Community - United Diversity

Co-produce something tangible as a group of equal peers

I <3 the Participatory City [http://www.participatorycity.org/] Foundation’s “ Every One Every Day [https://www.weareeveryone.org/]” initiative. There is so much wisdom baked into their approach, wonderfully summed up as creating as many opportunities as possible for people to: > Co-produce something tangible as a group

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United Diversity at the London Permaculture Festival

I’m off to Cloud Cuckoo Land Festival [https://uniteddiversity.coop/projects/cloud-cuckoo-land/] now, but thought I’d better whack this presentation I did at the London Permaculture Festival [https://londonpermaculturefestival.com/] up first. I gives a brief history of United Diversity plus details of our exciting plans going forward.

Agriculture

Pam Warhurst: How we can eat our landscapes

I love Pam Warhust. She is such a inspirational, grounded and powerful woman. This is one of my favourite TED talks, by far. Please, watch and share it now. It is about the inspirational story of Incredible Edible Todmorden [https://www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk/] which has now spawned the Incredible

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Homes and Hands - Community Land Trusts in Action

We’ll never have a peaceful, just and sustainable world (or, as Charles Eisenstein [https://charleseisenstein.net/] says ‘the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible [https://vimeo.com/66550562]‘) whilst the land that sustains us all is owned and controlled by a tiny minority of the population. We

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How Cooperatives and Community Enterprise Will Get Us Out of this Gigantic Mess

I’ve posted this excellent talk by Janelle Orsi [https://janelleorsi.com/] from the brilliant Sustainable Economies Law Center [https://www.theselc.org/] a few times over on our facebook page [https://www.facebook.com/uniteddiversity]. The whole presentation is well worth watching, but I particularly like it when she

Activism

Edible City - Grow the Revolution

Just came across this great film: > Edible City: Grow the Revolution [https://web.archive.org/web/20200116144032/http://www.ediblecitythemovie.com:80/] is a fun, fast-paced, feature-length documentary journey through the local Good Food movement that’s taking root in the San Francisco Bay Area, across the nation and

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Springhill Cohousing

Last Saturday Gloria and I joined members of the North London Sustainable Housing Partnership [https://nlshp.wordpress.com/] to visit the lovely Springhill Cohousing [https://www.springhillcohousing.com/] community in Stroud. The video above is a quick tour of the site (unfortunately my battery ran out before I got to

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Participatory Budgeting Gains Steam in San Francisco

When Mayor Ed Lee ventured across San Francisco’s 11 districts this spring talking with residents about what to cut and what to save from the budget, he won praise for opening what some called a new era in fiscal discourse: giving people a more direct say about where their

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Building communities we'd like to see

This summer United Diversity is helping the West Lexham Education Centre [https://www.westlexham.org] in a variety of ways. West Lexham Education Centre is an unblemished example of a project providing a leading-edge space that creates innovative services, meaningful training and supports sustainable enterprise opportunities. Located in the beautiful

Activism

Transition Tufnell Park

Transition Tufnell Park [https://transitiontufnellpark.org.uk/] (TTP) do the Big Dig Up! TPP, part of the wider Transition Network [https://www.transitionnetwork.org/], are one of the latest Transition initiatives in London [https://london-transition.org.uk/]. Read more of our posts about Transition [https://uniteddiversity.com/category/transition/] for

Activism

DeSchool, D-Skool, ReallyReally Freeschool

Just got this message from Persons Unknown January – February 2011 Fingers crossed Surrounded by institutions and universities, there is newly occupied space where education can be re-imagined. Amidst the rising fees and mounting pressure for ‘success’, we value knowledge in a different currency; one that everyone can afford to trade.

Activism

Coworking at The Clouds – An Invitation

Every Tuesday from 11am until about 4-5pm (sometime later – lots of good stuff happens here in the evenings too) United Diversity [https://uniteddiversity.com] and VisionOn.TV [https://visionon.tv/] will be hosting upstairs at Passing Clouds [http://web.archive.org/web/20161016212347/http://www.passingclouds.org/] (1 Richmond Road,

Activism

The London Orchard Project

I love this project. > “The London Orchard Project [https://thelondonorchardproject.org/] is a fresh initiative promoting orchards and fruit trees in London. We are working with Londoners to plant and harvest apple, pear and plum trees all over the city, and help us all to rediscover the pleasure of

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Community Algae Lab

Algae! A truly green crop for a sustainable future. [https://www.flickr.com/photos/drfriendly/2692806593/in/set-72157606319608471/] Scenedesmus algae bottles > We are the Shipyard algae lab community. We have created the world’s first community algae lab for the development of open-source, DIY-oriented algae technology, to facilitate the

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California’s P2P Carsharing Bill Passes Assembly 63-0

Carsharing just took a step forward on June 3rd in California when AB1871 passed the Assembly with zero opposition. The bill now goes to the Senate and could become law before the year is out. We talked about the potential for this bill to accelerate the already fast growing [https:

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Will The Brixton Pound Buy A Brighter Future?

by Leo Hickman Tomorrow the Transition Town movement launches a currency designed to boost local trade and bring communities closer together A Brixton market stallholder . . . ‘It’s Monopoly money,’ says one. ‘I won’t be having anything to do with it’. Photograph: Graeme Robertson It has all the makings of

Activism

City Repair LA

[https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OOlW-1cKA6k/Sq0uYsA6GoI/AAAAAAAACkg/uz-B0ftFvdg/s1600-h/mark.jpg] Mark Lakeman stares down the new Bimini Street salamander [https://monsters.monstrous.com/salamander.htm]. Portland architect and activist Mark Lakeman, founder of the City Repair [https://http//cityrepair.org/] movement, is in Los Angeles for a week

Agriculture

want to start a csa?

In a city? Just Food [https://justfood.org/] will help you! Here’s info on an upcoming workshop series: [https://uniteddiversity.com/?attachment_id=3934] Interested in how to get fresh, local and organic produce in New York City? Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) connects local farmers with New York City

Activism

Rural revolution in Colombia goes digital and p2p

“Latinamerica is particularly well equipped for these changes (peer production) by their cultural affinity with the values of P2P”, said Michel Bauwens on an interview [https://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/suplementos/espectaculos/16-15035-2009-08-23.html] for Pagina/12 the Argentinian journal. This statement seems to prove itself when one reads

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Stroud Pound to be Launched in Threadneedle Street

The official unveiling of the exquisitely designed Stroud Pound will take place on Threadneedle Street, outside the offices of the Stroud Valleys Project and opposite Stroud’s very own Old Lady (Teashop) on Saturday 12th September at 10 am. Four denominations of Stroud Pound vouchers will then be available to

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Participatory Leadership

We have started to separately collate material on the new forms of leadership that are emerging in networked communities. You can find our tag here [https://delicious.com/mbauwens/P2P-Leadership]. Our latest find is this table by Chris Corrigan [https://chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot/?p=2282], which contrasts the new requirements

Activism

Paris rooftops swarm with bees as urban honey industry takes off

Photo by Franco Zecchin. Paris, the urban beekeeper Jean Paucton removing frames from the hive atop the Opera Garnier. By Charles Bremner in Paris The Times August 18, 2009 Tourists are not the only species swarming on the Champs Élysées this August. Also enjoying the sunshine are squadrons of bees,

Activism

Squat Freeshop on Commercial Road

Swap shops, Freeshops, give away shops, they all aim to go against the capitalist framework, and often people can’t quite get their heads around the idea, that, yes it is free and you can take it! Illustrations by Thereza Rowe [https://www.therezarowe.com/] When I dropped by the

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Coconut Revolution

This is the amazing story of how a small island nation resisted against the might of corporate globalization and won. Bougainville, with a populations of only 160,000 has managed to close and keep closed one of the biggest mines in the world. They have held their ground for a

Activism

The Take: Occupy. Resist. Produce.

As I’ve said before, The Take is one of the best films I’ve seen. We’re screening it at 7.30pm on Saturday December 15th @ Sessions of Spontaneity