After having converted an abandoned supermarktet into a coworking space and conference & workshop venue we started off with an intensely curated program based on digital culture and open source technologies.

Ever since that, we have gradually witnessed a shift from a curated space into a hotbed for new activist movements that pull their energy and drive for change directly from the grassroots basis. Initiatives like the European Freelancers Movement, Apprentice Rights, OuiShare or diverse groups working on financial self-aid models started to gather regularly at SUPERMARKT and using the space as a base for meetups and workshops. In doing so, they helped reconfiguring our space into a site of growing social & political relevance, where aspects of representation and self-organisation are explored on a daily basis. Besides SUPERMARKT, there is a growing number of other spaces here in the city which are growing into hubs for travelling knowledge brokers and activists.

This development calls on the roles of managers of collaborative spaces as hosts, communicators and knowledge facilitators. In what ways do we need to design these centers in order to make them a sustainable and strong source for activist movements? What are the challenges of designing a community space? Which notions of “open” come into play? And, most important, how to survive the ups & downs of collective energies and moods – and grow ever stronger together?

This Event is part of Social Media Week 2014.
More info and registration: http://socialmediaweek.org/berlin/

Photo: Michelle O’Brien