Cross-Movement Open Space

☀️ Summer Edition ☀️
🗓️ 7.+ 8.6.2025
⏰ each day 10 am – 6 pm
🌐 tba

For the 5th time, the Cross-Movement Open Space invites active groups and people from various social movements working on socio-ecological change in Austria (may it be climate justice, human rights, migration, peace, democracy, transition, solidarity economy, right-to-the-city or other related topics). The cyclical event gives us the possibility to meet every 3-4 months to exchange about visions, goals, strategies and current issues that might concern all/many of us. In facilitation we use methods that enable us to interweave experiences from diverse contexts and utilise our collective potential to the best. This also creates a space to discover concrete ways of working together and to practice cross-group organizing.

Everyone who is engaged in a civic initiative or political group and would like to connect with other’s who take responsibility for shaping social change is welcome.

You can register using the form below.

We are currently working intensively on the search for a focus topic and the reach-out and we are looking for helping hands for the event itself. If you would like to be part of the process – be it in the search for a topic, in inviting many different initiatives or as a helping hand at the event – please show us your interest when you register via the form and we will get in touch with you! We look forward to seeing you!

Purpose

• The event is a space for those of us who are committed to this work for a better life on earth to meet others in the field and exchange about their current missions and challenges. A space to surface needs and find ways to share resources.
• It is a space to weave our groups’ visions and goals together into a collective image of the future we are working towards while not falling into the trap of collapsing the complexity of the work by wanting to agree on “the right way”. This means it’s a space to practice working in ambiguity and uncertainty, designing parallel experiments and coming back together to compare notes on how it went.
• It is also a space to practice working at the pace of regeneration, rather than sacrificing people’s well being for the sake of impact.

Through the regularity of the Open Space we can keep in touch and stay informed about what is happening in the wider field. This helps to surface collaboration potentials that would otherwise remain unseen. The supportive nature of the event provides good practice ground for cross-group organizing.

About the Format “Open Space”

Experienced facilitators lead us through the day with help of the “Open Space” method – which is ideal for complex issues (like the multi-crisis we are facing today) that require diverse perspectives to find comprehensive solutions.

All participants are invited to tell in front of the entire group what topic they want to address in which way (presentation/ workshop/ brainstorm/ discussion etc.) in an Open Space slot. Depending on intrinsic interest, everybody can then join subgroups to address the proposed topics in detail. New ideas, solutions, questions and/or next steps emerge in a lively and creative way. At the final presentation and consolidation (“harvest”) with the whole group, essential results and plans can crystallize, with which we can then start into our coming months of work.

In this way, people from the most diverse contexts, even with differing convictions, can work together in an enriching way and gain new perspectives, ideas and insights.

In addition, everyone is free to decide for themselves
– how much time they want to stay in which session (and generally be present at the event)
– and where they want to contribute with questions/ information
– or which sessions they initiate.

The know-how, experience and working power of the large and diverse group of all participants can flow in a self-organized and intelligent way and contribute surprisingly well to concrete, versatile solutions to a wide range of complex challenges.

By the way – because this probably needs to be emphasized: Open Space is also open for regenerative sessions ❤️