By Marina Henriques, Innovation Consultant. (Originally published in English)

Photos by Sylvain Paley; participative installation by Collectif TAMA

Do you have time to read this article? Maybe you will pick orange and skim through diagonally, but perhaps I caught you in a deep-blue moment of reflection, in which you will even take time to go through the embedded links (thank you!).

The Ouishare Festival, an intellectual and artistic event with a convivial spirit, took place last June at an urban agriculture farm (La Prairie du Canal by La Sauge). Ouishare is an international network of professionals defined by five values: collaboration, openness, care, do-cracy and permanent beta.

As a warm-up for this year's edition, Ouishare hosted a series of conversations among key agents in the system. In Intervalle #8, Ideas for Change's Founder and President of Ouishare Spain, Javi Creus, explored with Marina Gorbis, Executive Director of the Institute for the Future, the need to move from social innovation to social infrastructures.

The festival comprised three days with different goals:

DAY 1: ORIENT

“Growth dictates our political, economic and technological decisions. We need to do more, faster, in the name of infinite progress. And yet, this accelerationism is clearly not compatible with planetary equilibrium”.
–Ouishare

Doughnut Economics, the only doughnut good for your health

Kate Raworth, renegade economist and author of Doughnut Economics, showed us examples of city projects that are regenerative (inscribed with and at the center of the cycles of the living world) and distributed (sharing co-created opportunities) by design. In the case of organisations, five design traits should be taken into account: purpose, networks, governance, ownership and finance. Following these insights, Kate affirmed that transformation happens in disruptive times.

Can tourism be regenerative?

Alternative ways of travelling are being developed. The BCN Green Deal redefines tourists as "short stay residents". Recent graffiti in the streets of Barcelona show that, just by changing a word or concept, host communities see things in a different perspective. Take for example Night Trotters, a movement led by Faouzi Derbouz that organises long walks during the nighttime and fights against delinquency, drug addiction and precarious housing conditions.

Another example is Neighbourhoods That Rock (Barris que Molen in Catalan), a project led by Ideas for Change and supported by the City Council of Barcelona and Barcelona Activa. The aim of this project is to promote the regeneration of Sant Andreu’s district through participatory tourism, with an impact on local economic development. The main objective is to anticipate the opportunities of a redefined visitor’s economy and to face its challenges in a coordinated way.

As a part of the project's team at Ideas for Change, I introduced how Paris and its surroundings can anticipate the influx of visitors it will receive for the 2024 Olympics with the Neighbourhoods That Rock example of regenerative tourism. For this, three key principles must be taken into account: design from the future, think in systems and lever on citizen capabilities.

DAY 2: ORGANISE

“Long termism is rooted in collaboration. Citizens, companies, associations, states: everyone has a role to play in bringing about political and economic systems that are more supportive and sustainable”.
–Ouishare

What kind of ancestors do we want to be?

If History is a good teacher, what do you want to teach? was the title that Roman Krznaric, writer and public philosopher, chose for his keynote speech. His latest book, The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World, explores six ways we can expand our time horizons into the decades and centuries to come, tackling our most pressing challenges, from the climate crisis to threats from new technologies.

Leveraging on the power of data for citizen engagement

In which conditions would you share your data for health research? This was the initial question we asked when facilitating the Saluscoop workshop.

SalusCoop is a non-profit citizen data cooperative for health research. The Salus Common Good licence was crowd-designed with citizens, and allows data to be donated for research purposes if it meets the following five conditions: (i) for use in health research (ii) by non-profit institutions (iii) which openly share the results of their research (iv) while anonymising the data at the highest possible level (v) until the donor of the data withdraws their permission.

In the workshop led by Ideas for Change, participants learned about the power of collective data for good, and explored their conditions to share through a participative methodology.

DAY 3: ACT!

“Investing in the long term means changing our modes of action. Leaving behind a dualistic vision that places Man and Reason at the centre to embrace deep ecology and reconnect with ourselves, the others and the world”.
–Ouishare

Combining plant, human and artificial intelligence

Forms of intelligence? We need them all!, is a must-read. Javi Creus depicts intelligence as a system combining plant resilience, human judgement and artificial potential.

As Javi mentions in his article, adaptive intelligence is not linear: it is cyclical, circular. If we want to continue on this planet, the intelligence of plants can help us design a structure for life that is distributed, decentralised, interconnected and regenerative.

We must also use human intelligence: our sensitivity, empathy, capacity to formulate new questions, share fantasies, improvise and disobey. But combine the aforementioned with personal repositories, distributed algorithms and edge computing, and we will move at the speed of machines.

A new view of intelligence(s) allows us to channel the power of sensors, connectivity and data to improve conditions and opportunities for life on earth, affirms Javi. Citizens are key agents to move our climate action and social agenda forward.

Activism in a polarised world

After lunch, a panel debate took place among three changemakers: Fridays For Future organiser, activist and engineer, Janine O'Keefe; an independent candidate for the coming German federal elections, Lu Yen Roloff; and Naresh Giangrande, co-founder of Transition Town Totnes.

"We need politicians who are humble enough to believe in citizens", said Janine O'Keefe. "Leadership today is having the courage to recognise the old system living inside of ourselves", backed Naresh Giangrande. But the question is: how can we cultivate a more conscious form of activism, and go beyond polarisation? Contemplation, self-care, love, rage, humour and celebration; politics and activism are ubiquitous.

A regenerative experience

Gathering and sharing thoughts and ideas in person after a year and a half of abrupt remote work was truly nutritive to the personal and professional soul. Now combine that with local food, music, dancing and meditation. That's Ouishare Fest.

As Roman Krznaric says, we all have the chance to become good ancestors and create a better tomorrow. So, what are you waiting for? Make time and act now, the clock is ticking!

Thanks, Ouishare!

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