Social regeneration is one of the most challenging aspects for community led initiatives (CLIs). One of the main provocations is to deconstruct patriarchal patterns and redefine gender relations and roles in a way which is just and regenerative.
This CfF session builds on the vast experiences in CLIs and critical perspectives of three women leaders in ecovillages across Europe (Spain, Slovenia and the Netherlands). The session aims to be a space for good practices exchange, learning with and from each other, and empowerment through inspirational life stories. Our target audience are CLIs members or persons interested to find out more about practices of social regeneration from a gender perspective, women members and leaders in CLIs, and all persons who feel the need for inspiration in engaging with gender transformation in their communities.
The invited women leaders will be sharing empowering life stories which we hope to inspire collective strength, foster a dynamic exchange that catalyze self-empowerment and solidarity among women, and reveal how paths of reconfiguring gender relations intertwine with regenerative community building. Furthermore, identifying opportunities and challenges for women leaders in CLIs and exchanging best practices to handle them acts as a beacon for integrating gender transformation into socio-environmentally regenerative communities. Going one step deeper into the conversation on gender and power dynamics in regenerative intentional communities will allow us to understand the co-constitution between everyday practices and systemic patterns, such as the patriarchal one.
This CfF session is inspired by the project FLIARA – Female-led Innovation in Agriculture and Rural Areas, a Horizon project being implemented between 2023 – 2025. FLIARA aims to heighten the visibility and awareness of current female-led innovations. The project will increase the recognition of the importance of women-led sustainable innovations to achieving EU environmental and inclusion policies, as well as a sustainable rural future.
About the invited speakers and host:
Mauge Cañada has been living in intentional communities since the 80s, being a co-founder of the ecovillage Arterra Bizimodu where she currently lives. She was part of the Coordination group of the Iberian Ecovillage Network and collaborated with the Navarra Government on a pilot project meant to sustainably repopulate rural areas using the ecovillage model. Mauge also works as a therapist specialised in Humanistic Psychology. She is a group facilitator and provides training in facilitation and organisational development. She is deeply involved in fostering collaborative leadership and advising on Sociocracy implementation since 2015, supporting various NGO projects and international education initiatives related to eco-social transition. A mother and grandmother, she is linked in various ways to life, to the care of LIFE, and to Social Transformation.
Manja Vrenko is the GEN-Europe coordinator and co-founding member of the Sunny Hills of Istria community in Slovenia, where she lives and works. She has been involved in different working groups in GEN Europe since 2014, and she has served in a role of the membership officer since May 2021. She contributed to development of the Community Incubator (CLIPS) program, and she is an experienced facilitator. At Sunny Hill she is in charge of the organization of events and workshops promoting sustainable lifestyle and ecovillage culture. She is a permaculture practitioner, and when she is not involved with one of her various projects, she cultivates land, cares for goats, bakes bread and makes cheese.
Mieke Elzenga has been a Social Entrepreneur since 1982 in the Netherlands and Czech Republic. She has worked in several organisations for Welfare and Healthcare in operation, staff, and management. She likes to create new services and products that supports people to be active in the regeneration of our planet and in personal development. With her organisation Liberta Care Foundation (NL) she supported Dutch youngsters involved in criminality, with time-out projects. Later collaborating with young refugees in NL. LiberTerra’s integral concept is of ‘eco-communities which support authorities around issues like climate change and biobased building’. Promoting female leadership, especially for young women, is also a topic that has her attention. That is also, because Mieke herself is in the elderly phase (born 1960) and is transferring her tasks to young people, by mentoring them.
Mieke is currently co-president of the ECOLISE Council.
Anastasia Oprea works in ECOLISE as Project Manager for the Horizon project FLIARA – Female-led Innovation in Agriculture and Rural Areas. She is also a junior researcher, currently working toward finishing her PhD dissertation in International Politics and Conflict Resolution at the Coimbra University, on the topic of everyday practices in ecovillages and transformations they bring to European citizenship toward socio-environmental justice. Her work experience includes working with both NGOs and research centres, on topics related to rural areas, peasants’ rights and food justice, with a transversal concern for gender issues and decoloniality.