Cooperatively hosted by Irene Lopez de Valejo, Sara Esribano (DisCO Coop) and Ela Kagel (SUPERMARKT):

We would like to invite you to a day of reflective harvest . We will sail through the cycles of collective regeneration that self-organised groups can experiment with, inspired by DisCOmposting (which is, the art of composting organisational care practices).

Regardless of whether you are a group that is already familiar with DisCO or an individual bent on a mission to find like-minded souls (or anything in between), this is an invitation to unlearn practices inherited from predatory mindsets by playing through the imagery and conceptual lens of solarpunk, lunarpunk and other complementary narratives.

The DisCO framework emerges from composting practices and ideas of Feminist Economics, Open Cooperativism, the Commons, P2P and Open Value Accounting. The groups invited will be prompted to collectively imagine their activities through this narrative prism, while the facilitators spark a discussion around governance, love and care work, values, decision-making, the invisible, unacknowledged activities that take place in organisations and the dark, grey areas where conflict arises. Care is not only a buzzword, it has to be trained, practised and experimented in order to become real.

What to expect of the day?

The workshop is designed to support each group to concoct and brew their own organic iteration of a Distributed Cooperative Organisation through the proposed metaphors: solarpunk, lunarpunk, and the seasonal cycles. These are emergent expressions of ideas still coalescing in the popular imagery which we can creatively mold and share in community. . A personalised follow up plan will be discussed with each of the attending collectives and individuals.

[12 – 12.15pm] Welcome and Prelude

[12.15 – 6pm] Dancing through the Seasons

The 4 Seasons Sessions will have each 3 instalments or sequences to open up spaces for individual and collective creative imagination based on the imagery of Solarpunk, Lunarpunk and a secret third ingredient.

[12.30 – 13.30pm] Season 1: Spring – sowing the seeds of a caring governance

The attendants discuss what it means for them to implement a governance model that has care at its core.

[13.30 – 13.45pm] Goblin break

[13.45 – 15pm] Season 2: Summer – a festival of collective journeys

The attendants learn and engage with the experiences of the DisCO LABs present.

[15 – 15.15pm] Goblin break

[15.15 – 16.30pm] Season 3: Autumn – harvest your own DisCO

The classic DisCO-builder exercise!

[16.30 – 16.45pm] Goblin break

[16.45 – 18pm] Season 4: Winter – embark on a journey of resilience and care

The groups intermingle, discuss together and imagine specific potential collaborations.

The DisCO Journey is presented to the audience (modalities, steps) who are invited to join the party.

[18 pm] – The day will close with a dance party.

This workshop will be facilitated by:

Ela Kagel (she/her) is a digital strategist specialised in the intersection of society, technology and economy. Since the 1990s she has produced media art exhibitions, designed spaces for cultural exchange and helped establish digital platforms, networks and communities. In 2010 Ela co-founded SUPERMARKT, an independent hub for digital culture and collaborative economy and is part of the Board of DisCO.coop.

Sari Escribano (they/them) is a member of the founding team of DisCO.coop and a member of Guerrilla Media Collective. An activist, language scholar, translator, writer, and bookworm, they prefer to think of themselves as „a non-binary sprite of the forest with a casual nicotine addiction“. Their future plans include joining and/or founding a LGBTIQ+ anarcho-sailing collective (under the DisCO framework).

Irene López de Vallejo, PhD, (she/her) is a member of the founding team of DisCO.coop. She has spent nearly three decades navigating the international panorama of digital applied research and innovation. Whether as a researcher or a policy maker, an evaluator or an entrepreneur, a strategist or, plainly put, DisCO’s particular Carmen Sandiego, she never lacks determination to have fun and do some good. These days she is building radically fair workplaces with communities that are changing the way our economy and society operate/work/look like. Her future plans are known only to her, but definitely include wide brim hats and long colourful coats.

Location: Coop Space, Glogauer Str. 21, 10999 Berlin Kreuzberg
Schedule: 12-18h
Language: English

Participation in this workshop is free of charge, but booking is essential.
Register here

What is DisCO all about?

DisCOs is a P2P/Commons, cooperative and Feminist Economic alternative to Decentralised Autonomous Organizations (or DAOs).

Distributed Cooperative Organization is a clunky name that, while accurate, fortunately reduces to “DisCO” which is a lot easier to remember. The DisCO (read all about it in the DisCO Manifesto) takes a friendly but carefully planned approach to people working together to create value in ways that are cooperative, commons-oriented and rooted in feminist economics. DisCOs are amplified by the power of Distributed Ledger/Blockchain technologies, harnessing the utility of tech without being completely tech-centric, emphasizing mutual trust and remembering to have fun.

In that way, DisCOs pose an alternative to Decentralised Autonomous Organizations. Also known as DAOs, these are blockchain-based entities that can operate somewhat autonomously to execute payments, levy penalties, and enforce terms and contracts with minimal human interaction. DisCOs are a proposal to use the best aspects of DAO tech, but applied specifically toward inclusive, locally grounded and transnationally networked cooperatives that focus on social and environmental work. Contrasting many decentralized/ blockchain proposals, DisCOs aim to prioritize mutual (human) support, cooperativism and care work, and to avoid being overtly exclusionary and techno-deterministic.

More info here: https://disco.coop/about/