#reclaimthecommons is a 3-day hackcamp for 40 activists, mediamakers, hackers and thinkers who are part of communities (mainly from Europe) working in the fields of the commons, alternative and socially engaged economies and the demand for public spaces as common goods. It will take place in Seville on the 16th, 17th and. 18th of April 2015.

From Gezi Park to London’s housing estates, attempts to directly reclaim space have captured the public imagination. These dramatic struggles to occupy disused buildings, demand public housing and defend green space publicly contest the power of developers, authoritarian governments and financial institutions. Perhaps this desire to work directly with space reflects a new spirit to make Europe anew, from the bottom up, one home, one street, one community at a time.

Citizens are organizing social movements in an increasing number of countries where there are multiple conflicts, where public services are being privatized or where socially engaged communities are defending the idea of public spaces as common goods. Governments are not taking care of these common goods, as global capitalism has colonized the entire political system with its monsters, sabotaging politicians’ capacity to guarantee them. These politicians are facing the most urgent crisis of legitimacy of the last 30 years.

As a result of this situation, new political subjects and methodologies are awakening. It is no longer enough to simply say no or protest. The time has come to occupy the institutions, to rebuild the city, to reclaim the streets, to fight for the right to the city, to build open and digital spaces. To care for the Commons.

The hackcamp is part of the 17th ZEMOS98 Festival and produced in collaboration with the Doc Next Network’s Radical Democracy: Reclaiming The Commons project, supported by the European Cultural Foundation and the Open Society Initiative for Europe. The project includes two tools which will be relevant in the Hackcamp. The first is a Networked Medialab made up of 20 mediamakers, activists and hackers from Poland, Spain, Turkey and the UK who have been working for months on campaigns for social agents in each country. The second is the Doc Next Media Collection, an archive of 600 socially engaged videos with experimental narratives.

The general objectives of the #reclaimthecommons hackcamp will be:

• To strengthen a pan-European network of agents and communities working in the fields of the commons, alternative and socially engaged economies and the demand for public spaces as common goods.
• To discuss and experiment with how new media and digital archives can contribute to improving and amplifying the work of different social agents that are taking care of the Commons.
• To create a self-space to share thoughts and personal experiences related to how to care (for oneself and for others) during a social struggle.

These objectives will have 3 related topics/hashtags that will provide a theoretical framework for the work related to the hackcamp. Each topic will challenge participants to produce two expected outcomes. These outcomes should answer to the notion of the prototype, that is, they should produce something shareable that allows third parties to improve upon. Every outcome/challenge will be undertaken by a small group of five to ten people.