Social Solidarity Economy

The goal of the project “Ioannina: Bridges of Participation” is to offer a gender perspective to the city of Ioannina’s urban development procedures. This implies a higher likelihood that women, as well as other minorities like children, teenagers, the elderly, and the disabled, will be taken into account in future urban planning in order to ensure that everyone can enjoy the city equally and that it can meet everyone’s needs. 

“Ioannina is planning” is a research project on participation, public space, and the city itself. Vasilis Floudas, the head of this whole effort, economist, and head of the Planning and Development Department of the Municipality of Ioannina, explains to the journalist Varvara Aggeli the hows and whys of this project, as well as the expectations that arise.

The Neighborhood Planning Committee is an institution for citizens’ participation in decisions concerning their living space. It has existed for 40 years but never really functioned. Recently, it was activated again on the occasion of the citizens’ struggle to return the former “Karatasios” camp to them. Journalist Kostis Kekeliadis discusses the issue with PhD candidate of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Sokratis Seitanidis and local resident Irini Stavridou.

Through an overview of the changes in the framework of spatial planning over the last decade, Sokratis Seitanidis, a spatial planning engineer, examines the trends regarding the collective participation of citizens in spatial planning, as well as the institutional tools that can keep alive and expand the respective rights of citizens.

Philippos Polatsidis, member of the solidarity group "Pervolarides Thessalonikis" and researcher on housing issues, conveys his experience from the Projekthaus Potzdam project in Germany, explains the basic elements of cooperative housing, envisions the life experienced in such a housing model and sets out the conditions for its implementation in Greece.

The first of a series of articles by the CoHab team on cooperative housing, as part of our joint project entitled "Toolbox for Cooperative and Collective Housing in Greece".

As part of our joint project entitled "Toolkit for Cooperative and Collective Housing in Greece", we publish the second of a series of articles by the CoHab team on the subject of cooperative housing.

The book “Free, Fair, and Alive: The Insurgent Power of the Commons” by Silke Helfrich and David Bollier was presented by the Heinrich Böll Foundation-Thessaloniki Office and the Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki, in cooperation with Nefeli Publishing House, at the 19th Thessaloniki International Book Fair on Friday, May 5, 2023.

How can you talk about podcasts while making a podcast? What is time and what does it mean to lose it? Can technology help us to make up for the lost time? Is there really lost and won time? During the event entitled “I'm always running and I can't catch up”, Maro Pantazidou and Antonis Faras talked about the lack of free time, exhausting working rates, anxiety deriving from time that goes by and also about technology as social and political issues, and they recorded their discussion, creating a new live podcast.