Dagmar Diesner & Massimo De Angelis
Dagmar Diesner (German) was a long-time political activist in the social movement in London, before she had moved to Italy. She is committed to weave together different cultural and political viewpoints in her community, and became co-founder and Vice-President of Montagna Viva, a small community organization in the Appenines near Modena. In addition, she is writing her Phd on food sovereignty and the commons, researching resilience strategies for reclaiming or defending organic and local food production in Europe. Her particular interest is the ownership to seed, and to develop common avenues for maintaining the seed as a common good. She is active in the food sovereignty movement for Europe.
Montagna Viva – Fare in comune
The presentation talks about the organization Montagna Viva, situated in the tiny village in the Apennines near Modena. The organization is centred around the community garden, ‘La Cuccagna’ where old and new cultivation methods are practiced and experimented. The motto of the organization is ‘fare in comune’, that intentionally was derived theoretically and evolved in practice from the commons movement. It is more than just ‘fare in comune’, it is to (re)build commons moving on step-by-step. The importance is not what we want to do, but being reflective to our actions and how we evolve. I will talk about that this is not necessarily a natural process for many, even though this motto might invite common activities and highlights many positive aspects for doing or sharings things together; yet, at the same time, it pronounces the different cultural and educational backgrounds invoking conflictual situations. In order for us to build commons through the communities, I will explore in this seminar the meaning of ‘commoning’ borrowed from the Latin American communities but placed in this Italian community. It is contextualized in the different approaches for organizing activities and projects, and will focus on the importance of communication. Despite our continous difficulties and struggle, in my conclusion I will mention the importance of a small organization, like ours, can have on the local and regional level.
Recommended readings
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The beginning of history, De Angelis, M.
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Commoning in the new society. Community Development Journal, Esteva, G.