Sint Eustatius (aka Statia) is a dynamic island with strong community. Everyone wants to, but the system that durably organises intrinsic drive and collective potential, around for example food security, water, and health is missing. WaterCommons Statia builds that system via social innovation built from the people themselves. A semi-mobile desalination unit delivers affordable irrigation water as a shared community good. Xplorit and the VU Amsterdam investigate and document how the BoostX social innovation infrastructure, grounded in scientific research on wellbeing as a catalyst for collective action, works at community scale and can be replicated in comparable island communities.
Economic transition: the costs and benefits of (in)action
What does an economy look like that focuses not on GDP growth, but on well-being, ecology and justice?
What is needed to achieve this sustainable economy and how is our current economic system holding back these changes?
We are exploring these questions from a practical perspective as part of the program: ‘Economic transition: the costs and benefits of (in)action’. Together with partners from academia, the professional sector, government and social movements, we are working to shape this transition, set it in motion and anchor it. In doing so, we actively apply knowledge in practice to bring about a transformation of our current economic system.