Origin And History

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Remix the commons is a collective founded in 2009 by 5 French-speaking organisations Communautique, VECAM, LARTES-IFAN, Ker Thiossane and FMAS – Forum des alternatives Maroc, on the proposal of Alain Ambrosi, and under the name Remix Biens Communs. Remix was formed following the first meeting of the World Forum for Science and Democracy (WFSD). Remix aimed to create a space for a better understanding of commons and their relevance to civil society and social movements. At the beginning of 2018, Remix was set up as an association in order to support the project institutionally.

Remix has carried out numerous activities through Communautique, VECAM and Gazibo (successively institutional partners of the collective). They contribute to producing and structuring knowledge on the notion and experience of the commons, and to reinforcing exchanges between the families of actors involved in the commons movement in order to create the conditions for strategic cooperation. During the first 10 years of its existence, Remix has met and collaborated with a large number of friends, partners and allies on more than 70 different projects. Remix contributed to the preparation of the Economics of the Commons Conference (ECC) in 2013 in Berlin. The aim was to mobilise French and French-speaking commoners for this event and to document the meeting with interviews conducted for the Remix website (wiki).

Following the Conference, in September 2013, Remix carried out a work programme on three parts developing the visibility of the practices commoning, of the vocabulary of the commons milieu, and an overview of the issues and proposals to feed the political agendas of the commons movement. While making progress in these three areas, Remix plays a coordinating role within the French-speaking network of commoners. Its discussion list has become a reference on the thematic of commons.

Since 2014, the French-speaking network is a recognised space for reflection and the development of proposals that actors can take up in their own context, local authority, association or academic environment.

Remix has piloted or contributed to the realization or publication of numerous projects, files and studies or the translation of works into French. In addition to these publications, Remix has been involved in a number of activities such as the School of the Commons and training courses.

Finally, in 2016, Remix is committed to support the emergence of the commons movement in Europe, by proposing the organisation of processes such as Commons Space, a contribution to the World Social Forum (WSF 2016) and a first European meeting: CommonsWatch (April 2016) which led to the constitution of the European Commons Assembly (ECA). This assembly met in Brussels (November 2016) in the European Parliament and then in Madrid in October 2017. This commitment continues through the Commons Camp in Grenoble in 2018 and Marseille in 2020, the Common Horizons project and the national gathering of the Commons Assembly.