======UNI.TROPIXEL======

UNI.TROPIXEL will be a cooperative organisation to offer education and develop situated research on [[https://medium.com/@felipefonseca/socio-ecological-innovation-dc1999d556a5|socio-ecological innovation]]. Its headquarters will be in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubatuba|Ubatuba, Brazil]]. 

UNI.TROPIXEL will offer hybrid online/offline education programmes coupled with workshop practices with partner organisations. 

==MVP - minimal offer==

Ideas:

  * Online degree on socio-ecological innovation
  * Arts and Ecology immersion - August 2021

===Formats===

UNI.TROPIXEL will base its educational offer on socio-ecological innovation around three axes:

  * online social [[#itineraries|learning itineraries]];
  * [[#study_groups|study groups]] about themes related to socio-ecological innovation in an online discussion environment;
  * [[#Laboratories|presential laboratories]] taking diverse forms: attending specific courses or working in partner organisations, participating on events, dedicating time to develop prototypes, and performing concrete projects.

==Itineraries==

Itineraties is an online platform for distributed learning. It will offer an assortment of multimedia contents selected both by course facilitators and students themselves. Read more (portuguese only) on [[ubalab:itinerarios|distributed learning and the concepts behind itinerários]] (and a [[http://links.efeefe.me/bookmarks.php/efeefe/metalearning
|list of online resources]] on distributed learning and related subjects).

==Study Groups==

Study groups promoting collective discussion and knowledge learning on relevant themes. They will be coordinated by UNI.TROPIXEL facilitators and pose a number of ongoing challenges that students will need to respond to collaboratively. 

==Laboratories==

Laboratories will be certified partner organisations in which practice-based learning and knowledge production will take place. They will either offer in-depth modules on specific themes, or bring educational challenges based on their own concrete demands for the students to solve. Some examples of potential laboratories based in Ubatuba with which UNI.TROPIXEL already has a relation: [[ninho:ninho|ninho]], a co-working space and centre of science and culture; a cooperative association working with recycling; three different organisations dedicated to permaculture; a technical school; a [[inc:inc|collaborative incubator]] of socio-ecological innovation, an international [[tropixel:tropixel|festival]] on arts, science, technology and society, among dozens of others potential partners. 

===Subject areas===

The programme will cover a number of themes, promoting the construction of open-ended collections of contents, discussions and practical exercises. 

  * agroecology and permaculture;
  * natural health and medicinal herbs;
  * circular economy;
  * cratfsmanship and digital fabrication;
  * participatory politics;
  * integral cooperativism and platform cooperativism;
  * free, open source and appropriated technologies: technological sovereignty;
  * healthy food;
  * solidary economy and fair trade;
  * emergent urbanism;
  * upcycling, maintenance and repair;
  * sustainable housing and bioconstruction;
  * buen vivir;
  * energetic autonomy;
  * low impact mobility and transportation;
  * cultures of the land and traditional cultures;
  * alternative and project-based education.

===Motivation===

UNI.TROPIXEL is largely based on [[prisma:prisma|Prisma]], one of the outcomes of the Ciência Aberta Ubatuba project, which spent two years researching the creation and dissemination of knowledge in Ubatuba, Brazil. See more about the project below:

{{ youtube>xGHUhl1WB9E?large }}

Two characteristics of Ubatuba were central to the inception of Prisma: the fact that more than 80% of the city's territory sits inside environment protection areas; the fact that the city has no established university. The latter forces talented youngsters to leave the city, and they seldom come back. Not only their lifes are impacted, but the city lacks the creative strenght and manpower of engaged young talents. On the other hand, the natural legacy requires the city to come up with alternative paths for its socio-economical development. Prisma is based upon the idea that Ubatuba should embrace its socio-environmental wealth, as well as its diverse cultural landscape, to elaborate on such development plans.

===References===

  * [[https://www.academia.edu/30328789/slowU|slowU, by Antonio Lafuente and Juan Freire]]
  * [[http://thackara.com/thackarathrive/|How to thrive in the next economy, by John Thackara]]
  * [[http://www.processedworld.com/carlsson/nowtopia_web/index.shtml|Nowtopia: a new politics of work, by Chris Carlsson]]
  * [[https://calafou.org/EN/CONTENT/ANNOUNCING-NEW-PUBLICATION-TECHNOLOGICAL-SOVEREIGNTY|Technological sovereignty]]
  * [[http://www.notechmagazine.com/|No Tech Magazine]]

===Steps===

==Preparation==

  - Incorporation of UNI.TROPIXEL with advice from legal and fiscal consultancies
  - Develop partnerships with local institutions, municipality and companies
  - Develop partnerships with external parties (Brazil and abroad)
  - Develop and deploy online environment for shared contents
  - Hire team and develop syllabus of course: online contents, study groups, laboratories
  - Open for sign-up