communities get more money if they can connect new projects with the activities that the community has been doing . In fact, this effort to generate new projects in relation with an association has an economic revenue for the community.

Political reality
The constitution of these rural communities starts with the individual or group leaders who try to involve the other members to work together in “benefit of”. They are organized in a legal form, and they join with other collectives to do joint actions. These actions have a different focus: unification to share spaces, production and/or marketing of the products, defence of ideals or territorial models, etc.

Social and ideological
The interviews carried out in the field confirm keys elements about the constitution of the communities, in an associative way, that are defined in the theoretical base of the proposal. One element that confirms the need to associate to take advantage of the collective strength to share material benefits or share knowledge. At the same time, we discovered that the work of the community helps to create a group in “defence of”, as a lobby to work together for a determined cause.

Technological reality
In this area we have concentrated much of our attention to identify how the technology is being used by different communities. Mainly, the use of technology as a means of communication and amplification of the communities’ activities and also as a tool for organizing the group itself. The result of observation is diverse, but largely we can conclude that the introduction of these new communication technologies is occurring now with a different degree. The differences are caused by the personal concerns of community leaders and the reality of the community. It is interesting to note in this regard that all members interviewed include new technologies as an important tool in the continuity and growth of the community.

I would like to conclude this article by an overall assessment of the experience and determine how to conduct further research.

This first field research in La Conca de Barberà allows me to reaffirm the importance of ICT in the reality of rural communities. In fact, we are in a time of major change in rural communities in the implementation of new technologies and the possibilities that allows connection to a network. Therefore, we must follow closely the development of these communities to analyse what elements are essential in the implementation of these new media and obviously the results which are produced.
On the other hand, it allows us to verify and analyse the qualitative approach to space research. Bartle’s proposal, with support of information technologies towards the Internet and the Social Web, allows a richer analysis of the observations. That is, the focus of observation is not only technology but much more complex, part of a sociological analysis.
This methodology therefore helps me to have an interesting approach to rural communities from the standpoint of my investigation. However, subsequent observations are verified procedures to incorporate elements of improvement. These elements will be possible with the amplification of the research to identify methods of approach to rural communities and the communities own experience in observing them.

All the documents analysed (in Catalan)

The idea of the questionnaire is to get more information about social organization of the communities through a thorough interview with different people around the communities. My first place to investigate this topic is in la Conca de Barberà. I will try to record all the conversations using a video camera or audio recording. Also I try to take some notes about my observation.

I think this first qualitative experience can help to improve my research methodology.

Questionnaire for active research

The first part of the questionnaire is the ‘recognize form’ that I have been using for the general information about the community. Then I have used the following guide to the interview, adapting the specific questions in each situation:

Geographical requests

Which geographical characteristics influence your community (terrain, geographical position, weather,…)?

How does your community take advantage of the resources of the environment?

Demographical requests

What is the population of the community?

What is its age structure?

What are the sex differences?

Where do the people of the community live? In a rural area or an urban area?

How many people of the community come from other countries?

Economical requests

What is the economic basis of the community?

Which is the economic structure of the community?

Political requests

Which are the mechanisms to share power and influence in the community (elections, direct democracy, etc.)?

Are there people outside of the political & organisational structures of organisations who have influence? How do they use this influence?

Does the community have exterior political influence (via other communities, public administrations, organizations, etc.)?

Social / Institutional requests

Which are the mechanisms of interaction between the community in relation to the family roles of the members?

Is the community the substitution or complementary to the traditional family structure?

Ideological and conceptual requests

What are the values of the community?

Are there some differences about political or religious ideologies?

Technological requests

How does the community use technology?

What are the uses of Internet by organizations and for external communication?

How many people in the community have their own digital profile and participate in the social net?

Do the members of the community have any problems to access Internet?

Does technology help the community to be more independent and autonomous?

First approximation

For a first approximation we went to the geographical information in Wikipedia. La conca de Barberà is located in the north of the province of Tarragona & is surrounded by Segarra, l’Anoia, Baix Camp, Priorat, Urgell and Garrigues. In this first approach we discover the complexity of geographical terms that naturally divides the region with three distinct geographical areas: the area of the basin itself with depression formed by the rivers Francolí and Anguera, the southern highlands of Segarra and the mountains of Prades. There is a peculiarity of the Municipality of Senan although part of the Conca de Barbera, geographically belongs to Urgell.

Ver #ict4rd: Conca de Barberà on a large map

We first search the Internet to generate a database of associations, organizations, cooperatives, unions etc that we can find in the Conca de Barberà, as well as potential informants for our research. On the website of the Consell Comarcal de la Conca de Barberà we can see that the region already has points where the citizens can connect to the net. Therefore, we can intuit an administration effort to build public internet access in all municipalities of the area.

I have started a list of communities that I will review while my reasearch advances:

• Association of employers’ organization of Hostelry in the Conca de Barberà     http://www.concahostal.com/

• Association of Pro mentally handicapped people of Conca de Barberà (APRODISCA) http://www.aprodisca.org/

• Association of Wine and Sparkling wine Bottling Plant of the Conca de Barberà     http://www.doconcadebarbera.com/catalan/asociacion.htm

• Agricultural Cooperative of Barberà de la Conca on map

• Agricultural Cooperative of Blancafort on map

• Agricultural Cooperative of  Espluga de Francolí on map
• Agricultural Cooperative of Pira on map
• Agricultural Cooperative of Roquefort de Queralt on map
• Vine growers Cooperative of Montblanc on map
• Wine-producing Cooperative of Serral on map
• Agricultural Cooperative of Solivella on map