Award on Innovation in Socio-Economic Models

Award on Innovation in Socio-Economic Models (AISEM 2011)

The announcement of the award has received 53 proposals, submitted by 79 people, either working alone or in teams, with a total of 57 men and 22 women participating, ranging between 23 and 72 years of age, from almost 20 countries and trained mostly in engineering, economics and sociology.

The countries from which we have received the proposals are,

19 from Catalonia, 1 from Madrid, 1 from Balearic Islands,

4 from: Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Argentina,

2 from: Switzerland and Canada,

1 from: Vietnam, Taiwan, Peru, Italia, France, China, Chile, Cuba, Burundi, Austria and England.

The awarding committee considers that almost one quarter of the proposals contribute elements to be considered “Global Models”, more or less original and solid.

Several proposals are like “shifters” clues on which new models can be based. And most of them are “projects”, more or less local, sectorial or thematic, that although they fall apart from the basic core of the announcement, can be important contributions to specify elements or strategies of the global models.

Some proposals are presented as strategies of change "Bottom - Up", as an alternative to what they consider impossibility or undesirability of the Global Models understood until now as "Top-Down".

Reading the proposals as a whole is comforting for being able to face the TINA ("There Is No Alternative") of Margaret Thatcher and to be able to say TAMA (“There Are Many Alternatives”)

The award Committee considers that there are about a dozen interesting proposals to make them known if the authors would agree, with the aim of encouraging possible synergies and promote socially the innovation and interest in alternative models.

The Award Committee has been formed by Montserrat Ponsa, Pepe Beúnza, Rita Marzoa, Josep Redorta and Martí Olivella as representatives of the sponsoring organizations, “Fundació Cultura de Pau”, “Associació Josep Vidal Llecha”, “Xarxa d'Economia Solidària” and “Nova – Centre per a la Innovació Social”.

After having studied the proposals received, the Committee met on May 3rd 2011, within the framework of the International Meeting of Barcelona Consensus and has decided to award the Prize on Innovation in Socio-Economic Models to the proposal of:

JORDI GARCIA JANÉ: “For an alternative socio-economic model”, ------CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD IT-------

as it presents a theoretical-practical framework,

the capacity of synthesis and articulation, of overall vision and concretion,

for being a cross-motions incorporating proposals of several movements and authors,

and to be applicable both locally and globally.

This decision will be communicated by the Award Committee to the person selected and to all participants.

The prize consists of a grant of 20.000€ which should allow the author to develop the proposal within a year, so that it can be published and thus be known by citizens, with the aim of moving towards a habitable world for everyone.

The Award Committee will monitor the work being done during this time. It will also invite the authors of other models to share their proposals to enhance the winning proposal and to build alternative solid models.

We hope that the success of this first call arise new proposals for next year and that there are further organizations wanting to sponsor the Award.

Barcelona, May 3, 2011