Social Solidarity Economy

For whom is Thessaloniki today? Could it become in the future a city that offers quality of life, employment opportunities, and prospects for personal development? How do different communities coexist? What does the degradation of public, especially green, spaces signify? These pressing questions were the focus of an open discussion about the city’s needs, the changes it requires, the challenges it currently faces, and the priorities it must set for the future to reverse the trend of people leaving or the underutilization of its potential. (available in Greek) 

Boulouki (‘Gaggle’; travelling company of stone masons and craftsmen) is a group of architects and engineers who deal with traditional building methods that have fallen out of use in today’s construction practices.

Ta Psila Vouna (‘The High Mountains’) is a social cooperative enterprise that produces local goods and has evolved through time into a network that supports people who live and produce in mountain areas.

Tzoumakers is a workshop in the village of Kalendzi where people design and manufacture machines for their local small scale agricultural production by using open technologies.

Habibi.Works is an intercultural makerspace in Katsikas village, which allows refugees and locals to use spaces, tools and materials in order to build or repair whatever they need.

Giorgos Melissourgos, Coordinator of the Social Solidarity Economy Programme