On the last day of the MAIA program, creativity flourished! Participants started imagining joint projects based on concepts, ideas and insights from this intense week. We can’t wait to see how far they will take us!
We had a talk from Ana Villagordo, environmentalist and consultant, where she explored creative strategies that might lead us to innovative projects to advance the SDGs.
Then we have collectively established the working groups that will develop together impact projects for the SDGs. These projects will be developed until March 2020, during MAIA’s following modules.
Thus, it was with great enthusiasm that we closed the first module of MAIA, looking forward to continue working together for the next months!
“Empathy is key to achieving the SDGs” Ana Villagordo
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Author: Núria Gassó
23/11/2019
Circular and solidarity economy: MAIA DAY 5
In the 5th day of MAIA we discussed about circular and solidarity economy, learning from succesfull local initiatives.
Marta Escamilla (Head of sustainability at LEITAT) presented Circular Economy as a powerful idea to achieve the SDGs. According to her, more and more companies and organizations are adopting this model that is based on 3 basic principles:
To preserve and regenerate natural systems
To design and produce without waste or contamination, promoting system efficiency and reducing the ecological footprint
To maintain products and materials in use for as long as posible, optimising the use of resources
The circular economy provides an alternative to the linear economy, based on extracting raw materials, processing them into a product and throwing it away after using. In a circular model the idea is to close the cycles of the raw materials and to optimise the use of energy and resources, making production more sustainable.
Then Alba Cánovas, from Espigoladors, presented their inspiring initiative. They are a non-profit organization that fights food waste and social exclusion in a transformative, participatory, inclusive and sustainable way. With a circular economy approach, Espigoladors’ actions are explicitly aligned with the SDGs.
Another inspiring local initiative we got in touch with was the Esperanzah! Festival, presented to us by Oscar Rando, one of its founders. Oscar explained how Esperanzah! was created not only as a music festival but as a space for reflection and social transformation for all ages, genders and social conditions. Currently, it became a multiplier, a catalyst project that brings together other local projects of social transformation and solidarity economy
We also visit other projects such as the Esplais or socio-educational centers that are the core of the work of Fundesplai. . Those centers were created about 45 years ago as places to foster values and citizenship among children in their leisure time. They follow the 10 principles listed below:
Integral education
Education for peace
Education for Interculturality
Education for the development of global citizenship
Education for participation and democracy
Environmental education
Education for gender equality
Education for health
Education for inclusion and equal opportunities
Intergenerational education
Finalmente, también visitamos Fablab tinkerers, un laboratorio-taller de creación y fabricación digital que impulsa un proyecto educativo basado en la formación y divulgación de las nuevas tecnologías para crear soluciones innovativas a problemas locales. Se definen, por lo tanto, como un proyecto de Innovación Social Digital y consideran que la base de los proyectos de este tipo no son las máquinas sino el proyecto educativo que los sustentan.
Finally, we also visited Fablab tinkerers, a digital manufacturing lab and workshop based on the dissemination of new technologies as a way to create innovative solutions to local problems. They define themselves as a Digital Social Innovation project, and as such that their core are not the machines but the educational project behind them.
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Author: Núria Gassó
21/11/2019
Transformative education for an unpredictable future: MAIA DAY 3
The third day of MAIA was an intense day of work, debate and reflection.
Futures Literacy
We started the day with a workshop on Futures Literacy , with Ramila Zadeh and Alexandre Fernandes. Following UNESCO’s Futures Literacy Lab methodology we have discovered that the ability to “use the future” can be acquired and practiced, allowing people to better understand the role of the future in their present.
Podemos tener más herramientas para el futuro si consideramos que: (1) El futuro aun no existe, sólo puede ser imaginado, (2) Los humanos tenemos la capacidad de imaginar. Como resultado de estas dos premisas, los humanos somos capaces de imaginar el futuro de diferentes maneras posibles y estar más preparados para las adversidades. Imaginar diferentes futuros posibles y tener herramientas para analizarlos con profundidad nos puede ayudar a tomar decisiones para innovar en el presente.
It is possible to be better prepared for an ucertain future if we consider that: (1) The future does not yet exist, it can only be antecipated, (2) Humans have the ability to imagine. As a combination of these two premises, we humans are able to imagine the future in different possible ways and thus be more prepared for adversity. Imagining different possible futures and having tools to analyze them in depth can help us make decisions to innovate in the present.
Transformative Education for the SDGs
With Boris Mir, a Catalán teacher and expert in transformative education, we had a session to explore innovative possibilities in the field. We have started the session debating the movie Most Likely to Succeed that aims to inspire educational communities to re-imagine the full potential of studentsand teachers trough an approach based on people and their individualities.
Then Boris facilitated a workshop where we could experience how transformative education should provide inspiring contexts where they can develop their cognitive, experimental, creative, social and emotional skills.We must prepare children and the youth for an uncertain future of radical and rapid changes, difficult to predict. For this, is important to challenge traditional roles, allowing students to occupy an active and leading role.
“Don be an optimist if that makes you relax. Don be a pessimist if that makes you give up. Be an activist and ask: what can I do to change the future?”Kate Raworth
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Author: Núria Gassó
20/11/2019
Imagining the future: MAIA’s Day 2
We have started MAIA’s second day walking trough the Delta del Llobregat natural reserve under a beautiful autumn sky .
Visiting the Llobregat river’s delta
The Llobregat river’s Delta is formed by several lagoons, pine forests, dunes and beaches that bring biodiversity into a very anthropic landscape. It is located at the confluence of very different urban, agricultural and industrial environments, such as the El Prat international airport.
Es el tercer humedal más importante de Cataluña, con una gran diversidad de especies, y sus espacios naturales forman parte de la Red Natura 2000 como a Zona d’Especial Protecció per a les Aus (ZEPA), ya que es un punto estratégico para las migraciones de las aves. En el otoño, por lo tanto, es especialmente interesante visitar el Delta del Llobregat porque podemos encontrar tanto especies nidificantes como especies que están de paso hacia las áreas donde pasan el invierno.
It is the third most important wetland in Catalonia, with a great diversity of species, and part of the Red Natura 2000 as a Special Protection Zone for Birds (ZEPA), as it is a strategic point for migrating birds. Therefore, during autumn, it is especially interesting to visit the Llobregat Delta as we can find both nesting species and species that are on the move.
During the visit we have been able to observe several species of birds while having the opportunity to have an immersive experience in nature and reflecting on our individual and collective possible futures.
Biomimetics, Governance, Economics, Sustainability, Ethics and Ecology
Then, throughout the day, we participated in talks and debates conducted by several experts:
Francesco Sottile, researcher at the Biomimetics Science Institute, unveiled the potential of nature to inspire design and innovation to face global challenges. Francesco believes that biomimetics can be a key strategy to achieve the SDGs, since it is a multidisciplinary field with possible applications in engineering, energy, architecture, medicine, art, communication… Learning from nature can help us solve the challenges of humanity.
Iziar González, architect and expert in citizen governance shared her vision of how the governance paradigm is changing, focusing on cooperation and co-production models. Iziar believes that in order to exist real governance on the part of the citizenship, the whole community needs to share responsibility. According to her we must pursue a system where everyone has the right to exercise their creativity in a relational environment and to carry out transdisciplinary projects to provide diverse and complementary views.
Humberto Llavador, Economics professsor at the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and at the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics (BarcelonaGSE), and researcher at the Institute of Political Economy and Governance (IPEG). Humberto presented the “normative paradigm” needed to establish a framework for action towards the common good and against the climate crisis. According to him, this paradigm is based on three basic questions: What is the objective? What ethical criteria do we take as a reference? Is this that we want to do feasible and viable? He has also talked about the concept of sustainability and about how ecological, economic and social sustainability should guarantee future’s generations rights. For him, it is possible to maintain an average level of economic growth while achieving sustainable model of development. Importantly, for him, the reasons why we are not currently achieving it are not technical or economic but political and ethical.
Joan Pino, catedrático de ecología de la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB) y director del Centre de Recerca Ecològica i Aplicacions Forestals (CREAF). Nos ha hablado de ecología en un mundo cambiante, situándonos en los diferentos aspectos donde podemos poner el foco frente al cambio: en los motores o causas del cambio, las herramientas para medir el cambio y la herramientas para afrontarlo. Desde el CREAF impulsan la ciencia ciudadana como una herramienta eficaz y valiosa de participación ciudadana, sensibilización y medida de los cambios ambientales y biológicos. Joan Pino considera que se debe poner énfasis en el territorio metropolitano, estudiando las consecuencias para la biodiversidad de la crecida exponencial de las ciudades y los consecuentes cambios en los ecosistemas.
Through those very interesting debates on all these issues and the SDGs four essential components have emerged to be able to take effective actions for a paradigm shift that will help us cope with the planetary crisis: cooperation, empathy, realism and the action!
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Author: Núria Gassó
19/11/2019
From the Anthropocene to Regeneration: MAIA’s program first day
Our opening conference was open to the public and entitled “From the Anthropocene to regeneration” by researchersJosé Luis de Vicente and Daniel C. Wahl .
José Luis Vicente presented his perspective of t the Age of Humans, the Anthropocene. Using artworks from the exhibition he curated at the CCCB “After the end of the world” he illustrated four steps towards a new society, after the end of the world as we know it:
Tell the truth: We must tell the truth about the moment of crisis we are currently going trough.
The mutation: We are on the threshold of a new geological era, the Anthropocene.
What’s the plan?What will help us make the transition?We must use our creativity and imagine different futures and different ways of living.It is a political, cultural, economic, social and technological challenge, but above all creative.
Adaptation: we are living in a broken planet but we can work to heal it.
Daniel C. Wahlreminded us that we are all ecosystems and that we must create material cultures that express that we are part of nature, that we are nature. He presented humanity’s relationship with nature from a historical perspective and the idea of “regenerative cultures”. Regenerative Cultures, according to him, always initiate within local communities and with their reconnection with the ecosystem where they live in.He also pointed out how the SDGs where created and, importantly, how we could start taking action to advance them.
In the afternoon Daniel C. Wahl facilitated the workshop “Localising the SDGs”, where participants started working in groups to debate and imagine togheter local projects to advance the SDGs.
It was a very exciting first day, where we were impacted by the climate emergency and its challenges, but also inspired by alternatives and by the power of the SDGs!
The Llobregat river’s Delta
