We are an interdisciplinary research team that has dealt with the following questions as part of the SelfCity research project:
What should the world of the future look like? Numerous initiatives are looking for answers to this question, which are creating new forms of life and economic types based on ecological and social solidarity: In our Self City project these are the Transition Town initiatives, an environmental station with its eco-social learning, energy cooperatives and urban neighbourhood groups. They do not rely on laws and regulations “from above”, i.e. from the national or transnational side. In self-organisation, new visions and concrete projects for a change of path to sustainability are sought. They are characterised by the fact that they try out new social practices in a local community. They embody a “Self City” that is supported by self-organisation.
The aim of this site is to provide a platform for initiatives and actors who are self-organised pioneers of change for climate protection and sustainability. Here you will find tools for self-organisation and stories of success. In this way, the “bottom-up” change towards a more sustainable economic and social model is to be supported and expanded.
As part of intensive research, the central questions and challenges facing the pioneers of change in their daily activities were collected and processed. On this page you will therefore find a variety of materials which you can use for more detailed information or as a template. A lot of valuable information is already available on the Internet, but there is often a lack of a purposeful bundling and order to find one’s way through this information jungle. Under the heading Topics (link) you will therefore find a series of questions that you and your initiative may also face, with corresponding answers or references to further sources of information. For those who would like to get in even deeper, there are also scientific documents available.
Being in “community” is the central moment for participation in self-organized groups, in addition to what we do – working against climate change, for the integration of refugees, for a decentralized, citizen-oriented energy transition. People are looking for jointly created spaces that enable individual development and at the same time a compassionate community. Read More under „The longing for community or the transformation from ME to WE“.