Bucharest, September 2, 2016 (In the context of the INURA conference 2016 in Bucharest)
This workshop brought together partners of the MAZI project with activists from the International Network of Urban Research and Action and other fields. More specifically, Iva Cukic and Ksenija Radovanovic, from the Ministry of Space in Belgrade, Brett Scott, a very well-known financial activist from London, Thomas Raoseta, board member of the NeNa1 cooperative housing project in Zurich, Vesna Tomse, activist and curator of the Wunderkammer project in Zurich, Tomislav Tomasevic, member Institute for Political Ecology in Zagreb, Gintarė Matulaitytė from Locomotive Press, Vilnius, and Constantina Theodorou from the organizing team of the Greek Pavillion at the Venice Architecture Biennale.
Together with several INURA conference participants (in total 40 people) this was a great audience to introduce the MAZI toolkit and pilots. More specifically, we analyzed the concept of DIY networking and its important for the “right to the hybrid city” and briefly described the MAZI pilots: the young cooperative housing and living projects in Zurich, Berlin’s urban garden prinzessinnengarten and neighbourhood academy, Deptford’s network of local communities, organizations and activists in London, and the nomadic group unMonastery, focusing on their planned project in Kokkinopilos, a village part of the Sarantaporo.gr community network.
The invited activists presented their past and current projects focusing on the challenges they face and how they imagine technology supporting their objectives. This created a very inspiring frame that we continued to explore throughout the conference and during a dedicated 2-hour workshop at the INURA retreat (https://inura16.wordpress.com/retreat).
Collective Awareness Platforms for Sustainability and Social Innovation (CAPSSI) is manage by the Coordination and Support Action CHiC project which is funded under Grant Agreement No. 687686 by the European Commission.