Today @alberto and I had a good conversation with Giacomo and Rainer from FdCM who introduced us to Aurora Prospero, the FEBEA Brussels based network manager.
FEBEA stands for Federation of European Ethical and Alternative Banks and Financiers. Born from the 80s and the 90s civil society initiatives, today it counts 29 members, banks and finance companies which work with the social economy. Mostly these have small dimensions and a local impact – often they are cooperatives supporting local activities or various enterprises in contact with civil society institutions and communities that are exploring alternative solutions.
They are interested in finding a space for ethical finance in the world we are constructing and exploring the possibilities of collaboration.
It is a particular time for FEBEA because a couple of moments are converging:
- this year is 20 years from the foundation of the Federation
- going through the process of defining identity and goals for the next decades updating its original goals
They have just started working on the New European Bauhaus project – the Commission’s Green Deal «creative and interdisciplinary initiative, […] a space of encounter to design future ways of living, situated at the crossroads between art, culture, social inclusion, science and technology ».
This may be interesting to examine from The Reef perspective – a functional social green co-housing experiment with good practices that worked great in the pandemic period.
Questions that may arise are the adaptability of their network to the digital environment – not all of these communities are active digitally, and the language barrier: they are often not English speaking, while worldbuilding is English based.
This collaboration could open a game on different fronts.
Ideas :
- FEBEA provides support and contributions with its financial and technical competences to the architecture of the districts – the wba game relays on viability and coherence
- takes part in the ER learning program and seminars we would organise
- another residency in Brussels or elsewhere in Europe organised by FEBEA following the Messina one
- creation of language localised districts related to the main wiki with annual check up and summary (francophone, italian etc). For example, a district based on Messina, translated and structured may become an attachment to FdCM’s strategic plan - « this is where we want to end »
- local communities / community foundations may function as territorial labs for alternative solutions
With stronger networking for all three organisations we could provide visibility for their concepts and explore the connections to the world of local experiences or community foundations. This feeds into @nadia’s idea of districts as products for the Regions and in the general « special zones » concept and DG REGIO webinar context.
Steps :
ER:
- organisation of the DG REGIO webinar
- opening of the wiki
- a closer look to the New Bauhaus project
- keep open the info & materials channel
FdCM:
- Rainer contacts his French partners interested in contributions in French
- Giacomo continues with networking
Febea:
- Aurora waits for our material and collects the interest within her Federation
- on our request organises a meeting with the team working on the New European Bauhaus project