Syntrociety
A society that carries itself.
New ways of living, aligned with natural principles and structured as cells. The federation of Syntropic Living Labs is a carrying form for that work. The first Lab is Sulitânia in Castro Marim, Portugal.
“Syntrociety is what appears when we learn to live as part of a living system.”
The thread
The federation carries what wants to emerge.
My work is about freedom. I make forms that make movement possible. Syntrociety grows from that same philosophy, one scale larger.
The federation is instrumental. What matters is what can emerge: a society aligned with natural principles and structured through a cell principle.
Supporting the process in which form can find itself. That is the world I help build.
The question
How does a group come to carry itself, without someone imposing it?
That question holds the work together. You can walk through it without knowing any federation terminology.
How it holds
Cells, and a membrane around the whole.
Every Lab is a cell: autonomous over its own practice, its own land and its own data. The federation offers infrastructure that a Lab does not need to carry alone. That is the cell principle.
The ring is the ring organization: a membrane. It connects the whole of cells to the outside world. And it is part of that whole, as skin is part of the body.
The federation does not attach itself to an ideology, religion or political direction. Each cell is free to have one.
The framework
Four pillars, one practice.
SYFERS is the open research framework of the federation. A Lab places itself along sixteen conditions, divided over four pillars.
- EcologyThe land and the living systems on it.
- SocialPeople and the relationships between them.
- EconomyWork, resources and accountability.
- CrossWhat connects the pillars.
The instruments
Five tools that carry the process.
SYFERS supports the process and makes it legible. The instruments show what a Lab does, decides and shares. The federation is the people, the land and the agreements between them, not the software.
People
The address book and front door. One key for every instrument, permission requested each time.
Lens
The document line. Documents come in, are ordered and translated. A computer proposes; a human decides.
Chart
The logbook. Each Lab records what happened and what was decided. Consent fixes a decision.
Compass
The mirror. A Lab places itself on the SYFERS conditions. A mirror, no gate. Nobody gives a score.
Ledger
The funding tool. Ledger helps the federation apply for EU grants and account for funded work. Never personal data, never fewer than five people behind a number.
The Charter
Five principles every Lab signs.
The Charter does not regulate everything. It regulates the irreducible minimum: what lives within that frame belongs to each cell.
- I
Truth
We work from what can be verified. Every claim can be checked against the public register. And we say “we do not know” when we do not know.
- II
Freedom
Membership is entered freely and left freely. A Lab can leave; its land, data and decisions remain its own.
- III
Responsibility
Each Lab carries its own responsibility. The federation stands for what happens in its name; decisions are signed, not left to anonymity.
- IV
Openness
Labs register their practice openly. The work is its own evidence.
- V
Consent
Objection is information. A proposal goes through when no Lab makes a grounded objection. Deliberately slow: as fast as the slowest principled disagreement allows.
Build or follow
Syntrociety lives on syntrociety.org.
The Charter, the first Lab and the instruments live there. This page is my own entrance into that world.