Beyond Borders will be convened by the Eroles Project team, some of whom (Ruth Cross and María Llanos) are now living and working with La Bolina (formerly known as Regeneration Project Granada)- a new project which focuses on sustainability, regeneration and integration that is taking root in the south of Spain.

In 2016 Eroles Project hosted a summer of residencies on the theme Borders where we explored what it means to radically think as a species. During one of these residencies participants co-created the initial design for what was to become La Bolina. Almost two years on and this project has taken shape with a core team of refugees, migrants, Eroles participants and local people. The project aims to challenge reductionist and colonialist approaches to development and social action.

In light of our experience working in the Granada Project and our awareness of the systemic challenges around the process of migration, including that of countries receiving refugees and migrants; Eroles Project have become interested in beginning a Community of Practice with people working in integration. People from countries of origin of migration and receiving countries, people campaigning and creating policy change, people collaborating in diverse groups and using creative approaches. 

For more info about La Bolina please read A New Approach to Migration published on the Transition Network website.

Here are some of the challenges we are facing…

How to create spaces for understanding and sharing our own and each others highest human potential.

How to construct collective meaning around leading and organisational structures taking into account a diversity of perspectives.
How to create awareness around power and privilege within a multicultural team.
How to stay ethical and coherent while facing funding challenges.
How does perception build in you – and how does this influence your construction of ‘other’.

We feel it is really crucial to explore the deeper reflections arising in our work…

Regeneration Project Granada aims to repopulate a rural area in the province of Granada, Spain which is severely depopulated. We aim to collaboratively work the land, create viable and sustainable livelihoods, and regenerate both the ecosystem and the economy of the area. A team of 8 have moved into the village of Saleres. This has had exponentially positive effects on the potential impacts of the project as we become more familiar with the context and people. However the transition from developing a shared philosophy during numerous site visits to rooting long term in a village and attempting to put that philosophy into practice has brought up challenges:

The reality of 8 people living and working in a shared house in a small rural village has created dissonance within the team. As planning turns into action we are realising our different expectations and needs around work, pay, time, security, organisation, self management, leadership, accountability etc.

We have started questioning each others perceptions and habits, and tensions have risen around power, responsibility and decision making. This has created a deeply reflexive quality as we try to understand and embrace our differences. We think about social constructivism and the promise of co-creating meaning together through deconstructionism and dialogue. We are learning to make sense of our collective ways of seeing by opening the possibility of perceiving anew through a more plural and collective lens. We explore and debate around cultural relativism and play with the idea of a phenomenological approach to our living together.

We are trying to overcome not only hierarchies and the dichotomization and labeling of people (“refugees”, “locals”, “social workers”), but a linear scientific approach to social action. We focus on listening, observing, planning, trying and learning in iterative ways. We want to be responsive, flexible and agile. Through exploring this way of acting and organising we are facing funding challenges but more profoundly we are struggling to deeply comprehend and embrace this more plural paradigm of thought; a way of working that does not yet have a proper language or patterns in our bodies and minds.

Joining Beyond Borders Community of Practice.

Do you resonate with these questions? Are you facing these kinds of challenges, or others, in your own work, project or personal experience? Are you keen to reflect, make, exchange, share and act in a small and diverse Community of Practice exploring these themes?

APPLY HERE.

 

​ ​The real cost of the gathering is 600€ per person. This covers accommodation, food, resources, organisation and pick up and drop off at Tremp bus station. If you feel able to pay more we invite you to do so, the additional amount goes directly to the bursary pot for people with less financial means. If you are accepted you are required to make a non-refundable deposit of 50% to confirm your participation.

We can provide travel/study visa applications for those applying from a country which need a visa to enter Spain.

When & Where

5 - 19 August 2018: Beyond Borders gathering in the village of Eroles, Catalonia.

2018 and beyond: Community of Practice (ongoing, online, with potential visits to each other’s projects) - designed by the residency participants and Eroles Project.

2018-2019: For those interested there will be the opportunity to come and join for a longer period of time to the Regeneration Project Granada and contribute to a year long programme of integration activities here in El Valle.

Example daily schedule* - (with lots of free time to walk, create, read, write, make, play)

• Morning meditation, yoga/other movement practice
• Breakfast
• Morning session
• Sharing/presenting your practice
• Lunch
• Open afternoon collaboration time
• Gathering and feedback
• Dinner
• Evening activity

*The Eroles Team will lead the first day. We will explore and share some of the ways of  working we have used in our project. Some of those will be complexity and social change, nature connection, ritual, spontaneity and improvisation, theatre of the oppressed, Social Presencing Theatre, agile and collaborative practices.

Perugia, Italy 16th - 31st March 2017

This emergent 15 day Community of Practice will take place in a rural house in the province of Perugia, Italy, giving the intimate context for 9 participants with diverse backgrounds to exchange understandings from their work, research or practice that concern the co-creation of present day cultures & communities.   The content and flow of the days will be designed by participants along with Ruth Cross (Eroles Project) including getting to know each other & the space, sharing practices, participatory sessions, participant led sessions, time for walking, playing, gardening, house work, meditation, cooking, bodyworks and documentation.   Why this, why you and why now? In an age of uncertainty we are witnessing the power of narrative to galvanize collective responses to the challenges of our time. Divisive narratives have amplified fear of the other and permitted systemic racism at all levels of society. Yet simultaneously we see robust responses with Indigenous lands being celebrated and defended by people of many cultures, new waves of on/offline collaboration, experiments in degrowth and movements of radical friendship between newcomers and locals.   We urgently need to create new narratives that celebrate such cross cultural responses, that speak to our commonalities rather than our differences, that spark hope and that harness our collective assets.   This CoP asks can we share human and nonhuman lives on our earth whilst being with our collective past, present and unknown future? What energising practices and new narratives do we need to support the emergence of peaceful and integrated cultures, which have capacity to generate meaningful and effective responses?   One aim is to visualise the activities, thinking and practice from this exchange into a booklet, film or new media to share approaches of plurality, intersectionality, cultural diversity, and the yet undiscovered.   Cost on a sliding scale 600€ - 350€ *Price includes food, accommodation & resources for 15 days (bursaries available please email for details)