Course documentation Witzenhausen for GROWL Book

 
Living, Learning and Working together Community Building for a degrowth society

Documentation of the Course in Witzenhausen, Germany
 May 31st -June 7th, 2015

Organizer: Transition Town Witzenhausen e.V.
Concept: Silvia Hable, Katja Mangold, Gualter Baptista
Organizational support: Gilles Ramponi, Farid Melko






„Social movements play the most important role for the transformation to
a sustainable world culture (scenario “great transition”, Paul Raskin)”





Introduction:

Communites and Degrowth- interlinked aspects


Nowadays the world is more urbanised and commodified than ever. This brings alienation, ressource waste, ecological and social destruction, torturing economic depencies, depression and psychological illnesses to an extend, which has not been experienced beforehand.

Talking about degrowth, it makes a lot of sense, that people gather themselves in smaller communities, still living in a capitalist society, but with lower impacts, both to the inside and also causing to the world.

It is important to state, that communities not necessarily have to be intentional communities, in which people live all together. There are very different ways, how people can organise themselves.

Very well known and ressource-saving examples are of course eco-villages, which base themselves very often on permaculture principles, followed by politically left-wing motivated urban or rural projects. Communities are also to a certain extend more bourgiouse co-housing or co-working spaces, urban gardens or neighbourhoods in the urban area, as well as you can find strong communities within associations, partys, circle of friends or simply people sharing a common interest or hobby.

Whereever people come together on a base of more people than a nuclear family  and decide together their ressource management, talk about their basic needs and start to share materials, ideas and also help each other with difficulties, we can start to talk about a community building process.

The extent of community living of course varies very much, such as the impact it has on ones life and on the outside.

But important for us as course organizers was from the beginning on, to include also the little seeds for communtiy building processes, such you can find in Transition Initiatives, where often people gather, who come from single-home households, but want to be part of a collective change.

There is no right and wrong community building, most important is the will of the members for transformation on different levels and the knowlegde about tools for decision making.
Of course, communities in itself are not the saviour. They can even have a very destructive intention. The biggest community Germany has ever had, was the people community ( Volksgemeinschaft) under the Nationalist Regime.

Therefore the community topic is still seen sceptical in Germany and also research around it is in comparision with other countries, like the US, or Israel, both with strong history on community based settlements, completely neglected and underrepresented.

This is why we also integrated the critical reflection part on communities, to enable ourselves to have a closer look on this topic and prevent ourselves from enclosure, and exclusion behaviour, once we are part of a community towards the outside.


Excurs:
Intentional communities: socioecological experiments for transformation


Intentional Communities means:
• a group of people who have chosen to live together with commitment and a common purpose
• Intentional communities are in a constant creation process by their members, which distinguishes them from fixed organizations or institutions.
• Seeds of social critique & social movements:
– founded consciously on critical attitude towards society
– search and explore new ways of living with people and nature
– strive for intervention and creation of society rather than subordination
• intentional communities can be seen as social experiments and laboratories
(Kunze 2009)
• Ecovillages = intentional communities responding to ecological and social crisis
They explore realistic, human appropriate and ecological sustainable ways of living.

Empirical deduced qualities of socio-ecological transformationexperiments
Intention/ philosophy/ culture:
• striving for a socio-ecological way of living
•pluralistic philosophical/ spiritual philosophy or common ground

Structures:
• decentralised, democratic consensus decision structures
• flexibility of structures and common ground
• self organisation in most of the areas and needs (energy, housing,
economy, education, social network etc.)

Social practices:
• learning and practicing of social competence and communication
• dialogue and collaboration with society, working as model or education
project

Experimental approach:
• experimental openness in most of the areas, mainly in social regulation
structures

• processes of community and organisation building

• reflection, evaluation of the community project, also in connection with
society and environments


Ecovillage aspects

1. Designing small-scale, low-impact
human settlements
2. Low-impact architecture
3. Research & Experimentation with low-
impact technologies
4. Living in a community
5. Organic, locally based food production
& processing
6. Earth restoration (e.g. land, forest)
7. Participatory governance and social
inclusion
8. Bottom-up Residential Planning
9. Peace activism & international
solidarity
10. Research, demonstration, education



Resources:

Decreased ecological footprint: 28- 42 % of German
average and 21,5- 37% of UK average, but increased
life quality conditions (safety, choice of lifestyle, working
freedom, combining work & private life, etc) (Simon et
al, 2004)

Should enter here a figure?

Mobility:

Car-sharing
short distances
work on spot
e-bikes....

Economy:

So vielschichtig Gemeinschaften sind, so vielfältig sind auch ökonomische Beziehungen untereinander. In einigen intentionellen Gemeinschaften gibt es eine gemeinsame Kasse, in die gewirtschaftet wird und jeder ist berechtigt, bis zu einem gewissen Betrag, ohne Absprache mit den anderen, daraus zu entnehmen- egal wieviel er einzahlt. Dies ermöglicht es in einem kleineren Rahmen innovativen Ideen nachgehen zu können, von denen einige oder auch alle profitieren, die aber unter marktwirtschaftlichen Aspekten keinen “Gewinn” einspielen würde und somit für Einzelpersonen aus zeitlichen Gründen kaum oder schwer umsetzbar wären. Auch neue unternehmerische Ideen und Geschäftsmodelle sind mit einer gemeinsamen Kasse im Rücken leichter umzusetzen, da sie als Anschubfinanzierung dienen kann, bis das Kleinunternehmen von selbst genug Gewinn abwirft.

Weiterhin sind viele Gemeinschaften teil-selbstversorgend, haben vorallem im Bereich der Nahrungsmittelproduktion hinsichtlich Obst und Gemüse eine große Autonomie. Durch vielfältige nachbarschaftliche Beziehungen und freundschaftlicher mit Kooperativen in In- und Ausland kann auf eine große Produktpalette zugegriffen werden, welchen hohen ökologischen und ethischen Standards hinsichtlich Arbeits- und Produktionsbedingen entspricht. Oftmals basieren diese Verbindungen auf Vertrauensbasis und es entfallen kostspielige Labels, Zertifizierungen und Zwischenhandel.

Auch in anderen Bereichen können sich Gemeinschaften- je nach Größe und Organisationsform besser vom kapitalistischen, rein auf Profit ausgelegten Markt abkoppeln, z.b. im Dienstleisungsbereich (Kinder- und Altenpflege, Reperaturen)

Psycho-social aspects:

Das dafür verwendete Bewertungsverfahren nennt sich „Orientorenansatz“
und teilt die Lebenssituation anhand der sechs Orientoren
„aktuelle Existenzbedingungen, langfristige Sicherheit, Handlungsfreiheit, Wandlungsfähigkeit, Effizienz und Koexistenz“. Es wird davon ausgegangen, dass sich mit diesen sechs Orientoren die Lebensqualität unter Gesichtspunkten der Nachhaltigkeit abbilden lässt. Die Bewertung jedes einzelnen Orientors ergibt sich aus der
Betrachtung von jeweils fünf bis acht dafür relevanten Einzelkriterien, wie z.B. „materielle Sicherheiten, soziale Kompetenzen, gesellschaftliches Engagement, Kooperationsbereitschaft, Flexibilität sowie Zufriedenheit
mit verschiedenen Lebensaspekten“. Das Gesamtergebnis ist grafisch im Orientorenstern dargestellt. Auf der Skala bedeutet 0 die Minimalbewertung und 4 die Maximalbewertung im Sinn von Nachhaltigkeit. Es zeigt
sich, dass die Gemeinschaften auch nach diesen Kriterien den Nachhaltigkeitsansprüchen wesentlich näher sind als Kleinhaushalte.

Rein materiell gesehen sparen Gemeinschaften Ressourcen und Energie,
weil sie effizienter verwendet werden. Privat besitzt der Einzelne weniger Güter, er kann aber durch gemeinsame Ergänzung mehr nutzen und erreicht damit trotzdem einen höheren „materiellen Wohlstand“. Ökologische Investitionen wie Solaranlagen, die kurzfristig kostenintensiv sind, können gemeinsam eher aufgebracht werden.

Es entsteht Raum für andere Werte: Sozialbeziehungen werden im Alltag wichtiger als Konsum. Es liegt in
Gemeinschaften näher als in Singlewohnungen, abends gemeinsam zu musizieren als alleine fernzusehen. Die Reflexion der eigenen materiellen Bedürfnisse durch Kommunikation mit anderen fördert eine konsumkritische Entwicklung und das gemeinsame Wachsen in eine lebenswerte, zukunftsfähige Lebensweise.
Gemeinschaften sind Schmelztiegel innovativer Ideen. Hier treffen Menschen verschiedener Interessen und Kenntnisse zusammen, die sich in gesellschaftlich abgetrennten Subkulturen eher selten begegnen. Durch  Auseinandersetzungen in kommunikativen Strukturen (z.B. Plenum, Forum) wird Toleranz und Verständnis für die Sicht- und Lebensweise anderer geschaffen.

Die große Herausforderung bleibt, die transformativen Erfahrungen und das Potential aus intentionellen Gemeinschaften und Ökodörfern auf die Gesamtgesellschaft zu übertragen und im großen Stile zu integrieren.


Part 2

Module Description


In this course explored via different methologies, approaches and experiences, as well as from the evalution from already ongoing ( transition) projects in a small town in Germany, Witzenhausen, which suffers from big debt payments, the power of community and ways of community building.
The Goal of our course was, to develop creative ways of thinking, being and doing, so that instead of scarcity the „Buen Vivir“ comes in full power in our communities.
We started from the „I narrative“, explored our (gender) roles and our body (language), then shifted to the next level, and explored ourselves within the generational context, and different ways of living constructs. We explored historical and also critical aspects of community building. In the next step we went to the community level ( village, small town, barrio) and explored aspects around city development, local economies and civil participation on a theoretical as well as academic level, as well as  in hands-on projects which already run in Witzenhausen and evaluted them in the context of degrowth discourse and the level of sucess for community building. Evey morning started with a "Council Sharing Circle"- a strong method for community building.
The course took place on the Jugendburg Ludwigstein, which is a very interesting historic place, and has a strong link to community building, as the "Wandervögel", a reformist youth movement in the early twenties of the last century bought it and started to restaurate it. The Enno-Narten-Bau, where the seminar took place, is the biggest strawbale building in Germany and was build in 40.000 hours of voluntary, community-based work, especially from different scout associations.
The second part took place in the center of the city in the „Transition House“ from Transition Town. The central point of the course was a yurt in a public park. There was  a lively exchange between the course participants, inhabitants of Witzenhausen and students of the organic agriculture faculty with an rich cultural programm.


Aim of the module:

During one week, the age-mixed seminargroup could gain practical experience in relation of a living community.
This was reached throughout different methologies and background knowlegde given by special trainers on their topic, including the degrowth discourse, which is not very well know by most people looking for community experiences.

These could be put in this way in a wider context of perspectives of post-growth society.Participants learned on a theoreticial level about degrowth, Transition Town Movement and Local Economies. This was embedded in practical learning approaches, as well body, mind and soul were estimulated throughout a mix of different methodologies. Practical, culinary, spiritual, body-centered and artistic elements helped the participants to get a broader acess to the topics and enabled them to find the most fitting methods for community building for themselves and their local  communities.

Also participants were enabled to have a critical view on community building and on its historical roots, to be able to transfer this critical thinking into present movements.
All parts of the course, as well as ongoing projects were interlinked with the theory of degrowth and evaluated on its practicability and contribution to a post-growth society.

On a meta-level, participants experienced food souvereigty on course, since most of the food eaten during the course was produced or picked in a regionally, organic-grown and producer-trust-based context. Participants were estimulated to exchange their knowlegde and experience interculturally and intergenerationally.
In the end participants should have a full one week experience to take home, inspiring their communities and be able to hold themselves a training on degrowth and aspects of community building.

For the Transition Town Initiative was additionally important to use the course as a economic and structural stabilizer for its own community building process.This was partly met by a good gesture of the course money, we had available, also by using our own food ressources and friends support.

This enabled us also to pay the course organizers, who normally work voluntary for Transition Town.
Also we wanted to create sustainable and maintaining structures before and after the course, which are contributing to the transformation of the city.


Part 3

Organisational Part

Background:

Witzenhausen ist eine Kleinstadt in Nordhessen, die unter dem kommunalen Schutzschirm steht. Hier ist es besonders interessant zu erfahren, welche Alternativen es zum Sparkurs gibt und ob und wie Gemeinschaftsbildung zur Erlangung des „Buen Vivir“ beitragen kann. Wir nutzten für diesen Kurs die bereits bestehenden sozialen und materiellen Strukturen und Projekte von Transition Witzenhausen, vernetzten sie besser miteinander und evalierten sie im Bezug auf Degrowth kritisch. Darüber hinaus arbeiteten wir bei der Organisation und Durchführung des Kurses mit einem breiten Spektrum an bestehenden lokalen Initiativen, Kulturschaffenden, Erzeuger_Innen und Aktivist_Innen zusammen, was wiederum der nachhaltigen Stärkung unserer Gemeinschaft hier vor Ort diente und die als Impulsgeber_Innen für den Kurs wirkten.

Seminar Spaces:

We took quite some time, to choose the place for our course. We didnt want to choose a „soul-less“ seminar space. We wanted  to find places which have to do with community building or need some intervention to be more used by the community, because we believe that the space where we are strongly influences our thoughts and behaviours, just like other people do.In the end we stayed with the following options:



Burg Ludwigstein, Jugenbildungsstätte


Die Jugendbildungsstätte Ludwigstein wurde 1987 als eigenständige Abteilung der Stiftung Jugendburg Ludwigstein und Archiv der deutschen Jugendbewegung gegründet und firmiert seit 2003 als unabhängige gGmbH

It includes a seminar space on the castle and is the holder of the annual network meeting of „Transition Valleys“, which connects different Transition and Transition alike Initiatives in the wider region.

Strohballenhaus

Der Enno-Narten-Bau ist das größte Strohballenhaus Deutschlands. Der Bau stand unter der Schirmherrschaft des Landrats des Werra-Meißner-Kreises und wurde für die Umsetzung der Nachhaltigkeitsidee von der UNESCO als Modellprojekt der UN-Dekade "Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung" ausgezeichnet. Er trägt den Namen des Wandervogels, der die Jugendburg 1920 ins Leben gerufen hat.

Mit der Grundsteinlegung für den Enno-Narten-Bau sind die Jugendbünde im Januar 2010 in den Dritten Ring aufgebrochen. Im Oktober 2010 wurde Richtfest gefeiert, und im September 2012 fand die Einweihung statt. Mehr als 40.000 freiwillige Baustunden haben die Jugendbünde und weitere Erbauer dafür geleistet. Das war möglich, weil alle Fachkräfte, die die Erbauer ehrenamtlich angeleitet haben, selbst in Gruppen groß geworden sind. Vieles von dem, was bei der Errichtung des „Enno“ geleistet und empfunden wurde enthält unser Bautagebuch.

University Park:

A Public Park, owned by DITSL, the Tropic Research Institut within the University of Organic Agriculture of witzenhausen, which is a department of University of Kassel. Being in the center of Witzenhausen, the park is not very frequented in general. Mostly during lunch time in the summer by students and in the evening by marginalised young people, who have little cultural life to frequent or places to go in witzenhausen.

We wanted to use the installation of the yurt exactly in this place to connect different groups of Witzenhausen, who are normally very distant from each other: young marginalised people, refugees, students and regular inhabitants of witzenhausen, looking for leisure time

We could experience through our resideny for 5 days in this park its qualities for bigger group meetings and get into contact with some people outside the normal connections. We danced, played, did acrobatics and slack line, juggled, watch birds, learned about trees, meet, talked, ate, played music, sang, tought ourselves in different skills, had knowledge exchange, press meeetings, played theatre, cuddled and learned about building up a yurt in this time.

Unfortunately it was a special week for the university, whereas most students were not on the spot during this week.
But it helped us to understand that we want to have a further revitilasation of this park and that is doesnt need a lot of money or material input.



Transition House

is situated very close to the park, walking distance around 3 minutes.

The Transition House was founded in spring 2013 in an open space process, involving more than 70 people from different groups and background, such a politicians, religious groups, alternative initiaives, parents, kindergarden workers and so on.
The house has 4 floors, including a multi-use shop, community kitchen and food coop in the ground floor, the „painting room“ and 2 offices in the first floor, including the office of transition network germany. Further on, it has some living space and guest room on the second floor and on the attic a play- and storage room. The backyards includes a lot of edible plants, as well as the front side. The house is used by different groups for working, meetings and venues and is the core of transition witzenhausen, where most groups gather and plan further actions. It is situated in the pedestrian zone and therefore also part of city and shop development issues in the town.


The course organisation „Transition Town Witzenhausen e.V.“

What is Transition Town Movement about?


The essence of Transition is in its name.  It describes the era of change we are all living in.
The Transition idea is about us all being an engaged, active part of that change. As a starting place, Transition focuses on oil.  Transition acknowledges that our current dependence on oil places us in a vulnerable position. We in the global North are using huge amounts of fossil fuels, which inextricably tie us into future of run-away climate change / chaos across the world.
Transition explores and develops ways we can change from these energy-hungry ways of living, that are utterly dependent on oil and other fossil fuels, to ways of living that are significantly less so.
In reality Transition is about a lot more than that.  It is about people taking a greater interest in their present and future needs; being more aware of the world in which they live; thinking about the way they really want to live, about who is impacted by the current system and how, and about getting stuck in to make those positive changes happen, from the bottom upwards.
Transition Town Initiatives help create thriving, healthy, caring local communities where people's ways of life take into account the needs of future generations as well as the present ones.  Rising fuel prices, the social justice impacts of being part of a world fighting to take control of every last oil reserve and natural resource, our current economic uncertainty and climate change are just some of the reasons we have for needing to rise to this challenge.  However, Transition Town Iniatives focuse on these motivators as opportunities to increase community well-being, to expand our local economy, to take responsibility for the impact we are having on the ecosystem and other people, and to find ways of living that are in line with our Earth's natural systems.

https://www.transitionnetwork.org/
http://transition-initiativen.de


Stadt und Menschen im Wandel - Transition Witzenhausen
 
In der Transition Town Witzenhausen - Stadt und Menschen im Wandel - Initiative haben sich bereits im Januar 2009 Bürgerinnen und Bürgerzusammengeschlossen, die sich für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung in unserer Region einsetzen. Ausgangspunkt ist die Erkenntnis, dass sich die Lebensgrundlagen aller Menschen weltweit in der nächsten Zeit maßgeblich verändern werden: Fossile Energieträger (Öl, Uran etc.) werden knapp und teuer, der Klimawandel wird direkte Auswirkungen auf unser Leben haben  und Wirtschaftskrisen werden zu Einschnitten auf dem Arbeitsmarkt und bei den Einkommen führen.

Unsere Initiative entwickelt in verschiedenen Projektgruppen Visionen und Vorschläge, die Antworten auf diese Herausforderung geben und die gemeinsam mit allen interessierten Menschen umgesetzt werden. Dabei geht es um mehr Selbstständigkeit, Selbstversorgung, Gemeinschaft und einer Stärkung unserer Region.

Momentan liegen unsere Schwerpunkte auf dem Betreiben eines Nachbarschafts- und Kulturzentrums in der Innenstadt, sowie in der Konzeption, Gestaltung und Koordination der Essbaren Stadt "UnvergEssbar". Ein weiteres wichtiges Thema ist das internationale Bildungsprojekt "GROWL-Living Degrowth" zum Thema der Postwachstumsökonomie und Suffizienz, sowie die partizipative Gestaltung der Stadt.

Wir arbeiten mit einem situationsbedingten Ansatz, betreiben regional und überregional viel Öffentlichkeits und Vernetzungsarbeit und sind in den letzten 5 Jahren zu einem anerkannten Akteur in Sachen Kultur und Nachhaltigkeit in der Region geworden.

Unsere Arbeit ist gelebte Inklusion und Förderung der Resilienz in einer Stadt, die stark vom demografischen Wandel betroffen ist. Alle Altersgruppen sind vertreten, Menschen mit schwierigen sozialen Bedingungen und gesundheitlichen Benachteiligungen werden nicht bloß integriert, sondern sind selbstverständlich Teil der Gruppe. Wir sehen uns als Menschen im Wandel, die sich auch innerlich weiterentwickeln wollen.
 
Der aktive und feste Kern besteht aus 25 Mitgliedern, weitere 100 Unterstützer_Innen arbeiten projektbezogen mit oder unterstützen uns ideell und mit Sach- und Finanzmitteln.
Die Projekte finanzieren sich durch Fördermittel, einen Förderkreis, Mitgliedsbeiträge, Spenden sowie Einnahmen aus dem laufenden Betrieb des Nachbarschaftszentrums.
Weitere Projekte sind u.a.: eine Allmendeküche, der Malraum Witzenhausen, das Reperaturcafé,  sowie wir verschiedene Kooperationen haben, u.a. mit einer Fahrradselbsthilfewerkstatt, mit dem Arbeitskreis Asyl, der Solidarischen Landwirtschaft Freudenthal usw...
Viele dieser Gruppen waren aktiv in den Vorbereitungs- oder Durchführungsprozess des GROWL Kurses eingebunden und konnten sich dadurch besser vernetzen und weiterentwickeln.

http://ttwitzenhausen.de




Preparing phase of the module

When we started to think about the modul in the beginning of 2014, we were just two people from Transition Town interested in this. We realized, that for a course of community building, we have to build ourselves more structures which we can use as experience for the course, but also we wanted to strengthen the whole initative and use the course itself as a catalysator. Therefor it was important for us- as a initiative where at least some members work in a part-time job on voluntary base, a big part of the money, which was available stayed within our initiative. So we could pay some rent for our house, support the structures of our food coop, our kitchen and could pay the course organizers, as well as trainers, parts of the kitchen team and so on.
This was a very practical part of establing local eoncomy.

As structures we created beforehand, is to name the women circle, which was founded in beginning of 2014 ( more in the methological description)


More projects being involved:

- Food Coop Schöpfkelle

Seit November 2014 gibt es im Transition Town Haus die Food Coop (Lebensmittelkooperative) Schöpfkelle. 

Die Schöpfkelle bezieht hochwertige, ökologische und möglichst regionale Grundnahrungsmittel direkt von den Erzeugern und lässt so langfristige Erzeuger-Verbraucher-Beziehungen entstehen.

Es gibt ein Trockensortiment in großen Gebinden, wie Getreide, Hülsenfrüchte und Kerne, sowie selbst verarbeitete Produkte. Als Lagerraum dient ein Raum vom Transition Haus, in dem sich jedes Mitglied seine Lebensmittel selber abfüllen kann.

Die Idee ist es Lebensmittel möglichst regional zu erwerben und somit lokale (Kleinst)erzeuger zu unterstützen und einen breiteren Anbau zu ermöglichen. Weiterhin haben Mitglieder die Möglichkeit eigene Lebensmittel bzw. selbst veredelte Produkte wie Marmelade, Trockentomaten u.a. über die Food Coop anzubieten. Dies ist besonders im Hinblick auf Ernährungssouveränität und Ziele des Projektes UnvergEssbar ein wichtiger Schritt und bedeutet auch im Hinblick auf die Erhaltung und Gestaltung der Kulturlandschaft praktischen Naturschutz, der Spaß macht!

Wir möchten unsere Ernährung an dem regionalen Angebot orientieren, ähnlich wie es Mitglieder der solidarischen Landwirtschaft bereits tun. Außerdem freuen wir uns, wenn wir ErzeugerInnen landwirtschaftlicher Produkte zu einer bedarfsgerechten Produktion inspirieren können und dadurch eine kleine, aber gern wachsende Unterstützung für den regionalen Absatz leisten können.

- Breakfast Team

katja

- Baking collective

katja


- Nestwerk

Das Nestwerk gibt es seit 20 Jahren. Es haben unterschiedlich viele Leute mitgewirkt. In Hochzeiten standen 8 Bauwagen hier und 3 Familien im Haus. Wir benutzen das Nestwerk schon immer für Community aktions. Jahrelang haben wir Donnerstags Fokü gemacht. Sauna, Lagerfeuer, Disco, handgemachte Musik, nackt trocken Tanzen am offenen Kamin bei gutem Essen und gepflegter Gesellschaft. Die Feste zu den Sonnenwenden hiessen früher Kreativfestival. Wir hatten einen Verein, „SoWiWaLe“ Sonne Wind Wasser Leben. Über diesen Verein haben wir Veranstaltungen im Umkreis Göttingen und Werra Meissner Kreis organisiert. Handlungsorientierte Pädagogik, Wildniswissen und Outdoortraining waren die meist gebrauchten Schlagwörter. In dieser Zeit haben wir Gemeinschaft über Arbeit definiert. Jetzt ist das Nestwerk Seminarbetrieb, Pilgerort für Menschen, die sich selbst besser kennen lernen wollen, oder denen der Arsch auf Grundeis geht. Eine grosse Anzahl an Menschen kommen zu den Veranstaltungen und tanken sich auf. Seit ein paar Jahren bieten wir die Communityveranstaltungen besonders für Menschen mit Kindern an, da Kinder in vielen Kreisen als störend empfunden werden. Hier sind sie ausdrücklich erwünscht.

Schwitzhütte, Yoga, Tantra, Medizinzeremonien, Coaching, energetisches Heilen, Council, Jugendarbeit, Übergangsrituale, Visionssuche, Fasten, heil werden, auftanken, entspannen, zusammen Arbeiten, ökologisches Wohnen, Wildnis, Liebe, Theater, Musik, Rückanbindung an Natur und unbeschädigtes Selbst………………...

http://www.helgebartels.de/




 Jurtenwesen

Seit 2014 in Bremen situiert, träumt Jurtenwesen von Jurten und Möglichkeiten den wunderschönen runden Raum der Jurte zu beleben. Dafür bauen und werken sie und schaffen so Orte für Menschen, Träume und Taten.
Iist es ihnen  ein wichtiges Anliegen diese Unternehmung dem Gemeinwohl zu widmen, und so laden sie jeden geneigten Menschen herzlich ein, sich daran mit eigenen Träumen, Taten und Erfahrungen zu beteiligen.
Möglichkeiten des Jurtenbaus
Die Jurtenborge
EpikuR
Regiolabor
Festivaljurte
Wintermarktjurte
Kinojurte
Naturjurte
Leben in Jurten
Erfahrungsfeld der Sinne
Stadtgartenjurte
Spiel~Platz+Jurte
Werkstattjurte
Lernort

http://jurtenwesen.de



Maker Space We make it

Dem Technik-Kollektiv “WEmakeIT”, hat seine Räumlichkeiten im Transition-Haus in Witzenhausen. Hier ist die Idee eine Gemeinschaft von technik-begeisterten und eine entsprechende Infrastruktur für diese zu bilden, um voneinander zu lernen und gemeinsam kreativ zu sein. Als erstes Infrastrukturprojekt steht die offene Elektronikwerstatt an, die alle notwendigen Werkzeuge zum erkunden der Welt der elektronischen und elektrischen Geräte bereitstellt. Das ist natürlich eng verzahnt mit dem Reparatur-Café, da die gleiche Infrastruktur auch für die Reparaturen genutzt wird.
Für die Zukunft ist auch ein Workshop-Angebot geplant, um das gesammelte Wissen weiterzugeben – wieder im Interesse, dass die Menschen die sie umgebende Umwelt (und die ist in der heutigen Zeit von elektronik geprägt) besser zu verstehen.


Intergenerational Garden

The Garden was being started in spring 2014, after a planning and negotiation pahse of 1,5 year. Initially it was one of the last empty spaces in town, where always garden activities occured in a non-organised way. Some people from Transition Town took over small plots in 2010. In 2011 the district sold the land to an investors group, who themselves verpachten...in a long-term contract to AWO for a elders people home.
TT could influence at least some of the plans of the investors, and keep a 800qm big garden land open for community activities, also as there were planted more edible plants and fruit trees and the rest of the green land around the home, than it usual happens.



Klangraum

Der Klangraum ist ein Erfahrungsraum sowie Studio für Klänge.
Wir versuchen christliche Nächstenliebe zu leben, deshalb sind alle Veranstaltungen im Klangraum auf Spendenbasis.
Wir möchten Musikinstrumente so günstig und nutzbar herstellen, dass sie sich jeder leisten kann.
Weiterhin machen wir Rhythmusarbeit, Sozialkompetenztraining, Musikkurse, Musikaktionen sowie Instrumentenbau an Schulen und Kindergärten.
Weiterhin können große und kleine Leute Klangerfahrungen, Klangmassagen, Heilsamen Gesang und Schulungen bei uns erleben.
In unserer Kreativwerkstatt können Musikinstrumente oder andere Gegenstände aus Holz gebaut werden.

http://www.spiritsoundart.de


Community Supported Agriculture Freudenthal

Mit Blick auf das Werratal wird in der Nähe von Witzenhausen von wirtschaftlichen  Zwängen unabhängig gegärtnert.
GEmüse wird hier GEmeinschaftlich GEteilt, GEgessen und GEfeiert.
CSA Freudenthal
•   ganzjährige Gemüsevollversorgung für derzeit 100 Mitglieder
•   Betrieb 3 km außerhalb von Witzenhausen
•   2,8 ha Freiland und 6 Folientunnel
•   jährlich wechselndes Gärtnerkollektiv

Der Gärtnereibetrieb befindet sich in Freudenthal, einem Ortsteil von Witzenhausen. Die Kirschenstadt im unteren Werratal ist ein Standort der Uni Kassel und bietet als erste und bis jetzt einzige deutsche Uni den Studiengang Ökologische Landwirtschaft als Bachelor und Master an.
In diesem Umfeld stellt die CSA Freudenthal einen vielseitigen Lernort für ein jährlich wechselndes Gärtnerkollektiv dar.
Durch eine offene Struktur und einen wöchentlichen Mitmachtag besteht für die Mitglieder ein direkter Kontakt zum Anbau und zu den GärtnerInnen. Dabei entstehen vielfältige Möglichkeiten, im Gemüsebau praktisch mitzugestalten. In zirka vierteljährlichen Vollversammlungen werden aktuelle Themen diskutiert und gemeinsam Entscheidungen getroffen.

http://www.gemuesefreuden.wordpress.de



 Give Away Shop

Upcoming Free Shop, next to the Transition Haus in the pedestrian zone of witzenhausen

GNE

Ein Weiterbildungsinstitut, das sich auf die Bereiche Klimaschutz und Ressourcenmanagement, Erneuerbare Energie sowie Entwicklungszusammenarbeit und Humanitäre Hilfe spezialisiert hat.

http://www.gne-witzenhausen.de/



Transformap


TransforMap works towards an online platform to visualize the myriad of alternatives to the dominant economic thinking on a single mapping system. It will give everyone the opportunity to map the initiatives, communities, projects, worker-owned, self-managed, democratically organised companies and other institutions dedicated to meeting people's needs, serving the common good and/ or contributing to a sustainable way of life.

http://transformap.co


Ecobytes e.V.


Non-profit, community-supported and -oriented IT collective with hosting and services for activists, researchers, artists, individuals and the solidary economy.

Community informatics, providing solidarity hosting
Direct involvement of the members of the collective in social movements
Cooperative work model
Promotion and development of free/libre/open source software
Support for the commons and commons-based peer production of knowledge
Research and experimentation of sustainable IT solutions (e.g. lower-energy server-desktop solutions for organisations or companies)
Servers in German data centers, powered entirely by renewable energy
Secure data-storage for political groups and citizens concerned about their privacy


http://ecobytes.net


Malraum Witzenhausen


... ein Ort, an dem spielend gemalt wird.
ein Mal– Spielplatz. Ein Raum in welchem gemalt wird, nur von der eigenen spontanen Befindlichkeit angetrieben.
Ungefähr 7 Kinder und Erwachsene ( ab ca. 4 Jahre bis ins hohe Alter) malen gemeinsam nebeneinander.
Sie malen stehend, auf Papierblätter, die an die Wand gepinnt werden, und unbegrenzt wachsen können.
Eine „Malstunde“  dauert 90 Minuten. Die Stunden finden wöchentlich statt.
Der MalOrt ist ein Ort in dem die Rolle, die einer sonst so spielt, unwichtig wird.
Das Kind und auch der Erwachsene erlebt sich, in seiner eigenes geschaffenen Welt.

http://www.arnostern.com/de/malort

@Katja: HIER würde ich den gesamten Orgateil der Küche und Partizipationsmöglichkeiten einfügen

Childcare during the course:

Initially we thought about the course taking place on a pedagogical farm next to Witzenhausen, to ensure some kind of childrens activities during formats more interesting just for adults.
But even after announcing from the very beginning on, that childcare is provided throughout the course, nobody inscribed with younger ones.
Therefore was just 2 kids from the organisation team at the course. At a very late state another mother applied who brought 2 of her 4 children to the course.
Since there was nothing organised properly, we asked for participants support, which was at some point helpful, at another not at all. At one side a person from the organisition cannot take care about young children at the same moment, and on the other formats were not appropriate to really include children. Therefore usual discussions around children being annoying or not appeared on the seminar. We missed to discuss this topic fully in a council, as well as we could  not integrate mostly the children into the program or the council itself. When we were at the park, they enjoyed more to be at the course, since there were friends in the park and the course program in general was more relaxed and playful.
To better childcare, the following points should be taken into consideration;
-  make more announcement beforehand, that children and families are welcome in specific „scenes“, where a lot of alternative families gather.
- make sure, that one person is paid to coordinate the childcare
- this person can get help from participants, but it should not relay on her/himself
- make sure, that there is no language barrier between the children and childcare, if it is an international course
- plan beforehand activities, where childran can be part of and make sure, that there is the possibility to do it in their rhythm / e.g. an excursion: make a fast group, and a slow one, so that people with children stay not behind, feeling excluded
- integrate children wherever possible in circles, artisitic activties, celebrating, practical activities
- people with children need more time to get ready than single adult persons.
Make sure that announcements, where to got, what to bring for the next activity is clear enough with some time before, not to get into a rush
- organise sleeping possibilities close to the venues, so that parents can participate during naps of the children and in the evenings
. try to reserve a space in the program for the children issue. Children and older people are very important members of communities. Listeining to their needs very often brings naturally some down-speeding and essenciality, therefore degrowth, put the children and their ideas in the middle of a session, play with them, walk with them, explore with them
- agree beforehand, what to do, if children get too noisy during theoretical sessions. Is it the responsibility of the parents or of the whole group?
Who speaks with the children, or goes out with them?
- encourage people also to express the uncomfortability, since we are living and an adult based world, where contact with children is often not known or seen as something annoying. Here is the place to learn with and from each other, nor romantising childhood, nor expelling them.


Looking also for Material on Inklusion of under 18 in the organisational part of the growl book--> Link

INCLUDE HERE: "Programme-overview.pdf"

Methods:

Welcoming Ritual ( Helge Bartels, Katja Mangold)


Aim:

Arriving at the moment, at a very special place, rich of history and new stories to be told...Welcome!

Space:

Prepared Room

Time:

1 hour

Preparation:

collecting flowers, musicians with light instruments for a background sound or soft music from CD Player, some herbs to heat...

Description:

Participants gather around fire place
and in our case, a child went in front, putting flowers on the ground and participants came after

Bevor arriving in the seminar place, the were geräuchert from 2 people on each side of the door, to make consciouness to enter a new space, the course space for one week

In the room,......

@ Katja: bitte hier noch ergänzen


Council (Helge Bartels)

Aim:
Council is a modern practice derived from many ancient forms of communicating in a circle. Sometimes referred to as "Listening Circles," council utilizes a center, a circle, and a talking piece to create an intentional space in which to share our stories. The practice of deep listening without judgment fosters an atmosphere of respect for ourselves and for others and promotes empathy, dissolving barriers to cooperation, understanding and
community.

Council is a practice of open, heartfelt expression and attentive, empathic listening. It is a great ally in introducing meaningful change in our institutions and family relationships. Council is effective for those who want to move from a hierarchical structure to a partnership model where initiative, responsibility and leadership are shared. Through deepening trust, council supports the clarification of values, co-visioning, and community building. 

We started every morning with a council and learned throughout the course different tecniques within the council method, to deepen our knowlegde and enabling ourselves to carry this experience to our home communities. We used it both for generally getting to know each other better as well as we could tackle upcoming issues within the seminar and group processes.

Description:
The following intentions are present within Council. They allow a group to reach a deeper level in their way of listening to each other. To remember this rules, it is useful to write them on a paper to be seen from everybody.

• Speak from the heart  (in what is present, authentic and serves transparency)
• Listen from the heart  (Paying attention to the other, less to our self)
• Be spontaneous  (Not to plan, store information or be with agenda)
• Be lean and to the point  (Speak the essence)
• Speak out, what serves you, the circle and the higher good
• Confidentiality: what has been said in the circle stays in the circle

The practice of the Way of Council in form and intention is simple. Participants sit together in a circle and use a suitable talking piece which can be chosen by the group beforehand, and, or be relevant to a theme. The use of this talking piece gives clarity as to who is talking and to those whom are listening, for the circle seeks to have a single voice and many ears at any one time.
There are a tremendous variety of Council forms, which each can support a situation in a group or with individuals –  from a controversial point of dispute, to a lifting of group wisdom. Council facilitators are trained to suggest and apply the form the circle best needs.

INCLUDE here: "councilimunipark.jpg"

Remarks:

It was questioned, if the council would not have been more appropriate in the evening times, since cooking and breakfast team could not participate and felt therefore excluded from the community building process. Also the council took generally too much time in the morning, where than time for organisational issues and the program to be started punctually, has been missed.

So, it is to consider, to use the morning for organisational annoucnements and the evening time after dinner for a sharing circle.
Some people also stated, that the course in general was focussed too much on peoples emotions and feeling, where of course the council had a big contribution.
Further course organizators have to decide, how much weight they want to give a sharing circle and als

http://council-network.eu/


World Café on Community Building ( Silvia Hable)

Aim

Collecting ideas, wishes to learn more and different experiences from Course Participants regarding „Community“ and its related topics.
Open questions and upcoming ideas for further and deeper exchange will be recorded and can be dealt later on in the course.

Space/Preparation

Seminar space with 4 tables, on each a paper with a question.
A few pens
Chairs around the table
Some tea/coffee available
Cookies on the table and/or fruits to have a confortable atmosphere

Time:
1,5 hour

Description

People are asked to split into groups. They will sit around the tables, where the following questions are put:

(still need to get the poster or some fotos on them)
-
-
-
-

One person will stay at the table, the other will move within a cycle of 10 minutes on each table to the other 3 tables. People have an open discussion, writing down unfiltered their discussion in short remarks on the paper.

After 10 minutes the trainer makes a sound, so that people, exept the “table owner”, will move to the next table. The “Table owner” explains the next group what the previous group has been talking. On this base the discussion continues. After 4 rounds, the table owners present the whole group the essence and the most interesting/contradicting points in the discussions. If you have enough time you can enrol on this an interesting group discussion. In our case we left the papers hanging on the wall as inspirations and reference point throughout the next days of the course.


Variations/Additional remarks

With more time, you can first make a short introduction into the community topic. You can ask people about their experiences, expactations or associations around this topic, collect them on cards on a board and start to cluster them, to formulate questions out of this, which will be put than on the still empty papers on the tables.
Both approaches are interesting, one is more based on the interests of the participants, the other helpd to have a more open discussion on the first spot. Also good as a kind of ice breaker between participantes who still know each other very well. You can combine it also with collage technique, or painting, when you hand out pencils and/or magazines to be cut out, glue and scissors.

The maniacs liveshow: critical reflections on the day (CROD)

The theoretical background of the course laid a big focus on getting the participants well acquainted with the sources of degrowth (see chapter on diversal degrowth). Having participants knowledgeable of these, helps to understand the importance of critically assessing ideas, projects, concepts and actions from an integrated perspective.

The introductory workshop has been built upon the Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking methodology used at the Czech course. Through pair reading and peer learning, participants could get acquainted with the different sources of degrowth.

At the end of the workshop, „maniac“ teams that would critically assess contents and projects across the week have been formed. The random assignment of numbers to participants during the workshop (with each number corresponding to one of the six sources) has been kept, although participants were given the opportunity to change their group. These six groups of maniacs, with their biased mono-source analysis provided a joyful and convivial opportunity for an evening critical reflection on everything that was said and presented during the day.

The liveshow was largely based on the Forum Theatre methodology with the degrowth maniacs experimented in the GROWL course at Can Decreix (France), and the setup was inspired by nonsense parody found at the Hackers' Jeopardy that is found at the end of each day at the Chaos Communications Congress.

Each maniac - and its team – was to meet shortly at the end of the day and prepare an analysis. A spokesperson (actor) was appointed by the team to enter a daily liveshow. All the team was then working to settle the choreography, costumes and debate tone for their maniac actor. The remaining members of the team sat around to watch and act as fans for their maniac. Other people in the vicinity were also invited to assist.

FOTO of this event, tuesday evening!

The maniacs liveshow provided not only an opportunity for debate, but also for the participants to deepen their background and knowledge on degrowth and to stimulate critical thought. The overly exaggeration of one source brought by a maniac, has the effect of showing the absurd of supporting concepts, proposals or practices based on a single perspective.

Preparation and procedure

Time: 1 hour

Needs:

• a place for the theatre to take place, including space for the public (the scene)

• if outside, an amplifier and microphone can be helpful

• a master of ceremonies (moderator)

• actors focalized on each source of degrowth (the maniacs)

• box for dressing up with different cloth and items

• costumes and choreographys

Maniacs meet up in their groups to reflect 15 minutes on the day, the program, the atmosphere, the food, or whatever seems to be important. They write down points that they find relevant to be part of the discussion.

Maniacs (are) dress(ed) up according their obsession. All maniacs sit in an half circle, double row, or other setting that is found convenient for a TV liveshow style hot debate. They can improvise a talking about the day, based on their obsession, but ideally there is a moderator with knowledge on degrowth and understanding of the day's program, which provides guidance into the issues, while putting fire on the debate.

The liveshow can also include the fishbowl method, allowing others from the group (or even from the audience) to replace a maniac at any time.

What went wrong?

In our case the maniac theater was squeezed in between afternoon sessions, dinner and full evening programm. We initally planned it every evening after dinner, but than realized, that participants interest was quite small according to basic needs of recreation and daily organisation. On the other hand people in the end stated, that they missed a link between the daily program and degrowth theory, which could have been provided through this method. If you want to do this method, plan enough time for it before and after or skip evening program, if you plan it every evening. Or plan it just for the end of the week, as a way to look back – in that case it is probably worthy to take enough time for it and write people from outside as a closing event, which then again motivates the participants to engage!

What is GROWL? "Networking globally to act locally -
building communities of practice across scales with GROWL"(Gualter Barbas Baptista, Project Coordinator of GROWL)
A workshop with a short presentation about the GROWL-Living Degrowth Project,
how to participate, what it means, where it will go...

Introduction of our local brewer

Our local brewer from Schinkels Beer came to the venue and held a speech on his enterprises philosophy, which could be described as a steady-state approach.

....some text from his audio....

Folk Dance (Bianca Kranz)


Being at an historical place at Burg Ludwigstein, which was founded by the „Wandervögel“, we also like to inspire ourselves by the still lively culture of the „Bünde“, who use the castle for their meetings. One important part of their community life is singing and dancing together, especially line- and folk dances. Bianca Kranz from the KulturInitiative will introduce to us some of these dances.

INCLUDE HERE: Circledance_1

                            Circledance_2

                            Circledance_3

Historical and critical approach towards community building (Susanne Rappe-Weber/ Sabine Knappe)

@ emre: audio!!! morning session!!!

Guided visit through the Archive of the German Youth Movement from the early 20th century.
The tour is focused both on the positive intensions and impacts of the „Wandervogel“ and youth movement, as well on the critical points, whereCommunity Building can overturn in elitism, nationalism or exclusivness.

Women's communities in the 1920s in Germany ( Input by Sabine Knappe)

Waiting for text, also notes and audio available

Based on the experiences of girls and young women in the youth-movement at the turn of the 20th century, the idea of settlements in the countryside and the influence of the modern women's movement and their concept of spiritual motherliness lead to the foundations of two communities in the midst of Germany. 'Loheland' and 'Schwarzerden' were founded by young women to widen their intellectual, emotional and professional horizon. They
established courses in gymnastics and workshops for arts and crafts, built up small agricultural units to produce their own food, held summercamps for children to support their health and established schools for young women, educating them in social work. I will try to explain the motivation and the practical execution of these two community-foundings.

Transition Movement and critical reflection ( Farid Melko)

Aim:

Introduction to Transition Movement and its principles. Linked to the morning experiences, participants will critically evaluate the uprising new social movements, like Transition, Urban Gardening and similiars. What is new, where are paralles to reformist movements in the past? Which are the threats these kind of new community movements bring with them? Participants should be enabled to have a critical reflection on green, degrowth or transition-like movements, understand the historical background, discover parallels and to question and exchange their motivations to be part of such movements

Duration:

3 hours

Short Description:

This block of the course was divided into 2 parts:

1. Presentation of the Transition Movement and learning facts with transition tools,

2. Critical reflection about transition-like movements (also in history) and the link to the needs of people in western societies

The presentation was about the Transition Movement in general: The way how Transition tries to transform the world, the big vision and general goals, the role of community, methods, tools, history, areas of transition and the implementation of the degrowth approach in the concrete projects. The participants also learned some fundamental facts about the topic of peak oil and climate change and how to teach these important facts to people: With help of cards about peak oil the participants tried to explain to eachother different aspects and details of the topic and why it is of importance to transform many areas of daily life and to gain more resilience.

In the second part the participants made a brainstorming about the needs of people who are attracted to such movements, gave examples from their own experience. Then they had a worldcafé to discuss why people go into a process of reconnection to their direct environment (transition) and the parallels to other movements. There were 3 tables with 3 questions to answer: How can the needs be fulfilled? What are the threads for the movement? Where are parallels to other movements from history? Afterwards the results were presented to the whole group.

Link to Peak Oil Cards

INCLUDE here pictures: Transition World Café 1-3

Link to :pdf Transitiontownpresentation

Contact Improvisation and Transformation of Society ( Heike Pourian, Eva Daubert)

Aim:

A danced speech- inspired by the thoughts of Charles Eisenstein
Our world entered in crisis and Contact Improvisation (CI) could be one possible help, to find the way out of this crisis. CI opens the possibilty of a space for exploration and play, where we can experiment physically in a way our minds would not be able to think or plan. It could help to overcome dogmatic beliefs from capitalism. „When you get more, I will loose“. But who wins and who looses, when we support each other, leaning on each other?
Eva and Heike have developed a danced speech, which is based on improvisation, the thoughts of Charles Eisenstein for a world where beings are more connected to each other and the moment. The audience is surrounding them in a circle. They are invited to participate actively in the process.
Afterwards there will be an exchange in small groups.

Link to : danced speech pdf


Heike Pourian
heikepourian@hotmail.com
Eva Daubert
mailforeva@web.de

Bücher von Charles Eisenstein:
The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible,
Sacred Economics,
The Ascent of Humantity

audio from discussion?




Introduction Women/Men Circle ( Helge Bartels, Elisabeth Lämmer, Lara-Carola Rüter, Milena Wilkening)


Ella, Lara, Milena and Helge presented their experience in gender-specific talking and experience circles
and its contribution to community building processes
Men Circle Experience (Helge Bartels) and
Women Circle Experience ( Elisabeth Lämmer)

Aim:
A space for aligning experiences in a gender-specific context,
afterwards gender-mixed critical exchange about this experience,
and its connection to the discourse of buen vivir and degrowth


Description:

Männertraining
Ziel des Trainings war es, eine schöne Zeit unter Männern zu haben und sich gegenseitig aus zu tauschen. Schlagworte waren: Männer und Gemeinschaft, bzw. männlicher Schaffensdrang und Gestaltungsdrang in nicht Wachstums Gesellschaften.
Das Treffen in der Sauna stattfinden zu lassen war eine gute Idee. Sich nackt zu unterhalten und auszutauschen entwaffnet.Wir sind in der Gesprächen ziemlich schnell persönlich geworden. Die Männer haben sich geöffnet und  sind schnell dazu über gegangen, anstatt durch  intellektuelle Auseinandersetzung mit den Themen, das Erzählen persönlicher Probleme vor zu ziehen. Da wir sehr unterschiedlich alt waren und unterschiedlich sozialisiert sind, haben wir uns gegenseitig gut befruchtet und durch unsere Geschichten, Lösungsansätze und Tips gegenseitig beschenkt. Die Dynamik in der Gruppe war prozessorientiert und dadurch locker, freundlich und friedlich. Den spontanen Impulsen folgend entstand eine Oase der Entspannung, die tiefe Verständigung und Mitgefühl erzeugte.

@ Katja: hier noch Frauenkreismethode einfügen

Afterwards, Men and Women came again together to exchange their experience in a fishbowl discussion





Public Event:Building a yurt for the community of Witzenhausen

INCLUDE here: "yurt_construction.jpg"

The collective/jurtenwesen-concept and possibilities of yurt construction had its premiere in Witzenhausen!
Jurtenwesen from Bremen/Germany dreams of yurts and facilities to revive the beautiful roundroom of the yurt. They build, work and learn to create places for people, dreams and deeds.
„For us it is a major concern this undertaking in devote to the common good, and so we invite
everyone inclined people cordially to it to participate with their own dreams and deeds.“
Participants helped to build up the yurt in the university park in the center of Witzenhausen, which served for the rest of the week as a base for the course, as well as a meeting point between locals, course participants and students

Link to Bauplan Jurte pdf

This reflection would fit well in a box

"Gedanken zur Jurte in Witzenhausen
Von der Traumerfüllungspflicht zu einem nomadischen runden Raum
Wie lässt sich in knappen und klaren Worten sagen, was mich doch so tief gerührt hat. Wie finde ich einen Ausdruck dessen, was mich dort vor Ort bewegt hat? Ich merke, dass ein Wie immer wichtiger wird als ein Was.
Silvia fragte mich nach dem Kurs, ob ich für die Dokumentation etwas schreibe über eine Verbindung der Jurte zum Begriff der Gemeinschaftsbildung und was die Jurte mit dem Konzept des Degrowth zu tun hat.
Ich denke nach den Tagen in Witzenhausen hat sich mir gezeigt, welche Bedeutung das gemeinsame Aufbauen der Jurte und das erste Ankommen in ihr für die Gemeinschaft hatte. Das liegt zum einen an den Bauteilen die in ihrer Beschaffenheit überschaubar und ohne weitere Werkzeug zusammenbaubar sind. Zum anderen an der Raumform an sich. Wer schon einmal das Rund einer Jurte erlebt hat, kennt und weiß ihre Qualitäten. Er weiß um den Nestcharakter, das geborgene, erdende Rund mit seiner wunderschönen Perspektive durch den offenen Lichtring.
Für die Antwort welche Verbindung zwischen der Jurte und dem Konzept Degrowth bestehen, empfehle ich den Text von Dr. Claudius Kern “:Raus aus der Stadt – zurück aufs Land!“ und seine gesammelten weiteren Vorteile. Beides nachzulesen auf seiner Seite http://www.jurten.heimat.eu
Was bleibt sind die persönlichen Momente, die vielen Augenblicke die sich wie Perlen zu einer Erinnerung zusammen reihen. Doch diese Geschichten stehen auf einem anderen Blatt geschrieben ;~)
So steht hier am Ende der Wunsch, die entstandenen Verbindungen zu pflegen. Und letztlich ein Danke.
In herzlicher Verbundenheit
Oliver Schmid
http://www.jurtenwesen.de"

singing circle ( Svadesha)

liedtexte einscannen/

@emre: audio available to link?

Public Event: Marketplace and Mapping of local Transition and Degrowth Related Projects

Aim:

Several alternative collectives, enterprises and projects existing in the region of Witzenhausen will introduce themselves on a kind of marketplace in the Transition House, which serves as incubator and meeting point for several initiatives. Participants will get to know the different groups, their aims, problems and hopes and evaluate later on their connection towards community building and degrowth with the focus on food souvereignty.
Also these modul serves for the groups in Witzenhausen itselves as a strenthening moment for community building. This will be forced by the approach of critical mapping, included in the process of Transformap, where the upcoming alternatives and possible synergies will be mapped during the marketplace.

( There are plenty alternatives: http://transformap.co/)

INCLUDE here "Fishbowlmaniacs.jpg"

Preparation:

Invite different collectives and groups from your town/village/region at least 2 month beforehand to take part on the Projektbörse.

In our case we wrote the following email:

( to be put in a "letter-layout", kind of box)

Liebe ProjektmitstreiterInnen und Initiativen,
Im Rahmen des GROWL Seminars "Gemeinschaftsbildung und Degrowth", haben wir für den 4.6, Donnerstag (Fronleichnam) Vormittags von 10-13 Uhr eine Projektebörse und Mapping der Alternativen im Transition Haus Witzenhausen geplant.
Transitionprojekte und befreundete Initiativen und Projekte können sich vorstellen und untereinander vernetzen, sowie interessante Orte der Alternativen in unserer Region in eine Karte zusammengebringen, im Rahmen des TransforMap Projekts.
http://transformap.co/
Wir freuen uns, dass ihr mit eurer Initiative da seid, um die Vernetzung der Alternativen in unsere Region zu stärken!
Folgende Hinweise möchten wir euch zum Ablauf noch geben
9:00 Uhr: Aufbau, Anfahrt mit dem Fahrrad oder Auto über Stubengasse möglich
10:00-11:00 Projektebörse, lokale Initiativen und Projekte stellen sich vor.
11:00:11:30 Einführung zu "Degrowth Wirtschaften ohne Wachstums"
11:30-12:30 Fish Bowl der Seminarkursteilnehmer: Kritischer Blick auf den Beitrag des Projektes hinsichtlich der Degrowth Prinzipien
12:30 Ausklang

13:00 Mittagessen ( biologisch, regional, vegan)

Methode
Fish Bowl ist eine Methode, bei der eine kleine Gruppe von Menschen im Kreis sitzt und diskutiert, während die anderen zuhören und immer einen im Kreis ablösen können, so dass die Zahl der Diskutierenden konstant bleibt. Wir nutzen die Methode um die Vertreter der einzelnen Degrowth Quellen in Diskussion mit VertreterInnen der Projekte zu bringen und so die praktischen Komponenten der Projekte mit dem theoretischen Hintergrund des Kurses zu verbinden.

Die Methode eignet sich, damit alle mal zu Wort kommen und für die Initiativen ist es sicher spannend einen Blick von außen- auch von internationalen TeilnehmerInnen des Seminars- auf ihr Projekt zu bekommen.

Mitzubringen sind

-Ein Gegenstand, der die Projekte symbolisiert
-Ein Plakat auf dem die wichtigsten Informationen zusammengefasst sind ( auf englisch)

- seit wann gibt es das Projekt?
- was sind die Ziele?
- wieviele Leute machen mit?
- was braucht das Projekt momentan am meisten?
- was waren schöne Momente im Projekt?
- was waren Herausforderungen?


- Flyer und Werbematerialien für euch
- Lust mit Leuten in Kontakt zu kommen
- eine gute Übersicht, um was es bei eurem Projekt geht

Hilfe beim Englischen kann gestellt werden. 2/3 der KursteilnehmerInnen sprechen auch deutsch. Die Fish Bowl Diskussion wird simultan übersetzt.

Wenn ihr noch Fragen habt, meldet euch bitte bei uns, wir freuen uns sehr.
Gerne könnt ihr auch noch andere Projekte einladen, die euch spontan einfallen.

Bitte schreibt uns, wenn ihr noch logistische Unterstützung braucht ( Stellwände, Moderationsmaterialien, Beamer für eine Präsentation etc.)

Was ist "Degrowth"?

Informationen ( auf englisch über die Quellen)
https://co-munity.net/growl/modules/sources-degrowth

(auf deutsch)
http://www.degrowth.de/de/selbstverstandnis/

Viele Grüße

xxxxx

Space/Preparation

Organise a room which is big enough, Stellwände, Tables, pens. In our case we took the chance and let the Projektebörse not just happen inside the Transition House, but also turned it into a kind of Street Happening. Projects built up their inventar directly in the pedestrian zone, getting like this not just into contact with each other, but also with other people passing by.
If you do so, check beforehand with you local ordnungsamt, if this is ok.

Have on person in charge, who is just organising the Projektebörse and appears at least 1,5 hours beforehand to prepare everything and be attentive on the happenings at any moment. Avoid double tasks for this person.

INCLUDE here: "Projektebörse Picture"

Time:

at least 3 hours up to a whole day

Description:

Participants meet in degrowth maniac groups

(INCLUDE her "Degrowthmaniacsassement.odt")

, talk about their source of degrowth and an evaluation form to fill out. Participants than go alone or in groups from project to project and talk about it, filling in the evaluation form at the same time.

Gatherin after 1 hour, the maniac groups will have an exchange on their experience, based especially on their source regarding the projects.

Meeting in a fishbowl discussion. Each maniac group sends on representant to the discussion circle, introducing shortly! To the audience their source. Also one or two people from one project, who wants to be evaluated in degrowth context, sit in the circle, the audience around.
A moderator is animating the discussion and the sources can give their opinion on the project, discuss and so on. The more lively the discussion is moderated, the better.

The Maniacs can always be exchanged, if the one in the circle is running out of ideas. Then he/she is replaced by one other maniac. Important is, to have just one maniac always in the innner circle.

Each project should have around 15 Minutes maximum, than change to the next.
Up to 4 projects, around 1 hour.




Public Event:Reflective Working Experience in Transition and Degrowth Related Projects

Aim:
During the afternoon people splited in several working groups within projects, which helped to build community, with a focus on food related projects. Some quotations linking to community were given on the way to reflect during the work. Each project was introducing its principles in the beginning, than hands-on workshops started. Possible Projects were

Give Away Shop

Decoration, Re-organisation, Fußbodenbelag entfernen

Community Supported Agriculture Freudenthal

????

Intergenerational Garden Project

Unkraut bei den Himbeeren entfernen

Schaugarten UnvergEssbar

jäten, mulchen, hacken, neu bepflanzen

Klangraum

Constructing musical instruments – shared creativity

Goal:
The course goal is to provide participants with information and practical experience on the use and possible applications of group and collective activities which have a focus on being creative.
 Course structure:
1. A 30-45 minute speech and discussion covering the following topics:
- How does the community benefit from artistic creativity?
- Musical notes and rhythm as a community-creating experience
- Placating the drive to consume with creativity
- To see yourself producing something – can I share experiences or try something out?
- Sharing your creativity – show others
- An art project in order to work on personal or collective issues.


2. 90 minute creative session: each participant constructs a musical instrument of their choice.
A maximum of 10-15 participants depending the size of the workshop space.
Rattles from cardboard tubes.
Raddle-Bones: special wood rattles
Harmonics flute: from plastic piping
Tenor drum: wood


3. 15 minutes- performing with the brand new musical instruments

4. 15 mins talking circle: What have I experienced, learnt, shared?


Pflückoasen 

Taking care about the plants in pots all over the city, where citizens can pick vegetables and herbs. Transition Town, shop owners and citizens take care about them

In the end, participants should gather for around 30 minutes in a circle and share their experience, if possible, based also on the quotations they got. Therefore it is useful to write down the quotations visible on a big sheet of paper to have a reference.

Link to the quotations


Drumming Circle and Monochord Sound Massage (Chris Noll, Johannes Baehr)/ yurt

These:

In community it is important to exchange emotions and energy peacefully and in an harmonical way. We all consist of vibrating matter. When drumming we need to listn to the sounds around us and we can try to harmonize the rhythm patterns of other people to our own patterns. We will try to compose a complex rhythm, in which everyone will take his/her part for a major context. Monochord Sound Massage as an facultative offer is an amazing method of soundmassage with monochords, which surrounds the whole body and mind, tuning in and harmonizing disorders of humans.

Drumming circle

How can we express ourselves together harmonously?
How can we create a collective grooving rhythm that moves everyone collectively?

Aim: to create a rhythm with percussion instruments in a large group (minimum of 10 participants); to keep up the tempo but also to learn to feel comfortable with your own rhythm. The participants might also improvise. Here it's important to find the right balance between holding back and taking the initiative.

Description

The group leader should be experienced with musical rhythms and be able to lead or conduct the beat.Three different rhythm instruments will be on offer. Each participant will choose his/her own. After this, the leader will teach the beat to each one of the three groups. Possible time signatures: 4/4, 6/8, 11/4. Through their playing, all three groups complete and expand upon the beats from the other groups. They all play simultaneously.

Resonance massage with monochord instruments

INCLUDE here: Monochord picture

How can we create a zone of love in the community – to create and keep a sense of being loved

Goal:
To create a moment of loving closeness with one another without sexual connotations, where this special closeness emanating from the heart can emerge and play its role in supporting a community.
Creating moments where we experience peace and deep relaxation whilst at the same time offering each other healing closeness.
Structure:
- 15 minute introductory speech
- 5 minutes where the monochord playing technique is demonstrated
- 2 x 10 minute slots where participants form pairs and alternate in employing the monochord technique
- 10 minutes where experiences are shared.

Materials: 1 monochord from 'Klangraum' per pair will be provided. Please bring one thick blanket for your pair

( Foto to explain what is monochord)


Public Event:Degrowth Party

The self-organized international Students Club in Steinstrasse was reserved for us on Thursday Evening. It was up to us, how we want to use the space, well known DJ Leon was up to support the party with good sounds.


Aim:

Making party and getting some additional funds

Preparation:

Reserving the students club in beforehand
forming a party team out of participants who manage the bar, clean up the next day etc.
Put some cloth and items to dress up
Get a good DJ or Djane

write an email over the towns mailing list at least 2 days in advance to make sure some people will show up

Description:

Party!



Open Space (Silvia Hable)


Aim:

As we- in the tradition of Joseph Beuys and the social plastic- believe, that everybody is an expert, we want to keep at least some space in the course,
where participants can offer, exchange and explore topics and questions which have no other space or have been rising during the course. We will
gather Friday morning to collect offers. The afternoon is up to you!

Description:
Open Space Technology (OST) is an approach to purpose-driven leadership,[1] including a way for hosting meetings, conferences, corporate-style retreats, symposiums, and community summit events, focused on a specific and important purpose or task — but beginning without any formal agenda, beyond the overall purpose or theme.

WHAT IS OPEN SPACE?
It is a self-organizing practice of inner discipline and collective activity which releases the inherent creativity and leadership in people. By inviting people to take responsibility for what they care about, Open Space establishes a marketplace of inquiry, reflection and learning, bringing out the best in both individuals and the whole.
WHEN TO USE IT:
v       Where conflict is holding back the ability to change
v       Where the situation is complex
v       Where there is a high degree of diversity
v       Where there is an urgent need to make speedy decisions
v       Where all stakeholders are needed for good decisions to be made
v       Where you have no preconceived notion of what the outcomes should be
PROBABLE OUTCOMES:
v       Builds energy, commitment and shared leadership
v       Participants accept responsibility for what does or doesn't happen
v       Action plans and recommendations emerge from discussions as appropriate
v       You create a record of the entire proceedings as you go along
HOW IT WORKS:
The Law of Two Feet means you take responsibility for what you care about -- standing up for that and using your own two feet to move to whatever place you can best contribute and/or learn.
Four principles apply to how you navigate in open space:
Whoever comes is the right people
Whoever is attracted to the same conversation are the people who can contribute most to that conversation—because they care. So they are exactly the ones—for the whole group-- who are capable of initiating action.
Whatever happens is the only thing that could've
We are all limited by our own pasts and expectations.  This principle acknowledges we'll all do our best to focus on NOW-- the present time and place-- and not get bogged down in what could've or should've happened.
When it starts is the right time
The creative spirit has its own time, and our task is to make our best contribution and enter the flow of creativity when it starts.
When it's over, it's over
Creativity has its own rhythm.  So do groups.  Just a reminder to pay attention to the flow of creativity -- not the clock.  When you think it is over, ask: Is it over?  And if it is, go on to the next thing you have passion for.  If it’s not, make plans for continuing the conversation.
HOW OPEN SPACE WORKS WHEN THERE IS CONFLICT:
The Law of Two Feet gives participants freedom to move at any time to a discussion they care about. Caring creates common ground, and helps to remind participants of higher purpose.
GROUP SIZE:
To date, we know that Open Space accommodates groups from 5 to 1500 people.  It can be run for a couple of hours to 3 or more days; consecutively or over time; at one site or at multiple sites connected by computer and/or phone and video. The longer the space is open, the more transformative the outcomes.
THE STEPS IN BRIEF:
1.      Select a focusing statement or question for your gathering.  It should frame the higher purpose and widest context for your discussion in a positive way.
2.      Invite the circle of people: all stakeholders or all the people you'd like to have in the room.  Include the theme, date, place and time of gathering in the invitation.
3.      Create the circle:  Set up chairs in a circle or in concentric circles, leaving space in the center.  Choose a blank wall for the Agenda Wall and label it AGENDA: AM, PM across the top.  Set up a table for computers near a wall you label NEWS.  Put blank sheets of news print (about quarter size of a flip chart page) and colored felt pens in the center of the circle.  Near the Agenda Wall and the News Wall put masking tape for people to post papers on the walls.
4.      To begin the gathering:  Facilitator explains: the theme, the simple process the group will follow to organize and create a record, where to put things up and find out what is happening, the Law of Two Feet, and the Principles of Open Space.  Then, facilitator invites people to silently meditate on what has heart and meaning for each of them.
5.      Opening the marketplace:  the Facilitator invites anyone who cares about an issue to step into the middle of the circle and write the topic, their name, a time and place for meeting, announce it and post the offering on the Agenda Wall -- one sheet per topic—as many topics as he/she wants.  They will be convenors who have responsibility for facilitating their session(s) and seeing to it that a report is made and shared on the News Wall.
6.      When ALL offerings are concluded, the Facilitator invites people to sign up for what they are interested in and take responsibility for their schedules, using the Law of Two Feet.
7.      People participate in discussions.  The Facilitator takes care of the space.  Reporters enter discussion reports in the computers and printouts are posted on the News Wall.
8.      Closing Circle:  all reconvene an hour before closing to share highlights, "ahas" and key learnings in a Dialogue format: simply listening to whatever people have to offer without discussion, or you can pass a "talking stick" for each person to hold as he/she is talking, or to pass along if the person doesn't want to contribute anything.
9.      Mail out whatever record is created and an address list to all who came.
10.  If it is a several day gathering, do steps 3 through 8 daily.

Topics:
the open space on our seminar was scheduled for a morning session and the afternoon sessions

We had the following topics:

(need still to look on the posters)

-
-
(Poster)


Exploration on „these moments of real encounter..." (Katja Mangold)

Aim:
In community with other people we often face the callenge and question of how we can be close to each other and still respect our own space, borders and limitations.
How can we find an authentic and respectful contact with other beings?
How much closeness or how much distance towards other persons feels right in any moment?
Can we practice a state of awareness which helps us to be in contact with ourselves as well as with others at the same time?
There is a chance for moments of real encounter if we allow ourselves as well as others to be true to ourselves.
We will be guided through different experiences of contact, activate our senses, become aware, have moments of reflection and exchange, whilst always being encoraged to communicate and listen in a very sincere and still respectful way!
Our senses, our curiosity , our awareness, our reflexive capacities are all very invited!

@ Katja, bitte noch ne kleine methodenbeschreibung hier rein

Contact-Impro Jam with guided Warm-Up (Katja Mangold)

(Foto of the jam)


In the Jam format we have the opportunity to get to know the dance form of Contact-Improvisation from within, as a participant. The warm up will help you to connect with yourself, your body and the floor as a reference in space.
From there we start our careful, maybe playful, maybe silent... yourney.
In Contact- Impro we often share weight by leaning towards each other and fall together through space as we allow ourselves to get off balance. We carefully listening to the reflexes of our and the other bodies.
Though we travel together through space yet anytime we can freely choose to continue our dance on our own or with someone else. Also being an observer can be an active, involved role during a Contact-Jam

Community Learning and Intergenerational Approach (Silvia Hable)

( foto of the walk)

Reflective walk with stations on the way around our perception of learning and relation within the generations.

Philosophical walk on education, link to "philosophical walk"


Aim of the method:

Participants should be enabled to have a critical reflexion on learning methods, institutions and the neighbourhood as a learning place. They should exchange within intercultural und intergenerational context


Duration: 3 hours

Places:

Spot with overview over the city
Elderly people home

Short Discription:

Age-Group Walks

Participants are splitted into „age-groups“. If possible, an older person goes with a younger one ( at least one generation difference.
Participants are therefore asked to row up in an date-of-birth line, and than always one of the end of the line groups with on next to the middle and so on.
Participants are asked to exchange about the following questions:

1. How was your education experience in schools
2. What are your knowlegdes you base nowadays most on ( privat or in a job) and where did you learn about this knowledge
3. What did you learn in school, what in your neighbourhood surrounding?

Illich Text „Learning Webs“ Collective Reading ( link as material or in this text?)

On a spot, from where you can easily see the whole town/village or a neighbourhood of a city, the group is splitted in sub-groups of 3-4 people, reading together the text, discussing and highlighting important points.

«In a previous chapter I discussed what is becoming a common complaint about schools, one that is reflected, for example, in the recent report of the Carnegie Commission: In school registered students submit to certified teachers in order to obtain certificates of their own; both are frustrated and both blame insufficient resources - money, time, or buildings - for their mutual frustration.
Such criticism leads many people to ask whether it is possible to conceive of a different style of learning. The same people, paradoxically, when pressed to specify how they acquired what they know and value, will readily admit that they learned it more often outside than inside school. Their knowledge of facts, their understanding of life and work came to them from friendship or love, while viewing TV, or while reading, from examples of peers or the challenge of a street encounter. Or they may have learned what they know through the apprenticeship ritual for admission to a street gang or the initiation to a hospital, newspaper city room, plumber's shop, or insurance office. The alternative to dependence on schools is not the use of public resources for some new device which "makes" people learn; rather it is the creation of a new style of educational relationship between man and his environment. To foster this style, attitudes toward growing up, the tools available for learning, and the quality and structure of daily life will have to change concurrently.
Attitudes are already changing. The proud dependence on school is gone. Consumer resistance increases in the knowledge industry. Many teachers and pupils, taxpayers and employers, economists and policemen would prefer not to depend any longer on schools. What prevents their frustration from shaping new institutions is a lack not only of imagination but frequently also of appropriate language and of enlightened self-interest. They cannot visualize either a deschooled society or educational institutions in a society which has disestablished school.»
Excerpt from Ivan Illich, 1970, „Deschooling Society“, chapter 6 on „Learning Webs“
Afterwards exchange in a circle about School, Critics on Institions and Learning possibilities in and for a degrowth society.

Notes taken during the course in Witzenhausen ( should they enter or not?) or linked?

when people say "a genius can cope with the school system" we should think of the fact that actually we're all genius (at least 98% of all small children) but school takes it from us...
school institution: no fair system, often a lot of "torture" involved
lessons are completely disconnected, too short, too fast and without time to take the information in and think critically about it
does the legal system give us opportunities not to go to school? --> very difficult in Germany
there are possibilities to choose kindergarden and freer schools
degrowth: many people have a lot of knowledge that they could share --> develop a different understanding of education? more relationship based? new ways of distribution? create own certification and ways of learning?
interesting: homeschoolers are often very well educated and are able to think in more creative and holistic ways
schools are still designed for industrialisation, for growth and don't encourage critical thinking at all, pupils just have to function

Discussion about Care of Eldery People

On the way to an eldery home ( in Witzenhausen Transition Town has a intergenerational garden project cooperation with one of these), a normative text is being distributed, talking about different age groups and marketing strategies.

Link to text about generations



This text serves as a base for discussion about Ageism ( explanation?) and also about our perception of each age catergory.
Arriving at the eldery home, we invited a lady living there, who formely worked in a small seed enterprise and is visiting regulary the garden, as well as one of our older members of Transition Town. Both gave some input, such as a poem....
and talking about their life experience, difficulties they have with younger generations and so on.
Mixed with some tea/refreshments and some easy food, this ends in a lively exchange circle.

Needed:

Texts being printed enough for the participants
Some drinks and food like fruits, easy to carry
find beforehand older people who want to talk about their life experience
make contact with some eldery people home

Variations:

Visit other institutions, like schools, kindergarden and so on
Evaluate institutions via their appearance. Which needs are fulfilled here?
Try to organise a guided walk inside instirutions
Invite different care services for old people, like home care, family who cares about their eldest and so on, what are advantages, what are difficulties

Open Questions need to be researched ( also depending from the country)

How much does a space in a elderly people home costs, how much home services?
Which support is existing for family members to care for their elders ( like work hours reducing etc.)
what is a degrowth discourse on taking care for older people? Which are important texts/papers and authors on this topic?
How does the care debate interrelate the question about elderly people and children? Why are care taking people badly paid?

INCLUDE here: "Maria_Zwirner" picture

This poem ( translated and maybe in german, could enter a box)

Maria Zwirner, 2015, Witzenhausen

Wenn man jung ist und modern
würde man natürlich gern
alles neu und umgestalten

Doch wer meckert dann? Die Alten!

Wenn sie dynamische Ideen
endlich mal verwirklicht sehen
ziehen sie sorgenvolle Falten

Ja, so sind sie, diese Alten!

reden gerne von ihrer Jugend
und von ihrer großen Tugend
und was sie alles augehalten!

Ja, das haben sie, unsere Alten!

Krieg und Not und Hungersnot
manche fanden einen frühen Tod
doch sie haben durchgehalten

Ja, das haben sie, unsere Alten!

Was sie dann unter Müh und Plagen
geschaffen haben
möchten sie erhalten

Habt Verständnis für die Alten!

Bändigt eure jugendlichen Triebe
Zeigt den Alten eure Liebe
Lasst euch Zeit mit dem Entfalten

Kümmert euch um eure Alten!

Wohl zu jagen, wohl zu hetzen
ist die Zeit nicht aushalten
nach den ewigen Gesetzen

Plötzlich seid dann ihr die Alten!

Und in euren alten Tagen
hört man eure Kinder klagen
Ach, es ist nicht auszuhalten

Immer meckern diese Alten

Ja, das Lebenskarusell
dreht sich leider viel zu schnell
Darum sollten sie zusammenhalten

All die Jungen und die Alten!

Link to "the old ones.mgg"

Creative Reflection of the week experience( Silvia Hable)

Aim:
In plenary we first drew a kind of landscape with the moments from the past week and then collected a range of presentation methods, then the small „maniac“ groups mixed up, so that there were in each presentation group one representative from each degrowth source. It was up to the groups, what and how would present, to show their experience they made during the seminar.

Space/Preparation

Seminarroom or outside
Some paper
Programme of the week
Box with disguising cloth
pencils

Time

2,5-3 hours

Description

People are reminded on the week, that has passed.
This can happen by just reading out the programm, telling some stories about it, or make it mor happtic: Put a kind of “landscape” out of material or drawn on the floor, which reminds with little spots and stations to the week that has passed.
Participants can comment on it or walk it, if it is an outside installation with more space.
Afterwards split the groups into participants from 3-5 people, each group responsible for representing one specific day.
The groups are asked to find a creative way of presenting, of what has happened on this day. This can relate to the programme, some discussion or an interesting happening of this day.
Or you present creative ways and groups choose, or first the group make a brainstorm on what ways of presenting can be interesting.

- drawing
- playing theater
- singing a song
- land art
- 3 D plasture
- dancing
- Collage
….

Each group has 30 minutes to prepare
and 5 minutes to present.

-
Reflection on the learning typs ( link)

-academic
-poetic
-practical
- poltical

The groups discuss within themselves 10 minutes, where these presentations styles were happening in the programm.

Afterwards a Stimmungsbild in the big group, if one style was under- or overrepresented during the course

Short discussion possible.



Public Event: Economic localisation as an alternative to the debt crisis ( Francois Schneider, Stephanie Ristig Bresser, Gualter Barbas Baptista)


The idea of localisation is a key idea of degrowth. Localisation is about being connected with our direct environment with all our senses and it is also about reducing the distance between the places where we produce things and the places where we use things. It challenges globalisation. But is localisation about closure? Francois Schneider gave us an input about degrowth and open localism, Stephanie Ristig-Bresser about the idea of RE-Conomy, a transnational project to stimulate local economy for a transition society. Moderated by Gualter Barbas Baptista. Local community policy makers were actively invited to join the evening and debate, since Witzenhausen suffers a big debt crisis and austerity measures as well as a democratic crisis resulting from this.

Space/Preparation

Indoor

or a convivial outdoor place, like the marketplace

Technique for amplifing

Spiders to translate (  to be explained somewhere else in the book)

Chairs for the public

some kind of stage presence, sofas, or a stage, where the discussion takes place

drinks/ snacks

You should start at least 1,5 hour to prepare beforehand the place

Link to pdf francois

Steffis pdf on reconomy?

@emre: audio on the dicussion?

Remarks:

If you want to have politicians from the town, you should invite them with some time ahead, since they are always very busy. If there are very conservative, make clear, it will not be a kind of "show-case", where their opinion is devaluated, more and active exchange. Invite them to talk on a topic they are familiar with and do not judge their view before the panel takes place.

Closing Ritual (Helge Bartels)

Aim:

Closing the circle, which was opened in the beginning of the course.
Finding a good end to the course.
Create space and time for reflection and appreciation.

Space:

Outside or inside, with enough space, best if it is nearly dark.

Preparation:

some ties
scissors
if you want some herbs to burn

Description:

People gather in a circle, everybody is looking at everybody, taking time to reflect and appriciate, people can sing songs, but should remain silent.

A red tie is being given around, so that everybody hold in the end the tie in the hand. As a metaphor for being connected, but at the same time autonomous individuals, the mentor goes around, cutting the tie bit by bit. Everybody stays with a little tie, which can be put around the hand ankle and remind after the course on the experience.

Afterwards people stand in a row, jeweils einer dem anderem gegenüber, so that a tunnel appears.

Each person goes now alone through this tunnel, with the eyes closed.
People, who want to share something with this person, gently stop the person and whisper something in the ear. Like this a sound carpet of appreciation and value is enfolding.

Leave some gap, until the next person enters the tunnel.
In the end people can unfold the tunnel and exchange freely and lively.


Train-The- Trainer ( Silvia Hable)

Aim:
In this last part, everybody who wants to be a Trainer on Degrowth is invited to participate. We learned more about the philosophy of GROWL, learning types, ways of presentation and explore different methods.

Description:

Talking about the philsophie of GROWL ( link)

Talking about the Learning Types ( may be put this in the more general part of the book and just link it here?)

Die vier Lerntypen: 1. Lernen durch Hören - Der auditive Lerntyp

Der auditive Lerntyp kann leicht gehörte Informationen aufnehmen, sie behalten und auch wiedergeben. Er kann mündlichen Erklärungen folgen und sie verarbeiten. Für ihn hören sich Erklärungen stimmig an, er kann sich einen Reim darauf machen, sie klingen zutreffend.

Um das physikalische Gesetz "Druck gleich Kraft durch Fläche" zu verstehen, reicht dem auditiven Lerntyp eine vorgetragene Erklärung dieser Form aus: "Übt man auf einen Gegenstand eine bestimmte Kraft in vertikaler Richtung nach unten aus, wird - wegen der relativ großen Berührungsfläche des Gegenstandes - der Druck auf die Platte, auf welcher sich der Gegenstand befindet, keinen bedeutenden Effekt haben. Verringern wir jedoch die Berührungsfläche des Gegenstandes bei gleichbleibender Kraft, wird der Druck die Platte durchbohren."

Der auditive Lerntyp lernt am besten, wenn er den Lernstoff hört (z.B. über Lernkassetten), in dem er sich den Text selbst laut vorliest oder einem anderen dabei zuhört. Er kann sehr gut auswendig lernen, indem er den Text laut spricht und ihm liegen mündliche Aufgaben.

Auditive Lerntypen führen oft Selbstgespräche beim Lernen. Sagen Sie sich die Lerninhalte laut vor, erzählen Sie anderen davon, erfinden Sie ein Lied dazu und trällern es vor sich hin. Auditive Lerntypen fühlen sich durch Umgebungsgeräusche schnell gestört und mögen meist keine Musik im Hintergrund.

Lernhilfen: Lernkassetten, Gespräche, Vorträge, Musik, ruhige Umgebung (keine Nebengeräusche)

2. Lernen durch Sehen - Der visuelle Lerntyp

Der visuelle Lerntyp lernt am besten durch das Lesen von Informationen und das Beobachten von Handlungsabläufen. Es fällt ihm leichter, sich Inhalte zu merken, wenn er sich diese in Form von Grafiken oder Bildern veranschaulicht. Er findet Erklärungen einleuchtend, er hat den Durchblick, wenn er etwas verstanden hat, wenn nicht, muß er den Stoff noch mal näher betrachten.

Der visuelle Lerntyp liest gerne, schaut gern Bilder, Illustrationen oder Grafiken an, um Sachverhalte zu verstehen. Er braucht eine schöne Lernumgebung und arbeitet gerne mit Tafelbildern und schriftlichen Unterlagen. Er schreibt gerne mit und nimmt Informationen durch Sehen und zeigen lassen auf. Er erinnert sich besonders an das, was er selbst gelesen und gesehen hat. Malen Sie Mindmaps, Bilder, arbeiten Sie mit farbigen Stiften oder Markern. Nutzen Sie Flipcharts oder Papierwände, arbeiten Sie mit Videofilmen oder Fernsehbeiträgen zum Thema. Machen Sie sich im Geiste Bilder zum Lerninhalt, wenn er Ihnen vorgetragen wird.

Dieser Lerntyp läßt sich leicht durch visuelle Unordnung ablenken.

Lernhilfen: Bücher, Skizzen, Bilder, Lernposter, Videos, Lernkarteien

3. Lernen durch Gespräche - Der kommunikative Lerntyp

Der kommunikative Lerntyp lernt am besten durch Diskussionen und Gespräche. Für ihn ist die sprachliche Auseinandersetzung mit dem Lernstoff und das Verstehen im Dialog von großer Bedeutung. Er muß Erklärungen durchsprechen, besprechen, sie mit anderen diskutieren. Hilfreich ist, in Gesprächen sowohl die Position des Fragenden als auch des Erklärenden einnehmen zu können.

Der kommunikative Lerntyp muß sich ein Thema von einem Mitschüler (oder Kollegen) erklären lassen und es ausführlich diskutieren, um es zu verstehen und zu behalten. Das physikalische Gesetz "Druck gleich Kraft durch Fläche" versteht er am besten im Gespräch mit anderen.

Der kommunikative Lerntyp braucht den Austausch und die Unterhaltung zum lernen. Diskutieren Sie alle Informationen, widersprechen Sie, regen Sie andere zum Nachdenken und Sprechen über die Themen an, stellen Sie Fragen zum Thema. Nehmen Sie an Gruppengesprächen teil, spielen Sie Rollenspiele mit Mitlernenden. Erklären Sie anderen, was Sie gelernt haben und lassen Sie sich dazu Fragen stellen.

Lernhilfen: Dialoge, Diskussionen, Lerngruppen, Frage-Antwort-Spiele

4. Lernen durch Bewegung - Der motorische Lerntyp

Der motorische Lerntyp lernt am besten indem er Handlungsabläufe selber durchführt und auf diese Weise nachvollzieht. Für ihn ist wichtig, am Lernprozess unmittelbar beteiligt zu sein und durch das "learning by doing" eigenständige Erfahrungen zu sammeln. Erklärungen begreift er, sie fühlen sich richtig an. Themen erkundet er und erarbeitet sie sich.

Dieser Lerntyp lernt am leichtesten, wenn er selbst etwas ausführt, zum Beispiel durch Ausprobieren, Rollenspiele und Gruppenaktivitäten. Bauen Sie Dinge nach, lassen Sie Rechenaufgaben mit Material ausrechnen oder nachlegen, laufen Sie Entfernungen ab und messen Sie Distanzen aus. Diese Lerner erinnern sich ausgezeichnet an Informationen, die sie durch Bewegung, Handeln und Fühlen aufgenommen haben.

Das physikalische Gesetz "Druck gleich Kraft durch Fläche" versteht dieser Lerntyp am schnellsten, wenn er ein Experiment dazu durchführt. Der motorische Lerntyp muß diesen Sachverhalt sozusagen am eigenen Leib nachvollziehen können.

Bewegen Sie sich beim Lernen - laufen Sie im Zimmer auf und ab, wiederholen Sie dabei den Lernstoff und ergänzen ihn durch Gesten und Mimik. Suchen Sie sich passenden Gegenstände zum Lernstoff, die Sie anfassen können. Machen Sie Experimente, wann immer es geht.

Lernhilfen: (rhythmische) Bewegungen, Nachmachen, Gruppenaktivitäten, Rollenspiele

Kritik und Anwendung der Lerntypen

Niemand lernt mit nur "einem Sinn". Menschen sind sinnliche Wesen und erleben die Welt immer über alle Sinne. Daher wäre es in der Lehrpraxis unangebracht, eine Schulklasse in verschiedene "Lerntypen" aufzuteilen und entsprechend zu unterrichten. Spezielle Lernbereiche wie "Schuhe binden" kann auch ein visueller Typ nur durch "selber machen", also motorisch lernen. Die genannten Lerntypen sind auch nur eine valide Perspektive. Es gibt noch viele andere Faktoren - wie Motivation, Interessen, die Persönlichkeit des Lernenden - die ebenfalls eine wichtige Rolle spielen.

Versuchen Sie, unabhängig davon, welche Lernmethoden Sie bevorzugen, möglichst viele Sinne in Ihren Lernprozess mit einzubeziehen. Denn: Je unterschiedlicher wir uns unseren Lernstoff aneignen, desto vielfältiger sind die Möglichkeiten des Erinnerns und Behaltens. Deshalb steigt die Erinnerungsquote deutlich an, je mehr Sinne am Lernprozess beteiligt sind:

• Nur Hören 20%
• Nur Sehen 30%
• Sehen und Hören 50%
• Sehen, Hören und Diskutieren 70%
• Sehen, Hören, Diskutieren und selber Tun 90%

Group Discussion around the different learning types, also according to the course experiences

- Politics on organising a degrowth course ( Link)

Splitting up the people in 6 sub-groups, having 15 minutes to read and exchange about it, how it was implemented in the course, afte this sharing with the group. This serves both, as a transfer exercise for future course organizers, as well as evaluation from the passed course






Part 6

Feedback

Evaluation
Peoples decription

Needs to be evaluated and fotografed...

General important remarks:

- the organisation team should meet every evening

- dont overload the programm

- it is not useful to be trainer and course organizer at the same time

- good inventur before and after helps not to loose or mingel material and (kitchen) equipment

- always get in contact with possible trainers, course participants, collaborating projects way ahead, the sooner, the better

- dont forget the media couverage

Link to media articles/ need to be scanned

- make sure there is a balance between metholodgies which serve all learning types

Links:

It is important to state, that this fish bowl theater is not something very serious, rather irony and over-exageration of each maniacs points can help to understand the sources better and reflect the day in a funny matter. Maniac groups are always allowed to exchange the maniac in the fish bowl with another person from the group.