The Civic Economy

In many cities, we are increasingly witnessing the emergence of new forms of ownership: the consumer society is turning into a civic economy. In recent years in Rotterdam, a number of social initiatives and subsidy-free enterprises have been founded, such as Hotspot Hutspot, Leeszaal West and Sweatshop Deluxe. What are the possibilities offered by these new initiatives for the development of new business models?

A public ‘free haven’ for the civic economy

Citizens’ collectives are expected to more or less independently tackle social challenges. Often this work is done by people who just happened to be there. They do the best they can, which is often enough. But where can they go to develop their competences and insights? What kind of infrastructure would it take to help them? In this master class, you will be developing a free haven for ‘makers’ and ‘doers’. The focus is on solving social issues through social, cultural and artistic interventions.

De Makers van Rotterdam and Sandersgeluk are currently managing the clubhouse ‘De Arend en de Zeemeeuw’ on Van Brienenoord Island. They plan to use this location for their offices, and more importantly as a public ‘free haven’ with a tremendous potential: a place where the powers of social and cultural imagination are brought together. This location will serve as our real-world case, as well as the work location for this master class. The managers of the clubhouse will be your hosts and guest experts. They are still in the early stages of this process, therefore the questions they will be proposing are still broad and general. They are looking for people with imagination: that’s you. The question they are asking is: how do you picture the ideal ‘free haven’, where the civic economy can be developed? And what are the relevant creative business models?