Communities for Future

Communities for Future inspires and supports local communities to take action for a healthier, fairer, and more sustainable world.

General introduction

Communities for Future (CfF) is the new ECOLISE framework that was launched on September 29th 2020. Its main aim is the widespread mainstreaming of regenerative & transformative community-led action on climate change and sustainability in the period up to 2030 & beyond. Inspired by the eruption of student activism in 2019, led by Greta Thunberg and the “Fridays for Future” movement, this new open action platform, resource toolkit and community-led social movement has been developed by ECOLISE over the last year. This is the European meta network of community solutions to Climate Breakdown and include various regional networks including Transition Network, Permaculture Association, Global Ecovillage Network, ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) and more, as well as with academic support from Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa (FCUL, Lisbon) and DRIFT (Rotterdam).

In 2019 ECOLISE published ‘The First Status Report on Community-Led Action on Sustainability and Climate Change in Europe’. The scientific report provides powerful evidence of the critical role of local community-led initiatives in bringing effective solutions to the global threats of climate and ecological breakdown. The Status Report is published in cooperation with the Faculty of Science at Lisbon University. The lead authors are Tom Henfrey, Research Coordinator at ECOLISE, and Gil Penha-Lopes of the Faculty of Science, Lisbon University. The project is also being supported by many other partners and represents a new form of engaged scholarship that actively seeks to engage in the process of societal and cultural transformation.

Suggested key readings & links

• Penha-Lopes, G. & Henfrey, T. (2019), “Reshaping the Future: how communities are catalysing social, economic and ecological transformation in Europe. The First Status Report on Community-led Action on Sustainability and Climate Change”, Brussels: ECOLISE.
• Penha-Lopes, G. & Henfrey, T. (2019), “Reshaping the Future: how communities are catalysing social, economic and ecological transformation in Europe. The First Status Report on Community-led Action on Sustainability and Climate Change”, Brussels: ECOLISE. Executive Summary (8 pages)
• Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons
• REconomy Guides (REconomy Project, Transition Network)
  • Events Toolkit for Transition Initiatives
  • Transition Enterprise Handbook
  • Transition Core Resourcing

• Municipalities in Transition - Academic outputs
  • Full report about the system development (“Local collaborative transformations: Existing experiences and a new systemic framework for reflexive governance”)
  • Full report about the pilots’ experimentation (“Municipalities in Transition: Deep collaboration between community-based initiatives and local governments”)
  • Summary of the Municipalities in Transition System and its context (conference paper: “Municipalities in Transition – Navigating Through Mitigation and Adaptation”)
  • Published paper on the initial work (“Learnings from Local Collaborative Transformations: Setting a Basis for a Sustainability Framework”)
  • Poster, summarizing the process (“Municipalities in transition – collaboration between citizen-led initiatives and local governments”)

Link to other Wiki-pages

• Urban development through cultural solutions
• Co-learning and knowledge brokerage

Further reading

Links

• Project Website: https://www.communitiesforfuture.org

Publications