Talk: Commons in Catalonia in the 21st century

At Fundació Emprius we are in the phase of defining the strategy to make this possible, and we see the need to define what we understand by commons and which commons are possible and strategic to strengthen in rural Catalonia in 2022. So we invited various collectives linked to communalism in Catalonia to reflect collectively on what we understand by communalism today. Members of Guifi.net, FemProcomuns, Som Connexió, the commons committee of the XES and Vallbona Suport Mutu attended, among others. The talk took place at Can Tonal on 6 May and consisted of two parts

Historical and current framework

We heard from Pol Font (Reconstruir el Comunal), who gave us an introduction to the historical commons in Catalonia, and from Joám Evans from Galicia, who shared the rural commons projects under way on his home ground. These presentations proved inspiring for the dynamic of the second part.

Debate: “what are the commons”

We reflected together around the following questions:

• What are the commons in the 21st century?
• What strategies can we have to deploy the commons in Catalonia?
• What prevents us and what empowers us?
• Experiences of success and failure in the management of the commons.
• What should be the role of Fundació Emprius in this strategy?

We have received many contributions that have made us reflect a lot and that have helped us finish shaping our proposal on which commons we want to defend and preserve at Emprius.

Finally we had dinner together, continuing informally the debates that had opened during the afternoon.