View source for Enablers and constraints affecting community-led initiatives

'''Enablers and constraints affecting community-led initiatives''' include general and place-specific factors, and can be either internal to the initiative or refect external condtions. Many common patterns can be observed across different types of initiatives. Key factors include local circumstances, perceived efficacy of government action on environmental and social issues, local and translocal networking and collaboration, political conditions, legal and institutional arrangements,

== General Enabling Factors ==
Research on establishment of community-led initiatives (CLIs) have identified several key factors that stimulate their creation. Some are restricted to or more common in particular locations or countries, other recur internationally.

The following diagram summarises factors enabling the arisal and persistence of CLIs identified in the  [[TESS research project]], whose international comparison of CLIs covered [[Germany]], parts of [[Italy]], [[Spain]], [[Scotland]], [[Finland]] and [[Romania]]).

[[File:Factors Emergence Development CBIs - Deliverable-3.3-Findings.png|thumb|left|720px|Table 1. Enabling Factors for CLIs identified in the TESS Project. Source:<ref>Rauch, T., 2016. ''New report submitted: Qualitative success factors for community-based initiatives''. http://www.tess-transition.eu/new-report-submitted-qualitative-success-factors-for-community-based-initiatives/. Accessed July 6th 2018.</ref>, based on <ref name="Sekulova 2016">Sekulova, F., 2016. [http://www.tess-transition.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/04.29.2016-Deliverable3.3_Final.pdf ''Report on qualitative success factors.'']. TESS Project Deliverable 3.3.</ref>.]]
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The following summarises enabling factors identified by participants in CLIs themselves:
[[File:Self-Assessment CBI Drivers.png|thumb|left|720px|Figure 1. Key drivers for establishment of community-led initiatives identified by participants. Source:<ref>TESS Newsletter no. 3, October 2015. http://www.tess-transition.eu/newsletter-october-2015/. Accessed July 6th 2018.</ref>, based on <ref name="Sekulova 2016" />.]]
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Key factors identified in various research projects can be allocated to a number of categories:
; Local collaboration
: Active collaboration with local authorities appeared to be a key factor among TESS case study initiatives in Italy, but less so elsewhere. For example, many Finnish CLIs actively avoided such collaboration in order to assert or maintain autonomy.<ref name="TESS D4.1">Celata, F., Hendrickson, C., 2016. [http://www.tess-transition.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/TESS_D4.1_Case-study-integration-report.pdf ''Case study integration report''] (TESS Project Deliverable No. 4.1).</ref> Overall, the TESS project concluded that while most CLIs regard collaboration with public institutions as a low priority, such collaboration is often frequent, intense and important. However, CLIs' relationships in many cases appear problematic, with 62 per cent reporting some kind of constraint arising from public policies, including legislative constraints, difficulties accessing public funding and generally unsupportive policy environments.<ref name ="TESS Final Report">TESS Project, 2017. [http://www.tess-transition.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/TESS-Final_report_2017.pdf ''Final publishable summary report''].</ref>
: Several studies of initiatives in the [[Transition movement]] show their establishment often depends on informal local collaboration. Half of 276 initiatives responding to a worldwide survey in 2013 reported a pre-existing local group to have in some way been involved in their creation,<ref name ="Feola2013">Feola, G., Nunes, R., 2014. [http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/36095/ Success and failure of grassroots innovations for addressing climate change: The case of the Transition Movement.] ''Global Environmental Change'' '''24''', 232–250. https://doi.org/10.101/j.gloenvcha.2013.11.011</ref> for example Local Agenda 21 groups in Portugal <ref>Pinto, M., Macedo, M., Macedo, P., Almeida, C., Silva, M., 2015. The Lifecycle of a Voluntary Policy Innovation: The Case of Local Agenda 21. ''Journal of Management and Sustainability'' 5, 69–83. https://doi.org/10.5539/jms.v5n2p69 </ref> and the UK,<ref>Seyfang, G., 2009. [https://transitionnetwork.org/sites/www.transitionnetwork.org/files/Gill-Seyfang-green-shoots-of-sustainability.pdf ''Green Shoots of Sustainability: the 2009 Transition Movement Survey.''] University of East Anglia. P. 4.</ref> and the Relocalization Network in the USA <ref name="shawki 2013">Shawki, N., 2013. Understanding the Transnational Diffusion of Social Movements. ''Humanity & Society'' 37, 131–158. https://doi.org/10.1177/0160597613481799</ref>.
; Social links
: Case study initiatives in the TESS project, particularly in Spain, Italy and Germany, emphasised the importance of participation, for example links between producers and consumers in relevant cases<ref name="TESS D4.1"/>. Establishment of [[community renewable energy]] projects, for example, often relies on creation of a ‘virtuous social-technical loop’, where mobilisation of local social ties creates inital demand for technological change, which when realised encourages further recruitment.<ref name="Lo 2017">Lo, K., 2017. Grassroots Environmentalism and Low-Carbon Cities, in: Dhakal, S., Ruth, M. (Eds.), Creating Low Carbon Cities. Springer International Publishing, pp. 43–50. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49730-3_5</ref> The importance of networking among local actors, especially among CLIs and other [[grassroots innovations]], to strengthen processes of building niches, the alternative structures (social, cultural, institutional and/or economic) within which CLIs seek to operate, has been noted for both community currencies<ref name="seyfang2013">Seyfang, G., Longhurst, N., 2013. Desperately seeking niches: Grassroots innovations and niche development in the community currency field. ''Global Environmental Change'' '''23''', 881–891. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.02.007</ref> and community energy projects.<ref>Yael, P., Hamilton, J., White, V., Hogan, B., 2013. Network approach for local and community governance of energy. ''Energy Policy'' '''62''', 1064–1077. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.06.027</ref>
;Failure of dominant regimes
: Significant motivating factors for TESS case study CLIs in Germany included perceived failure on the part of government to take effective action on preventing food waste and promoting transition to renewable energy sources.<ref name="TESS D4.1"/> In some cases, creation of CLIs is motivated by a wish to undertake actions considered socially and environmentally legitimate but formally illegal.  This was the case with many TESS case study initiatives in Germany.<ref name="TESS D4.1"/> These 'uncivil' initiatives often complement those 'civil' initiatives working within legal and institutional frameworks and more conventional societal expectations, and gain popular legitimacy through informal local collaboration. The latter is the case with many 'rurban' squats on the periphery of Barcelona, who offer a variety of amenities and services to local residents.<ref>D’Alisa, G., Demaria, F., Cattaneo, C., 2013. Civil and Uncivil Actors for a Degrowth Society. Journal of Civil Society 9, 212–224. https://doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2013.788935</ref> Many [[Red de Huertos Urbanos Comunitarios de Madrid|community gardens in Madrid]] began as technically illegal occupations of unused urban land; having become important spaces for regenerating social relationships at neighbourhood level and public reimagining of and action upon the nature of urban public space they have since been officially legitimised by city authorities.<ref>Fernández Casadevante Kois, José Luis, Nerea Morán and Nuria del Viso, 2018. Madrid's Community Gardens. Where neighbourhood counter-powers put down roots. In Buxton, N. & D. Eade (eds.) [https://www.tni.org/files/publication-downloads/tni-stateofpower2018-webversion.pdf ''State of Power.''] 2018 edition. Amsterdam: Transnational Institute. Pp. 131-148.</ref>

; Wider networking and collaboration
: A number of key studies, along with the first hand experience of many practitioners in community-led initiatives, indicate the value of working within wider networks.<ref name="seyfang2013" /> The [[diffusion and growth of community-led initiatives]] is greatly enhanced by the existence of networks for sharing knowledge, information and experience, both directly via social connections, network-level events, visits, workshops and trainings, and indirectly via passive inspiration and active circulation of enabling media.<ref name="shawki 2013" /> Based on case studies of 20 key networks and movements of [[transformative social innovation]] initiatives, the [[TRANSIT research project]] concluded that the scope of such initiatives to contribute to transformative change depends crucially on their capacity to form and operate within translocal and transnational networks of other such initiatives and their supporters.<ref>Haxeltine, A., Pel, B., Dumitru, A., Avelino, F., Kemp, R., Bauler, T., Kunze, I., Dorland, J., Wittmayer, J., Søgaard, M., 2017. [http://www.transitsocialinnovation.eu/content/original/Book%20covers/Local%20PDFs/286a%20TRANSIT_WorkingPaper_TowardsTSItheory%20AH161217.pdf ''Towards a TSI theory: a relational framework and 12 propositions'']. TRANSIT working paper 16.</ref> In the permaculture, ecovillage and Transition movements, ongoing processes of social learning - formal, informal and non-formal and at all scales - are key to their successful operation as mutually enabling networks and integral parts of their operational methodologies.<ref>Henfrey, T., 2017. Permaculture education as ecology of mind: the head, hands and heart of transformation, in: Mass Intellectuality and Democratic Leadership in Higher Education. Bloomsbury Academic, London, pp. 171–184. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474267618 </ref> By adopting [[knowledge and learning]] as a key strategic pillar, the [[ECOLISE]] network seeks to support, enable, diversify, deepen and strengthen these learning processes.

== Policy Enablers and Constraints ==
Interviews conducted in the TESS project reflected the point already made about the ambivalent effects of political factors. Of 62 initiatives studied in detail, nearly half considered that their establishment of development had benefited from some form of supportive policy regulation, while a larger number (39) considered that policy regulations had to some degree hindered them. On this basis, and taking into account that some initiatives considered policy to have provided both opportunities and barriers, researchers suggested a fourfold categorisation of policy contexts:<ref name="TESS D4.1" /> 
* Policy support without obstacles (best)
* Policy support accompanied by some obstacles;
* Absence of policy support and of policy obstacles
* Absence of policy support along with existence of policy obstacles (worst).
Further questioning as to the scale of these policy effects showed that policy enablers were fairly evenly distributed across scales, with slightly larger numbers reported at local than national and EU levels. Policy barriers were far more commonly reported at local level, by 34 responding CLIs compared with only nine and four at national and EU levels respectively.<ref name="TESS D4.1"/>

Initiatives reporting policy '''enablers''' described these as occuring in four main areas (not mutually exclusive):<ref name="TESS D4.1"/>
* Access to property (land, assets, buildings)
* Economic factors: tax benefits, financial incentives, support for enterprise
* Community or social development
* Regulations concerning environment, transport and/or food regulations

Categorisation of policy '''barriers''' also identified four main areas, again not mutually exclusive:<ref name="TESS D4.1"/>
* Rules and bureaucracy concerning state aid and/or funding bureaucracy
* Property, public spaces and legal regulations
* Regulations concerning organizational structure, employment and/or volunteering
* Regulations concerning environment, transport, or health and hygiene

An example of an enabling policy context is that of the Vauban eco-district initiative in Freiburg, Germany, in which a unique top-down and bottom-up participatory city planning process involving the city council, the city administration and representative citizens enabled the ‘Forum Vauban’ initiative to reach its goal of building an ecological neighbourhood.<ref>Kunze, I. and Philipp, A. (2016) [https://iriskunze.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/cohousing_vauban_2015_07_16_report_ik_ap_publication_transit.pdf The eco-district of Vauban and the co-housing project GENOVA]. In : Picabea, F., Kunze, I., Bidinost, A., Philipp, A. and Becerra L. Case study report : Cohousing, TRANSIT: EU SSH.203.3.2-1 Grant agreement no. 613169.</ref>

TESS case study research in Germany showed that in some cases temporary windows of institutional opportunity, such as a change in procedures for operating power networks in German cities, were crucial factors for the establishment and influence of community-led initiatives.<ref name="TESS D4.1"/>

== Legal Enablers and Constraints ==
Both the direct experience of community-led initiatives and findings of formal research indicate that the organisational structure and legal form adopted by community-led initiatives affect in important ways their possibilities for action, relationships with wider context (particularly governmental and other formal bodies) and their possibilities for future growth.<ref name="TESS, ARTS & PATHWAYS"/> Most need to adopt some sort of legally recognised formal structure in order to be visible to and engage with by existing institutional structures; those that do not constitute themselves as a legal entity often find their ability to access funding and other support restricted, as has been the case for The Living Knowledge Network of public science initiatives.<ref name="TRANSIT PB1">Kemp, R., Zuijderwijk, L., Weaver, P., Seyfang, G., Avelino, F., Strasser, T., Becerra, L., Backhaus, J., Ruijsink, S., 2015. [http://www.transitsocialinnovation.eu/content/original/Book%20covers/Local%20PDFs/182%20TRANSIT%20brief%20no%201.pdf ''Doing things differently : exploring Transformative Social innovation and its practical challenges.''] TRANSIT Brief no. 1. TRANSIT: EU SSH.2013.3.2-1 Grant agreement no: 613169.</ref>

Research suggests an ambiguous relationship between organisational structures and success. On the one hand, adopting a recognised legal structure is a form of embedding that can integrate CLIs into existing structures and strengthen their ability to change outdated  ways of doing, organising and thinking, at the same time as it enhances prospects for their long-term survival. On the other, it may lead to rigid obligations to official institutions of kinds that restrict possibilities for long-term action.<ref name="TESS, ARTS & PATHWAYS">A. Hof, A. Holsten, H. Berg et al, 2016. [http://www.tess-transition.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Common-Policy-Brief-Updated.pdf Sustainability Transitions to Low Carbon Societies]. TESS, ARTS & PATHWAYS Common Policy Brief.</ref>. Case study initiatives in the [[TESS research project]] report trade-offs between adhering to a legal structure and organising so as to allow more informal operational formats, with implications for outreach and inclusivity.<ref name="TESS D4.1"/>

Initiative and movements involved in the [[TRANSIT research project]] reported various regulatory conditions, often specific to their particular context. Credit unions are affected by financial regulations, and may be restricted by measures associated with stricter public regulation of banks. Co-housing projects (and, in some circumstances, ecovillages) are bound by legal frameworks pertaining to the construction and management of housing. Agroecology, local food and food sovereignty initiatives and networks, such as Seed Exchange in Hungary, need to follow EU and national laws concerning sale and exchange of seeds, while the Shareable network of city-based sharing initiatives is bound by rules concerning competition.<ref name = "TRANSIT PB1"/>

== Resource Constraints ==
<blockquote>''Main page: [[Resourcing community-led initiatives]]''</blockquote>

All CLIs face ongoing challenges and dilemmas regarding how to resource their work and sustain activity without compromising their core values and capacity to deliver on key aims and objectives. Most rely on a combination of monetary and non-monetary inputs, including substantial voluntary labour, each of which raises its own set of dilemmas and constraints. A key tension is the need to operate professionally and effectively without compromising inclusivity and responsiveness to community needs, for example by becoming too focussed on delivery of specific income-generating activities, funded projects, or donors' requirements. Many CLIs have adopted new forms of enterprise (community-led, solidarity and/or regenerative) as vehicles for delivering key projects, or for the CLI as a whole, to help resolve these dilemmas. Resourcing thus raises a wide spectrum of possible enablers and constraints, whose exact nature will depend on the choices, aims and context of any specific CLI.

Empirical evidence from massive Scotland governmental to support and empower CLIs hampers the mission of CLIs to ground sustainable and regenerative lifestyles within its community, mainly due to "(i) misaligned output timeframes, (ii) administration demands, and (iii) local competition". <ref>Creamer, E., 2015. The double-edged sword of grant funding: a study of community-led climate change initiatives in remote rural Scotland. Local Environ. 20, 981–999. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2014.885937</ref>

== References ==
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[[Category:Status Report]]
[[Category: Transferred to CfF wiki]]