Scaling up community action through collaboration with local authorities: a practical exploration of philosophies, policies and practices

‘Community’ can be understood in different ways. It can be seen as a source of vibrant grassroots action and innovation; a suite of regenerative intentions; a route for the localisation of sustainable development; an administrative focus within multi-level governance; a place; a group of people. These paradoxical perspectives can make collaboration between communities and other actors complex and at times challenging. In order to scale up community action, collaboration with local government is required. This can pose challenges and opportunities. Despite shared aspirations, the languages of ‘regenerative practices’ and ‘sustainable development’ can sound quite different. Although goals may be agreed, the spontaneous, value driven mode of working in community can clash with set procedures and targets set by government. This workshop emerges from a project called Ecovillage Transition in Action (ETiA), which is a collaboration between the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN), GEN Deutschland, Hurdal Ecovillage, ECOLISE and University of St Andrews, Scotland funded by ERASMUS+. Our project included development of a curriculum and toolkit with resources to support collaboration, designed for educators, local authorities and local communities. The aims of this workshop are 1) to introduce the Toolkit, Curriculum and Handbook from the ETiA project and explain potential uses 2) to discuss how to begin or deepen collaboration between community and local authority, using case study examples and 3) To enable participants to outline an initial strategy for their own regions. We will provide a brief overview of the toolkit, curriculum and resources and will explore why and how to initiate collaboration between communities and local authorities. The workshop will be interactive and will draw on examples and case studies. Discussion groups and the opportunity to design an outline for the initiation of collaboration will be facilitated. At the end of the workshop, participants will be better placed to develop, co-create and pursue collaborative opportunities for the Great Transition.