Angela Häusermann (Planting Solidarity Co.) presents ‘Thoughts on Organizing‘ for the LINA Library 2025 curation.
When geopolitics seems to get crazier every day,
When fascist parties get more and more to do and say,
When hate and genocide are on a rise,
Is it even a choice to organize?
People are fascinated by the way humans can improvise and organize despite “difficult” conditions. Architects are impressed by the functioning of informal settlements. While attending the International Anarchist Congress of 2023 in St. Imier, an activist from Brazil made it clear that their organising was not a choice, but a necessity to maintain their existence as a Quilombo community.
As inspiring as such examples of organizing might be, they have little to do with a grand part of activities and realities within the LINA Community. But still, even if you do have other choices than to organize, it might feel like you actually don’t. For example, after being disappointed by academia and “normal jobs” and their entanglement with an ego-driven growth economy.
When given paths no longer make sense, organizing might hold the promise of purpose. In my case, this started with experimental walks and their documentation, connecting myself with associations that suggested formats for citizens to engage in the public space. That’s when I came in contact with some of the co-authors of “Organisiert Euch”, participated in conferences, took part in the founding of a cultural association, and started playing more music. It meant empowerment and losing the idea of “a career” at the same time. It still means using my privilege, sensitizing, and empowering others; at the same time this also means difficult work circumstances, little security or continuity, tricky communication in groups, working on my emotional maturity, and an ambivalent relationship to hope.
The book “Organisiert Euch” is based on practical experience of over 20 collectives, groups and networks based in the region of Austria, Germany, and Switzerland that aim to change the urban space and the world in general. This book openly addresses challenges of self organized collectives with a democratic claim such as how to deal with inequality of different group members in taking up space in discussions, finding and defining your structure as a collective, distributing tasks and reflecting on different roles within the collective, burning out in voluntary work, getting access to spaces or money, accounting and administration or convincing politicians.
While “Organisiert Euch” as a publication and our contact to the network around it was and still is an important source for our organization as the association “Planting Solidarity”, we are curious in which way it also holds potential as a resource for LINA members and fellows. The publication is issued under a Creative Commons 4.0 Licence and could therefore easily be translated to English, and additional languages, in order to be accessible by more members of the LINA Community.
Inspired by “Organisiert Euch” and our experience as LINA Fellows we invite the LINA Community to reflect on the following three questions and share their perspectives.
- What are the stories of cooperation within the LINA Network that go beyond the Member-Fellow cooperations formalised in contracts?
- How do the Members, as “established players”, self-reflect since they managed to establish themselves in an ecosystem around architecture and design that is organised in a competitive and non-democratic manner?
- How can the LINA Library become a place for mobilization, reflection and knowledge exchange, empowering a regenerative community that refuses to be part of an exploitative creative industry and prefigurates an alternative reality of organizational and economic design?
By reflecting on these questions, and reviewing the book as a reference – I am curious to see how current, past and future members and fellows of LINA could develop and grow to address the forementioned challenges.
Link to Homepage of the publication which is sold out as print publication but available as a PDF.
https://organisiert-euch.org
Tools presented in the book:
https://organisiert-euch.org/tools
Involved collectives (not complete, since some contributed anonymously):
Architecture for Refugees SCHWEIZ | architectureforrefugees.ch | Zürich CH
B-Side | b-side.ms | Münster DE
Bikeable | bikeable.ch | CH
Collaboratio Helvetica | collaboratiohelvetica.ch | CH
Do! | wiederdonnerstag.at | Wien AT
Heizhaus/Quellkollektiv | heizhaus.org | Nürnberg DE
Kein Museum | keinmuseum.ch | Zürich CH
Kollektiv Raumstation | raumstation.org | Weimar, Berlin DE, Wien AT
Kombo | kombo.ch | CH
Konglomerat e.V. #Rosenwerk | konglomerat.org | Dresden DE
Kulturbande | kulturbande.info | CH
Netzwerk Neubad | neubad.org | Luzern CH
Nextzürich | nextzuerich.ch | Zürich CH
Park Platz | park-platz.org | Zürich CH
Pavilleon | pavilleon.org | Zürich CH
RAW.cc | rawcc.org | Berlin DE
Stadtlücken | stadtluecken.de | Stuttgart DE
Studio Fumo | fumo.ooo | Zürich CH
Tsüri.ch | tsri.ch | Zürich CH
Urban Equipe | urban-equipe.ch | Zürich CH
Urban Upcycling | urban-upcycling.de | Hamburg DE
