In Scotland, Edzell, a village in the northeast, had fewer than 1,000 inhabitants. In 2012, it was hit by a flood that changed the village forever. Since then, residents have been trying to take control of their own destiny by developing their own flood prevention measures and their own mutual aid and disaster response programs.
In 2025, Rennes, Brittany, there was a small spark similar to what had happened at Edzell 13 years earlier. This spark produced a few fragile and uncertain flames.
Now I’m also thinking again about @palaciosrojo words during Community > Liminal Radio interview
It is also important to seriously consider that when people begin to organize themselves locally, there are consequences, notably political forces that strive to curb this type of social configuration and, even more dangerously, violent groups that do everything in their power to silence these types of organizations. See Community > Say Their Names
Interpretation of Calamity From the Viewpoint of Human Ecology, Kenneth Hewitt & Al. (1983), described this from the perspective of ecology and anthropology more than 40 years ago.
From an academic perspective in history, we can trace back to 15th-century Europe to examine how the power of institutions finds its raison d’être in controlling populations in the teeth of disaster.
Today, in the 21st century, our means of local organization and self-determination depend more than ever on our communication skills—verbal (as always), written, and also ICT. See also Repenser le projet Hack₂O | Rethinking Hack₂O
It is therefore interesting to understand where and how institutions (both public and private) influence our communications in order to influence our attempts, or even reduce or stop them.
Numerous NGOs around the world are at the forefront of these issues and are developing responses—pragmatic, tactical, and operational, defending rights, advocacy, etc.
Tesneem Elhassan is a Displaced Sudanese economist and feminist researcher committed to empowering communities and amplifying women’s voices in conflict settings.
The research they conduct can help us better understand what we are facing and how women activists organize themselves in a context of war.
One of the key points is the distribution of working time by “main types of activities” among these activists. I think this illustrates quite well some of the essential requirements for setting up self-determined groups to provide autonomous responses to crises and disasters:
They work despite repression is set like:
- 23,3% on training & teaching
- 18,3% Food distribution
- 17,5% Advocacy
- 13,5% Documentation
- 11,7% psycho social support
- 7,5% protection
- 7,5% medical support
- Last but not least: fundraising for evacuation; legal support
It takes a village to raise a group of activists, and we need to understand what it takes to sustain that group.
This topic that I am opening here and now is an invitation to work together on understanding needs and how to implement them.