The aim of this page is to help a growing number and diversity of people involved with CANs, find each other easily over time. The map on this page is to help people find place-based CANs. A companion page, map and listing, CAN support map is to help people find theme-based CANs, and support organisations or initiatives. Each of these map pages are accompanied by related video and news pages.

Loading map...

Add Citizen Action Network List of Citizen Action Networks

Add Citizen Action Network[edit | edit source]

If you are a Co-creator with The Alternative Global's Co-creator Network you can use the form to add a CAN to the map. Otherwise please sign up first via the The Alternative Global website, via the 'Co-create' page.

  1. You can add a CAN and location to the map even if no website/link yet, for example if you're a co-creator looking to develop a CAN. You can include your name in the text box.
  2. The map is to help people find place-based CANs. Please do not include theme-based CANs or support organisations. These can be included on a companion page: CAN support map. Place-based CANs that are also support organisations can be included on both maps.
  3. The map is to help people find active CANs. Apart from CANs in development this will normally mean signs of activity over the past 12 months.
Add Citizen Action Network name
Location
Link
Free text
Send

CANs as a generic term[edit | edit source]

CAN is a generic term for new forms that are appearing everywhere. CANs have autonomy and their development can be described as fractal.

Read more

Reflecting what's out there[edit | edit source]

It's perhaps inevitable that any map such as this one, especially in the early stages of development, will be at best, an extremely partial view of the numbers, richness and diversity that's out there. For example just considering mutual aid alone, Mutual Aid Wiki currently (Sep 2022) lists 5,781 mutual aid groups throughout the world.

It's well known that movements wax and wane and will be affected by events such as the global pandemic. The pandemic will have affected both what's out there and any attempts to reflect this in a complex variety of ways, sometimes opposite trends cancelling each other out for example. One of the more positive recent trends perhaps being the proliferation of intergenerational or multigenerational expressions of community agency. We're perhaps increasingly aware that we need to be in this for the long haul.

Civics Neighborhood initiative maps[edit | edit source]

Thanks to the fantastic and creative commons licensed, civics, the first map of citizen innovation that citizens develop daily throughout Ibero-America, (Lists (Oct 2022) 5,866 initiatives), Civics maps are being embedded in many of CASwiki's city and country pages. These city based maps can also be accessed via the CAN map below.

Foto familia huertos comunitario.JPG

CAN map[edit | edit source]

The map above is experimental and collaborative. Initially the data for the map comes from a small sample of Daily Alternatives articles mentioning CANs, listed below, and the Alternative Global Co-creators network. This will then be added to by CANs identified via the ongoing development of CASwiki's local information. It's hoped that over time we can develop the map through collaboration, people adding CANs (see below).

Why map CANs[edit | edit source]

Like Los Madriles, Atlas de iniciativas vecinales (Atlas of neighbourhood initiatives), Madrid, and Civics Neighborhood initiative maps, it is suggested that CANs create "new spaces of possibility, through self-management and participation". This map of CANs "also wants to be a gesture of recognition, gratitude, visibility, self-criticism and inclusion." Also the map or maps and related pages can be seen as a celebration of the richness, diversity and innovation of CANs.

2022[edit | edit source]

  • "What if the only important work left is to care for each other and care for the planet?" asks Greenwich's Care + Planet, The Daily Alternative (Dec 01, 2022)
  • There's a "solar energy insurrection" going on in Puerto Rico, from which we can learn. (Star Trek is also helping...), The Daily Alternative (Sep 22, 2022)
  • A love letter to a regenerative community, Ecosystem restoration camps (Sep 07, 2022) — Habiba = Love
  • Developing towns in Coalville, building houses in Grimsby, generating solar power in Bristol - these CANs are vibrant and concrete, The Daily Alternative (Jul 02, 2022) — This week, we have a cascade of what we call CANs, cosmo-local initiatives, coming into our radar. It’s great just to chart their vitality.
  • “We build the road, and the road builds us.” What Sarvodaya, a SriLankan 'no-poverty, no-affluence' movement, can teach the rest of us, The Daily Alternative (Jun 17, 2022)
  • With its digital community mapping, fungus-driven mill, and reuse of coastal buildings, the Onion Collective is a vibrant CAN, The Daily Alternative (Jun 14, 2022)
  • Now Building On Planet A, Alternative Editorial (Apr 03, 2022)
  • Costa Rica’s Los Higuerones coop is a perfect example of what a CAN looks like - combining economy, relationship and conviviality, The Daily Alternative (Mar 21, 2022)
  • Building Community Action Through Climate Hubs, Transition Together (Feb 27, 2022) — guide to community-led climate hubs from Zero Carbon Guildford

2021[edit | edit source]

  • Plymouth Octopus is a cosmolocal CAN in action, combining local practicality and global perspective, The Dailty Alternative (Dec 01, 2021)

Read more

CAN wiki
About CANs
Near you
Growing CANs
Joining up CANs
New media
Resources
Action


Back to top

Notes and References

Page data
Authors Phil Green
License CC-BY-SA-4.0
What links here 38 pages
Impact Number of visits to this page and its redirects. 245
Suggestions Suggestions to improve this page. Click on each one to read more. No main image
Created December 31, 2020 by Phil Green
Modified January 21, 2023 by Phil Green
Cite as Phil Green (2020–2023). "Citizen Action Networks near you". Appropedia. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
Retrieved from "https://www.appropedia.org/w/index.php?title=Citizen_Action_Networks_near_you&oldid=696061"
Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies.