With its digital community mapping, fungus-driven mill, and reuse of coastal buildings, the Onion Collective is a vibrant CAN
We’re always on the watch-out for innovative local structures that could be described as CANs (community agency or citizen action networks) - reaching out for new ways to constitute themselves as a community or locality.
The Onion Collective in Watchet, Devon, seems like a paradigm example of what we mean. Their About page notes that they came together in 2013, after a property development on their marina had fallen through - and as a Community Interest Company, they thought they do could better:
We spent two months asking people 'What does Watchet need for a stronger future?' From that consultation, we then built a purpose built Visitor Centre and restored Boat Museum, restored a derelict field to a community garden, built a pavilion with 50 volunteers and started a project called Watchet Community Makers. We are now developing plans for a cultural enterprise tourism development on the Quayside. The experience we have gained from these projects mean that we can now help other communities achieve the same.
They declaim themselves as “the next economy in action” - and what we were excited by was their energy and vision in building new structures to pursue that. In association with a local software company, Free Ice Cream, the Onion Collective built a community mapping technology called Understory:
A community comes together in a single workshop to create a network map, and by the end of the session they are able to explore the web of relationships between people and organisations that build economic and social resilience. Once made, the map becomes an analytical tool that underpins lots of community building work. Click here to find out more and visit the website
Another intriguing initiative is to bring industry back to the area, around the concept of fungus-based materials production - what they call a BioMill.
…We determined that bio-based material development (manufacturing products from living / once living materials) would be the best opportunity for the area, especially given the context of climate emergency and resource depletion. We had a particular interest in mycelium and its ability to consume waste, and in the process, grow new products, as we felt this was a perfect nod to our industrial heritage, but with a biophilic, 21st century approach, appropriate for the challenges of our time.
There’s a lot of cultural and human capital involved here - scroll down to the impressive CVs of the main operators and board - so there is a question (as usual) of how much capacity other communities might need, to achieve comparable results.
But one can imagine a range of coastal towns and localities looking with interest at what the OC have done for their small area. We are particularly excited by the use of software, and regenerative production, as an expression of community vision. And it’s another example, as we know well at the Alternative Global, of Devon’s (and the West of England’s) surprising opportunities.
Look out next week for the deeper thinking behind the Onion Collective…