H2020 gE.CO Living Lab: Tools for generating commons
Digital Social Innovation
Collaborators Università degli Studi di Torino (UNITO), Anoichto Ergastirio Athinas (OPEN LAB ATHENS), Community Land Trust Bruxelles (CLTB) Universitat de Barcelona (UB) Spazi indecisi (Spazi Indecisi), Estudio Patrizia Di Monte (Patrizia Di Monte), Eutropian GMBH (EUTROPIAN GMBH)
Abstract
This Horizon 2020 project is aiming to create a platform to bring together and support formal groups and informal communities of citizens who manage fab-lab, hubs, incubators, co-creation spaces, social centres created in regenerated urban voids.
Method
Open Lab is specifically focusing on bringing together digital tools that promote citizens’ participation and community building.
Takeaways
The overall objective of gE.CO Living Lab is to promote generative commons and to enhance their potentials, by providing citizens and public institutions with the necessary support, without at the same time compromising their participatory and informal character.
gE.CO Living Lab aims at creating a platform for bringing together and supporting formal groups and informal communities of citizens who manage fab-lab, hubs, incubators, co-creation spaces, social centres created in regenerated urban voids. These innovative practices are based on sharing and collaboration between citizens and may establish a new partnership between Public Institutions and local communities.
In particular, trying to find a solution to both the increasing number of urban voids as well as to the needs arising in the population many local communities have started to set forth paths of urban regeneration alternative to gentrification, grounded on community-building, inclusivity, accessibility, environmental sustainability and fulfilment of fundamental rights. These experiences are defined by the equal, open and participatory management of urban space that at the same time generate new relationships and spaces: these are called generative commons.
The overall objective of gE.CO Living Lab is to promote generative commons and to enhance their potentials, by providing citizens and public institutions with the necessary support, without at the same time compromising their participatory and informal character.
gE.CO Living Lab will achieve this objective through the following specific sub-objectives:
- It will bring together generative commons using a digital platform for collaboration. The gE.CO platform will map citizens’ initiatives as well as those public institutions engaged in new forms of partnership with local communities. These will be connected in a network that will promote the exchange of best (digital) practices and legal solutions.
- It will evaluate a group of pilot cases composed by generative commons and municipalities in order to understand which socio-economic, technological and legal factors make self-organized experiences sustainable and public institutions helpful for their development.
- It will use the results of the evaluation for scaling up sustainable generative commons and innovative local policies: best practices, digital solutions (in the form of a toolbox) as well as legal solutions will form the gE.CO Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Package through shared, public and open access contents.