“Universidad y Economía Colaborativa”: the new andalusian way to improve collaboration

by Diletta Di Marco | Jul 22, 2015 | The Urban Media Lab

The project ‘Universidad y Economía Colaborativa’ provides a first approach to several diverse set of initiatives based on partnership and collaboration between Universities in Andalusia, Southern region of Spain, aimed to facilitate toward a better use of underutilized resources and capacities of these institutions. These initiatives are sponsored in a formal style with a social purpose directly from the Andalusian Universities (Universidad de Sevilla, Universidad de Cádiz , Universidad de Huelva, Universidad de Córdoba,Universidad de Málaga, Universidad Internacional de Andalucía,Universidad de Almería) to their community members, as example civil society, institutions, free organizations and so on, inside and outside their campus in an extremely contagious environment.

The report on the initiative is promoted by UNIA in the context of the project Atalaya (2014-2015), the research was carried by a group of specialistists in which figured Lucía del Moral Espín, Manuel Fernández García and Manuel García Bernárdez.

The main goal of the project is to connect them and let them talk to each other in order to move towards a better understanding of their needs and to identify the possible ways and means of common solutions, which can help to improve these initiatives to foster the innovation. Specifically, the initiatives proposed are six:

1. Building a proper definition of “collaborative economy” for the collaboration among universities;
2. Mapping of the various initiatives that have been developed with the support of the University of Andalusia
3. Identify the proper initiatives and the challenges that they face;
4. Detect the best practices developed by other administrations in different areas inside and outside of Spain;
5. Develop a set of recommendations to facilitate the support and promotion of a collaborative economy by University of Andalusia;
6. Promote networks of knowledge and trust between the various initiatives proposed, collecting a methodology, where each tool for the data collection and analysis is adapted to specific objectives.

From the analysis of the initiatives, they detected ten specific policy areas in which act the practices identified. The result of this analysis, led to the idea of a necessary social commitment with the involvement of universities, with a strong social solidarity for a collaborative Economy, is strongly important for public goods and social innovation: with any market orientation but, instead, with a deep promotion of the commons.

Among the key ideas they suggest that public universities, while are still immersed in what have become known as “academic capitalism”, may represent a favorable environment for the development of initiatives for a better awareness of the commons.

In the pages of the report “Universidad y Economia Colaborativa” have been thought briefly the dynamics that characterize the current environment of Universities in Andalusia. In fact, the collaborative perspective of identifying initiatives has shown in recent years the Andalusian universities as an example, thanks to their dynamism in this sector. However, considering the nature of these initiatives and their social commitment, the network of these universities are expected to play an incredible role both in the promotion of such practices (as a formula to improve the welfare of their colleges) and strengthening the welfare distribution outside the campus (with the aim of improving the living conditions of society as a whole).

Hence the necessary importance of developing proper public policies. In this sense the greatness of these kind of projects for the universities is not only or primarily financial. Universities can implement other measures to support the several aspects of life, even if this involves a number of challenges, among which are:

1. Increase the research, education and dissemination of these initiatives, both in university classrooms and other spaces, improving the mechanisms of internal and external communication of universities to promote knowledge and dissemination of these projects;
2. Try to properly supply resources of different types, such as infrastructure, in order to encourage students and social groups holding such initiatives;
3. Regulate the initiatives in the universities that overlap, but in a flexible way allowing the autonomy and facilitating to recognize the value of the involvement and dedication of the different members of the university community;
4. Adapt and balance the number of hours devoted to not overload the academic workload;
5. Strengthen partnerships with organizations and social groups of various types who work in these lines outside and inside the university and encourage network and dialogue between the various initiatives;
6. Encourage entrepreneurial initiatives on a cooperative basis or formulas in the social Economy;
7. Include social clauses in public procurement procedures, both as a prerequisite, as part of the assessment and as an obligation in the contract;
8. Consider the importance of working from a gender balance approach to prevent to reproduce gender inequalities.

In the development of that project however, it should be observed at least two dangers, on the one hand the threat of co-optation and manipulation, to be used to offset cuts in social recruiting unpaid work, on the other hand, the problem that these initiatives are able to generate new forms of enclosure, in front of homogeneous communities.

In this sense, this commons-oriented progress should not be built around any identity privilege, but the work must be done to reproduce and regenerate a new form of community-based innovation. The secret lies in approaching the University’s community strengthening the relationship among different Universities. It is the union to bring the difference.

Here you can find attached the link for the complete version: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/275648517_Universidad_y_Economa_Colaborativa._Iniciativas_orientadas_al_procomn_desde_las_comunidades_universitarias_andaluzas

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Nelle pagine del Report ” Universidad y Economia Collaborativa- Iniciativas orientadas al procomún desde las comunidades universitarias andaluzas” sono state studiate le dinamiche che caratterizzano il contesto attuale delle università in Andalusia.

Infatti il lavoro di collaborazione e di individuazione delle iniziative che hanno avuto un buon impatto, hanno dimostrato come negli ultimi anni le università andaluse sono state un ottimo esempio di collaborazione e scambio per il loro dinamismo.

L’impegno sociale che le università dovrebbero avere ci dimostra come queste istituzioni potrebbero ricoprire un ruolo fondamentale nella promozione di pratiche di economia collaborativa, che rappresentano una formula per migliorare il benessere all’interno dei campus e cercano di migliorare le condizioni di vita della società nel suo complesso al di fuori delle mura accademiche.