Pilot project launched as part of SEA’s Mapping the Solidarity Economy work

Between October 2018 and early 2019 we’re piloting a community mapping process that will result in a digital map of Oxford’s solidarity economy.

As part of our mission to make the solidarity economy in the UK stronger, and to encourage more people to find out about it and support in their local area, we’ve started working on a pilot project in our hometown in Oxford. Our Mapping the Solidarity Economy in Oxford pilot project is about celebrating what’s important in our city’s communities, and showing how all the different projects, initiatives and organisations are helping to create a more just and sustainable world.

The project is part of our wider Mapping the Solidarity Economy work, and at the end of this pilot project, we’ll have produced a digital map in Oxford that we hope will help everyone be stronger and better connected. We’re using our Linked Open Data technology framework to create the digital map.

Project lead, Doireann Lalor, said: “Oxford has a whole host of organisations, projects and people working to create a just and sustainable city. From swap shops and childcare circles to housing co-ops and community farms, we’ve got a thriving network of initiatives meeting the needs of our communities in ways that put people, and our environment, first. Around the world, this type of activity is known as the solidarity economy, and we want to show how Oxford’s solidarity economy is connected to a much wider global movement.”

Through the project, we want to celebrate what’s happening in our communities, help local people find and support local projects and initiatives and
help projects and initiatives work together. We also hope to discover whether this mapping could be useful, and work for, other areas around the UK, and share what we learn with other people interested in doing the same thing.

During the pilot, we’ll be meeting with many community leaders, projects and organisations within the city to talk to them about what they need from a project like this. We’ll be collecting information about the things that are happening here, and putting them on a digital map that we’ll publish towards the end of the pilot. We’ll also be finding ways of helping projects that need it to tell their own stories about what they are doing in their communities, and we’ll be documenting our process as we go along.

Click here to find out more about the solidarity economy and how you can get involved in the project.