Global Villages - combining global exchange of knowledge with focus on local development
GIVE - Globally Integrated Village Environment project.
The Problematique that GIVE wants to meet
Increasing global competition is eroding regional fabric of life; only centers are really competitive
Cities are the new states; http://benjaminbarber.org/
Rural areas, villages, small towns are challenged by comparisons
about quality of life, health care, services, jobs, education - pressure increasing
Constant drain of educated and able people to urban agglomerations
Viciuos, self accelerating circle; planners are helpless even with "coping" strategies
Gross Result: Loss of quality of life in cities (overpopulation), loss of cultivation standards in rural areas
The Gamechanging Innovations that GIVE wants to combine
Technological transformation from industrial to automated society
Social transformation to "prosumerism" is imminent, but Institutions do not adapt easily
Global Networking and Knowledge Exchange; Open Source and Common Repositories
Emergence of a cooperative paradigm - outcooperating competitive actors
Emergence of "Cultural Creative" and "Postmaterialist" paradigms
Cultural communities lay the ground for "lifestyle manifestations" (the album made Woodstock happen)
Revolution in Sources: Energy and Matter becoming local affairs
Rediscovery of the Commons and increasing awareness and perception of our local sphere
Commons and the local often represented by media, GIS etc.
Core definition of Global Villages
A locality striving to be the manifestation of human desire for a quality life and common values
based on a cultural vision, created in a participatory way, that shapes an individual community character
A place that puts cooperation ahead of competition, locally and globally
integrated into global networks of knowledge exchange and support
forming regional clusters of complementing functions
encouraging and supporting locals in creating services and products for local exchange
A human settlement that in truly embedded in a natural support system
Creating reproduceable resources and applying them in a broad range of productive fields
Respecting the human nature of being in resonance with the living world
Operational principles of Global Villages
A few people have to fulfill a lot of tasks for being competitive with cities
Education, communication and coordination are equally required;
Constant encounter, sometimes informal, sometimes structured, should be facilitated
from architecture (coworking spaces) to media (local cloud)
creating a participative culture of "everyone is important"
Putting education first means that local communities must be in charge
local campuses, educational centers - Examples
sharing teachers and content with the world by electronic media is a big enabler
Content is directed towards the Local
Give a role to cities and centers - succesful decentralisation relies on strong centers
Pair local front ends with global back ends
If needed and possible replace dominant centers by p2p cooperations
The physical shape of Global Villages
The mind returns home: microspheres of multiple uses, anticipated in modern homes
the home as spa, as cinema, as workplace - a harbinger of change
Vision of a network of compact, dense, pedestrian-oriented clustered communities.
Strong centers, piazza telematica, multipurpose arcade / shopping mall spaces ("microurban")
integrated flow of matter