Just a week ago the elections in Spain, so it seems a good moment to ask ourselves: What are the new forms of democracy and citizen participation invented in recent years in our municipalities and their administrations?

Goteo and Platoniq they have been exploring new economic models for common goods for years and have worked, for example, in the creation of new infrastructures (physical / digital) to finance and develop citizen expression and citizen participation.

Maybe that's why we received a call ☎ from the collective Enacting The Commons.

🙋‍♂ - How's it going? We are a project that investigates how the policies of the common good transform public action in Europe. Can we come to your offices in Barcelona to meet you?

The answer, on our part, could not be other:

💁‍♀ - Of course yes! And since you make the trip here, we will also present you other projects that we love.

The collective is driven by La 27e Région, a "laboratory" that manages research programs to test innovative methods in the design of policies. To do this, they mobilize multidisciplinary teams formed by people from the world of design, generation of ideas and social sciences in various fields (ethnography, sociology, participant observation) and actions on the ground (do-it-yourself projects, adult education, etc.). ). Both methodologies prioritize the concrete experience of clients, public agents and citizens to form a starting point to reexamine public policies.

In case it catches you with your foot changed, the movement of the common goods refers to:
- Initiatives related to material resources (forests, water, etc.) or intangible resources (knowledge, creation, etc.)
- A community shares and determines the management, use and enrichment of the resource.
- It is based on a set of collaborative and contributive practices.
- Initiatives are often carried out by private organizations (associations, informal communities ...)
- They arise without elected representatives and public administrations, they must find support and legitimacy to continue.
- A growing number of local governments are also seeking to develop approaches around the commons.

Therefore, and as commissioned by La 27e Région and its project Enacting The Commons, we celebrated on Tuesday a FundLab focused on public and common policies. It will be, then, a meeting place to present the digital platform developed for the financing of initiatives and projects of social innovation, which will serve as a link between the different actors involved.

In said FundLab, Olivier Schulbaum, Co-Founder of Goteo, talked about the current mission of crowdfunding process to Crowdvocacy, that is, the amplification of democracy through the union of political participation, digital campaign platforms and civic crowdfunding.

Mauricio O'Brien, Co-Director of Goteo, traced the course of the platform from its beginnings until the present moment and carried out the most creative part of the FundLab: the Idea Scenario canvas where to compile some of the learning of the day.

We believe that the good reception of digital platforms for citizen participation launched by the municipalities of Madrid and Barcelona, Decide y Decidim, It has highlighted the need to continue stimulating and accompanying the transition towards citizen participation through online platforms.

We imagine the Crowdvocacy as a distributed process but coordinated between different platforms where civic initiatives increase their influence. To do this, we are developing a model to connect initiatives in Goteo and another citizen participation platform that will potentially be linked by theme (ecological, social, political) or geographical scope, to design, launch and promote citizen initiatives that achieve their objective.

In the meeting we were accompanied by Maria Ángeles González, Project Head of Proximity at Barcelon Activa (Economic Development Agency of the Barcelona City Council), in her role as promoter, as well as Katuma and Up Energía to tell us about their experience as participants in the first edition of Conjuntament, crowdfunding with institutional support (also called matchfunding) promoted by the City Council of Barcelona with the objective of co-financing 24 local economic development projects and launching initiatives in the social, educational, agroecological, consumer, exchange and cooperative spheres in the neighborhoods of Barcelona.

We also talked about the FSMET (The World Social Forum of Transformative Economies), where we were as part of the process of confluence of the different movements of the alternative economy present in different parts of the world, in the local and international spheres, which we call transforming economies.

After this intense day, we said goodbye to the group sharing contact data and we wish you the best of experiences with visits to local projects such as Can Batlló, Col·lectiu Punt 6, Som Energia, Som Mobilitat, CIC, Calafou, La Fabrica, Coopolis, FoodCoop, PAH, La Borda, Sostre Civic, La Col...Very intense, as you can see!

There is no doubt that they will have a lot to talk about with so many interesting projects. For our part, we will keep you informed of everything through our networks. Until next time!