1. Who they are

Since 2016, Mouvement Utopia (French social organization, cooperative of popular education and publishing house) in partnership with CommonsPolis (Spanish think and do tank on transition, commons and municipalism), have been working to develop a municipalist network between Spain and France. Together, they organized meetings, publications and actively contributed to main events (Ex: Barcelona and Brussels Fearless Cities meetings).

2. What they did

From the perspective of the local elections in France (March ’20), different groups of citizens in Saillans and Grenoble decided to build a political alternative for the 2020’s elections, inspired by the municipalist experiences. This is why in 2018, in this context of the emergence of a radical democratic movement in France, Mouvement Utopia and CommonsPolis, in partnership with their French and European networks, decided to produce a MOOC dedicated to sharing experiences, analysis and tools about municipalism: “MOOC La Commune est à nous” (MOOC “Municipality is ours).” The aim of the MOOC was to contribute to explain how municipalism can be a political and citizens-based alternative. It provided activists, citizens and experts in France (firstly) with pedagogical contents, European experiences and tools so that they could kick-off similar dynamics in their own contexts. It is meant to strengthen both local municipality dynamics in the emergence and a better understanding of municipalism in public debate

3. Why is this relevant to the FundAction community?

The MOOC, which the Rethink Grant 2019 supported, is an open and online tool for spreading the proposals and alternatives rooted in municipalism for a democratic, fair, feminist and ecological society, which can contribute to a potential systemic paradigm shift through the support of community organizations working towards a transition to a just and ecological world. Furthermore, Mouvent Utopia and Common Polis wanted to mobilize, promote and gather the contributions of people who are both members of FundAction and key actors of the municipalist movements in Europe. Big part of the video contribution included in the MOOC has been translated in English, in order to be widely spread with the FundAction Community and at the European level.

All the videos are available on :
– the website (after free subscription)
– the YouTube channel
Video teaser (In french)