Table of Contents
Why a Methodological Guide?
The “Idea(l)s in Action” project was born in 2016 when we, the partners, were seeking ways to draw attention on existing sustainable lifestyles and figuring out methods to support people in their efforts to take action while making a living in a way that fits their values.
Guided by our past experiences and heartened by the trust we had in each other, we designed together a project that would enable us to turn our wishes into realities. From our collective efforts, a 22-months-long project emerged, whose main objective was to develop and spread the “Heterotopia Tour” - a pedagogical tool based on traveling and community living that we have been developing since 2013 in South-West France - in order to empower people and foster social change.
Together, we designed and implemented 4 Heterotopia Tours within a year: 1 in France, 1 in Greece, 1 in Italy (Sicily) and 1 in Portugal. Each Tour was an opportunity to lead a practical research on the Tour while expanding awareness about and participation in the changes we would like to witness around us.
This Methodological Guide was born out of our will to share the making of a “Heterotopia Tour” and offer an overview of the know-how required to design it. We tried our best to share its spirit, to sum up the main topics it deals with (community living, ecological awareness, social innovation) and provide practical information, tools and tips to make it happen.
Our intention was to clarify the process and the practical requirements of a Heterotopia Tour, so that other organizations are able to set it up. We did our best to take a variety of contexts, approaches and preferred way of doing into consideration, so we could extract a pedagogical method from our specific experiences, that would be suitable for most situations.
May this tool inspire you as it has inspire us, and contribute to empower people, communities and organizations towards a more sustainable and inclusive society.
Wish you a nice discovering and a successful implementation,
The “Idea(l)s in Action” team