Barcelona to host solidarity economy forum in 2020

Barcelona will host the World Social Forum of Transformative Economies in 2020, an event that is expected to bring together more than 10,000 attendees from all over the globe. The forum will include initiatives exploring and proposing alternative economic and financial systems.

Over the week that the event will last, talks and meetings will be held on the “economies of change,” as well as offering a programme of cultural events to involve local people, along with proposals for transformative initiatives specifically for Barcelona and Catalonia.

According to the Forum’s coordinator and member of Catalonia’s Solidarity Economy Network (XES in Catalan), Xavier Artigas, during the presentation of the initiative in Barcelona on Monday, the aim of the event is to show that “another world already exists.”

Meanwhile, Laure Jongejans, the coordinator of the international network of solidarity economy organisations, or RIPESS, said that they aim to show that they have solutions “to overcome global challenges,” such as the migration crisis or gender based violence.

Jogejans said the Catalan capital had been chosen for the event because “the solidarity economy is being developed a lot here." Jongejans also pointed to the “innovative practices” the city has adopted in the area of the transformative economy compared with other places.

The Forum will have two stages. The first is planned for spring 2019, with a three-day meeting of 500 representatives of networks and social movements championing alternative ways of understanding the economy. The Forum itself will take place the following year, with some 10,000 people expected to attend.  

According to the report, the Social and Solidarity Economy 2015, this type of economy employs some 10% of Catalonia’s workforce, contributes some 8% of the country’s GDP and involves some 60,000 organizations. In Barcelona, it involves some 3% of the city’s firms and provides work to 8% of the city’s workforce.