New team member: Geert-Jan Bogaerts

The research group Social Enterprises & Institutions for Collective Action is pleased to welcome Geert-Jan Bogaerts as a part-time PhD student. Geert-Jan will be studying the relationship between public service organizations and citizen initiatives, with a focus on community building.

He is a journalist and digital strategist with over 15 years of experience, including as EU and NATO correspondent for De Volkskrant and head of Digital at VPRO. He is founder and chair of the PublicSpaces Foundation and a board member of the Global Voices Foundation, working to strengthen the public digital domain and promote responsible digitalization with social impact.

See the profile page of Geert-Jan for more information.

Trust first, data second: Building resilient societies through collective action

This interview with SEICA team members Professor Tine De Moor and Communications Advisor Tessa Moolenaar explores the role of citizen collectives in building resilient societies and strengthening the connection between academia and society.

The article examines how CollectieveKracht brings together citizen collectives, researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders to facilitate knowledge exchange and collaboration. It highlights the importance of trust, reciprocity and long-term relationships in developing meaningful partnerships across these communities.

Against the backdrop of growing attention to engaged research and the societal impact of universities, the interview offers insights into the conditions that enable collective action to generate lasting societal value.

Read the interview

Chapter on avoiding pitfalls for robust data aggregation

In their chapter, Cooperative Data in a Comparative Perspective: Avoiding Pitfalls for Robust Data Aggregation, written for Global Cooperative Economics and Movements, Véronique de Herde and Tine De Moor examine the methodological challenges of comparing and aggregating cooperative data across time and space. As an increasing number of research projects rely on comparative datasets to assess, for example, the societal impact of cooperatives, the authors analyse a broad corpus of historical cooperative data sources, ranging from registration records to federation data at the national and international levels.

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Collaboration for innovative financing of community based enterprises

Together with neighborhood businesses, municipalities, housing corporations, and health insurers, members of the SEICA research group are co-creating an innovative financing mechanism that integrates multiple funding streams. This aims to ensure sustainable funding for CBEs and guaranteed cost savings for the involved parties. This project is an initiative by DAZO and it is one of 25 projects awarded the Knowledge-in-Action (KIN) grant.

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SEICA Seminar with prof. Ismael Vaccaro

On June 23, Prof. Ismael Vaccaro (CSIC) presented his research about the history of Catalan Commons. The presentation was titled “The Legal Transformations of the Commons in the Catalan Pyrenees: from the Middle Ages until the twenty-first century”.

Vaccaro presented his research on the complex legal history of the old commons, showing how their legal status has been profoundly transformed over time, while certain characteristics have persisted under new legal frameworks.

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Lecture on Citizen Collectives and Societal Resilience

As part of program for the ‘Week of Resilience’ at the Rotterdam-Rijnmond Safety Region (VRR) Professor Tine De Moor gave a lecture on the role of citizen collectives in enhancing regional resilience, titled: “Society as First Responder: Citizen Collectives as Critical Infrastructure for a Resilient Netherlands?”. They examined how initiatives such as energy cooperatives, care collectives, community enterprises, and neighborhood networks contribute to addressing crises and broader societal challenges.

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