Main Session: INFRASTRUCTURES FOR AUTONOMY

INFRASTRUCTURES FOR AUTONOMY and the dynamic equilibrium of collaboration

A panel session moderated by @nicole Demby of Woodbine Autonomous Health Centre

OpenVillage, 19-21 October, Brussels

Collaboration is more needed than ever to solve complex problems in care. Yet it can be expensive in time and energy when working outside formal grids, or on a voluntary basis, or in emotionally demanding environments. This kind of work calls for new governance structures and ways of making decisions together based on values that sometimes seem at odds - like self-management and autonomy. This session brings together people who have experience of wrestling with these issues to find an equilibrium which makes it possible for us to work together well.

This session will take a broader look at how to sustain our work through collaboration and organisational frameworks and practices. Panel members will share their expertise, followed by open discussion to give participants an opportunity to explore particularly relevant ideas or models in more detail.

This session has been developed to have broad relevance for participants at Open Village. What kind of sub topics do you want to see covered in this panel? We want your thoughts on this as well as the kind of panel members you’d love to hear from.

While we build the lineup, feel free to put yourself forward as an active contributor and get a ticket to openvillage!

Learn more.

John Coate

John is one of the early movers at The Farm, a US hippie commune back in the days, who went on to become a pioneer in online community management. He understands the dynamics of living and working in a large intentional community, and the boundaries between self-sufficiency and embeddedness in the outside world. John can offer insights from experience in a range of settings and organisations.

Some background reading:

Meet John Coate: A wizard among us

When You Live With Your Co-workers

Yannick Schandene

Yannick started working with organic structures through his collective Soft Revolution. He later had a prominent role inside PicNIcTheStreets, a citizen movement to demand more public space in Brussels. He worked with variant groups on that topic: CanalPark BXL for a park near the center, Vélo M2, an open hardware project with cargobikes and HuiS VDH on repurposing empy spaces above shops. Through this experiences Yannick learned a lot about group dynamics and the human scale inside positive changement groups.

Cindy Regalado

Cindy Regalado is a research associate at University College London developing and promoting public engagement methodologies of ‘do it yourself’ (DIY) and ‘doing it together’ science practice. She is a London-based community organiser for the Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science training communities, activists, and stewards on the use of DIY tools for environmental monitoring. She is co-founder of Citizens without Borders, a London-based group committed to building the public’s capacity to act as civic agents. She leads on the initiative 'Science has no Borders' through the EU Horizon 2020 project ‘Doing It Together science’, which aims to bridge the gap between public engagement and policy action on Responsible Research and Innovat51.

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I love how this session is framed and I’m glad we spend time looking at who could be conversation openers aka panelists.
By the way @nicole is in za house!

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Love the name!

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