The economy of eco-communities


The economy of eco-communities: socio-environmental strategies and financial sustainability – lessons learned from a comparative study and practical examples from Austria

 

Präsenation: Jan Blažek, Christian Loy, Gudrun Pollack

 

Zeit/Ort: 13. November 2018, 18:00-19:30, SR 3b

This Umweltkolloquium will discuss the economies of eco-communities and their relation to the socio-environmental sphere. In the first part, Jan Blazek will provide the theoretical framework and give an overview of his dissertation. Which economical approaches do eco-communities develop? How do they organize financing in the initial stages and how do they design the not-only-for-profit collective activities that define them over the long term? The key question then is: how is financial sustainability influencing the social and environmental goals and vice versa for projects of different size, settings and strategies. Guided by these questions, Blazek has been researching more than 40 eco-communities in 6 European countries in the last years.
In the second part, we switch to the micro perspective and portray two collective housing and working projects in Austria of which Gudrun Pollack and Christian Loy are part of. SchloR – schön3r leben... is about to transform a former commercial area in Vienna. Being part of the umbrella organisation HabiTaT, the equivalent to the German Mietshäuser Syndikat, the financial concept and the legal structure, which both address issues of property and economic barriers, get specific attention. Cambium - Leben in Gemeinschaft is situated in the former military complex of Styrian Fehring. Since May 2017 about 70 people work together to set up an eco-community and implement a solidarity economy. Both projects will be critically examined based on Jan’s research.


13.11.2018