At the 2017 Biennial Conference, special attention will be paid to the Practitioners’ Labs. The Practitioners’ Labs are sessions at which expert practitioners on the commons can set their everyday experiences and challenges on the commons into the spotlight and are the opportunity par excellence to have these experiences and challenges discussed by both fellow-practitioners and academics working on these issues. You may contribute with a full session proposal, a session-related contribution to one of the Practitioners’ Labs mentioned underneath (for this option, please note the code of the session and use this with your registration), or individual independent proposals.
687 |
Reimagining the Future of Food, Capital and Community. Towards a transparent, sustainable and closed-loop production model |
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In this practitioners’ lab the negative impact of the current global agriculture and food systems on the environment and the well-being of both producers and consumers will be central. Policy-makers, researchers and consumers alike are increasingly recognizing the need for a more sustainable agro-food system, and provide innovative organizational models to change the agro-food supply chain. The co-creation model that will be – among others – be explained during this session and has been implemented by some Dutch cooperative supermarkets, like Lazuur-Wageningen, focuses on the design of a closed-loop and a transparent financing system to facilitate the provision of capital to small-scale food producers worldwide, for sustainability investments. Besides, the model aims to unlock the potential of large-scale capital funds to contribute to sustainable food production and consumption. The organizers of this lab invite contributions that focus in particular on (1) types of alternative agreements retailers (such as supermarkets) elsewhere maintain with their suppliers and how these could be improved; (2) how sustainable governance mechanisms, in particular Participatory Guarantee Systems could complement the co-creation model; (3) how to organize the producer-side of the co-creation model; (4) how the development towards new pension and other insurance fund models like pension in kind (guaranteed access to food) can contribute on the consumer side.
> Contribute to this Practitioners' Lab, use code 687 |
689 |
The role of emerging regional sustainability networks for local initiatives |
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In this practitioners’ lab we focus on the development of supporting structures for regional sustainability networks. These rapidly emerging networks provide the combined impetus needed for sustainable regional development. Within these networks local and regional governments, entrepreneurs, educational institutes, research & development centers and community organizations cooperate in different combinations. The participants seek to find sustainable solutions for economic and social issues by making new connections, learning from each other and developing different forms of social innovation. E.g. by creating cooperative forms of governance in a certain area. These networks are gaining more and more power. A new infrastructure is developing next to the existing political and administrative ‘governance’ structures. The question is: can both structures co-exist and complement each other? Other questions are: which organizational model fits the best in a certain area and how can you create a viable model that is financially successful. On DuurzaamDoor: In the past four years the DuurzaamDoor-program of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, in full cooperation with the twelve provinces in the Netherlands, has contributed largely to the development of these new regional networks. By bringing them together in national and regional meetings, by exchanging experiences, by promoting the networks in media, publications, linking regional networks with sustainability scientists and by financing research in order to find solutions for certain financial barriers. In 2017 a new DuurzaamDoor-program will start for a period of four years, aiming at a growing support for the further development of these regional networks. In this practitioner lab we will explore different kinds of support structures for regional sustainable economic development in order to learn lessons for the coming years.
> Contribute to this Practitioners' Lab, use code 689 |
