Work Package 1 (months 1-6 in 2017) involved a literature review and methodological orientation,
while the core Work Package 2 (months 7-26 in 2017-19) consisted in intensive fieldwork in the selected sites,
along with further critical-creative conceptual work.
Work Package 3 (months 25-40 in 2019-20) involved the production of the final scientific studies-reports and journal articles derived from them.
Work Packages 4 (dissemination), 5 (management) and 6 (ethics) were successfully completed by December 2020.
The main research outcomes of the project are set out in the core final publications of the project,
which are six extended reports on theory and fieldwork addressing the key research questions of the project,
and six articles submitted to peer-reviewed scientific journals, drawn from the reports.
The reports are self-published online at heteropolitics.net and ikee.auth.gr.
The articles will be also available in an open-access format upon publication.
A volume of conference proceedings (WP1) has been published, along with three scientific articles on commons, music, education and community currencies,
published open-access in peer-reviewed journals (see heteropolitics.net).
Several further project publications have been produced, which were not part of the original research plan (see heteropolitics.net).
Finally, a collective volume is planned for 2021.
Main mature outcomes in fieldwork, conceptual work and publications:
1. A main plank of the research involved fieldwork in communities which self-manage collective goods, and in alternative civic politics which contribute to democratic renewal.
This has taken place in: a) the Sarantaporo community network, Greece; b) the ‘ecosystem of co-operativism’ in Karditsa, Greece; c) the municipality of Patras, Greece;
d) the Cavalerizza collective art space and commons, in Torino, Italy; e) the similar case of ‘Ex-Asilo Filangieri’ in Naples, Italy, which has initiated the process of participatory ‘civic use’ of public spaces in collaboration with the municipality;
f) the municipal movement and government in Barcelona (Barcelona en Comú), Spain; g) self-organized childcare in Barcelona, Spain.
Field research was conducted mainly by the three post-doctoral researchers of the project, in close collaboration with the Principal Investigator.
The specific choices that we have made for the case studies turned out to be highly apt and relevant, speaking directly to our research questions.
2. Drawing on critical conceptual work and the fieldwork, we have outlined in our publications an emergent figure of new active citizenship.
All communities we studied have deliberately undertaken a different style of civic democratic politics around a common good.
They give rise thus to a new mode of active citizenship and community, whose key features consist in:
collaborative self-organized work on new projects with social impact (in education, improved urban spaces, infrastructure, economic activity etc.),
combined with an emphasis on individual autonomy and horizontality;
the weaving of local and global connections beyond nationalisms and exclusions;
diversity and openness;
pragmatism: emphasis on co-work rather than on ideologies, cultural identities etc.;
co-administration of citizens with municipal authorities;
an ethic of active citizens’ care for communities and the environment.
A key question addressed in detail in our research and publications is strategic: how can this kind of politics be promoted on the level of cities and beyond, through reforms in the political system, legislation, and broader alliance-building.
In addition to publications, research outcomes have been disseminated through numerous other activities, including a conference and nine workshops, twenty five presentations in conferences, events etc., five videos, more than fifty activities in social media.
