Workshop Proposal: The Commons as Alliances

Organized by MTD, FAV-UFG, LABSUS, AFD, and Politecnico di Torino, this workshop will take place at Faculty of Visual Arts of UFG and at the Beira da Mata Occupation as a collective space of learning, experimentation, and alliance-building.

Objectives

The first objective is to map active residents and grassroots actors through a photovoice process, enabling participants to document practices of care, solidarity, and everyday stewardship. This visual mapping will be complemented by a participatory organogram game, collectively identifying relationships, responsibilities, and existing networks within the community. The goal is to make visible the social infrastructure already sustaining the commons.

The second objective is to develop initial ideas for collaborative pacts, building upon the insights generated in the first workshop. Participants will work in groups to formulate preliminary proposals around themes such as water governance, urban tree planting, community kitchens, biodiversity, solidarity markets, and community gardens. These ideas will not yet be formalized pacts, but structured first drafts capable of evolving into concrete, prototypical agreements in the following workshop.

Connection to the Previous Workshop (Caring for the Commons)

This workshop builds directly on Caring for the Commons, which activated the idea of the commons in the territory, mapped existing practices, brainstormed knowledge and potential pacts, and initiated a prototype regulation for the Care of the Commons in Goiânia (currently under approval). This second workshop deepens alliances and prepares concrete pact proposals to activate the future law in the third workshop (expected to be in 06-11 July 2026).