The TOGETHER FRANCE network brings the French territories of co-responsibility together at a national level, that is to say, the territories and stakeholders developing a co-responsibility approach between public and private actors and citizens with the aim of ensuring the well being of all, future generations included. This approach is called SPIRAL: Societal Progress Indicators for the Responsibility of All.

Together France is the national branch of the Together International network. Initially launched by the Council of Europe as part of its social cohesion strategy, this approach was gradually co-built with all stakeholders and territories participating, more than 300 territories around twenty countries of which more than half have formally joined TOGETHER network. This has also been joined by territories developing Agenda 21, given the convergence between the two approaches, and by different actors of the Transition Towns movement (for more information on the TOGETHER International Network see page Réseau Together.

Together France is an association "law 1901" founded on the occasion of his founding general meeting of October 30, 2014. Statuts Together Together France Status PV AGTogether Official report of the founding general meeting of October 30, 2014

The general meeting of December 5, 2014, hosted by the General Commission for Sustainable Development at its headquarters in Paris, La Défense, has validated the internal regulations.

Rethink progress to meet the challenges of the XXI century

Highlighting the well-being of all as societal goal co-constructed with citizens from their own vision of well being, SPIRAL approach differs from a concept of progress based only on the production of wealth (measured by GDP or not). It thus highlights the key role of intangible dimensions of well-being such as social tie, recognition, life meaning, feeling of usefulness, confidence in oneself, in others, in institutions and in the future, brotherhood, etc. These are all forgotten and abused dimensions, sources of frustration in conventional approaches, that a co-responsibility approach manages to revalue, for example by giving meaning to the role of each and by the recovery of confidence of marginalized people in society, with multiplier effects in terms of human resource mobilization ("spiral effect"). Furthermore, co-responsibility helps overcome obstacles related to compartmentalization of resources by pooling them and thus allowing their full use (in particular by the flexibility and ease in procedures of making available and operating, such as housing, transport, the miscellaneous goods, the time available, the knowledge and know-how, etc.)

SPIRAL thus contributes to develop a way forward towards the well-being of all with through the optimization and valorisation of existing resources and without the use of non-renewable resources, essential way to deal with socio-economic and environmental challenges that humanity faces in this century.

Strengthen democracy through collaborative democracy

Rethink together the well-being of all and engage in co-responsibility to achieve this is also a way of renewing democracy, including through the establishment of territorial structures of collaborative democracy, which are multi-stakeholder platforms and inhabitants associations, bases of the SPIRAL approach. These operate as complements to representative democracy, allowing a more relevant and efficient use of public funds, through a better collaboration, the pooling of public and private resources and common goods and a better citizen participation in public functions and General Interest (volunteering, facilitators, technicians representative in communities, etc.), essential elements in a context of limited resources available.

Moreover SPIRAL differs from other civic participatory approaches in that it is fully open and systematized, following the principles of direct democracy by ensuring the equal right to speak for all without intermediary. Inclusive of the diversity of expressions and cultures, it allows the construction of summaries of results at different levels, from citizen groups to global level without losing the wealth of formulations. This allows the rethinking of the choices at these different territorial levels.

Co-construct the way forward

Rethinking progress in terms of well-being of all, including future generations through co-responsibility means reviewing the fundamentals of production, consumption, employment, income and trade, for example by implementing solutions ensuring equitable distribution of resources in the tenable limits of their availability. This requires a process of development and gradual accumulation of collective expertise, made possible by the enhancement of learning and experimentation through networking, including thematic sub-networks around key themes such as healthy eating for all, health for all, mobility, access to employment by solidarity, participatory management of space, the collective management of common goods, trade (SEL, time banks, local currencies), the reuse of unused resources and zero waste, intergenerational solidarity, etc. This also implies a revision of public policies in order to facilitate co-responsibility processes.

Together International develops a political and research project around an assumption, which is proposed to test full-scale in the territories, with all concerned stakeholders, including researchers and policy makers. This assumption is that co-responsibility is the most efficient and the most appropriate way to achieve the objective of the well-being of all, including future generations. Starting from this idea, the territories members of the network together with municipalities, governments and other partners such as research centres and universities are invited to test this hypothesis on the specific aspects of each, depending on the local and national context, complementary to each others.

This research and policy project was presented at the 4th International Seminar of SPIRAL dynamisors held on 6, 7 and 8 February 2015 in the Gironde, France. Given the scope of the cross looks and practices among foreseen members of the Orientation Committee and the SPIRAL dynamisors community, it was decided to establish a single common body called the Council of Alliances, responsible for bringing this project. The pooling and the first results of this process will be presented and debated with national and European public authorities at the third international meeting of the co-responsibility territories in 2016.

Projet Politique Recherche Together Guidance Document of the discussions of 4th International Seminar of SPIRAL dynamisors

Collaborate with TOGETHER

Whatever your status (public or private institution, professional, student or simply a citizen), you can collaborate with TOGETHER in several ways: - APPLY for an internship with the network; - Join the network of people and institutions working as volunteers for TOGETHER; - Join the network of researchers working with TOGETHER; - Develop SPIRAL in your structure or territory; - Train you at SPIRAL method and become this way SPIRAL facilitator in your life space or dynamisor SPIRAL for France.

Spiral 21nov TC VF Planche HD SPIRAL and Together France network synthetic presentation document

Contacts

Together France Labo'M 21 - Conseil général de la Gironde Esplanade Charles de Gaulle 33074 Bordeaux Cedex 05 56 99 67 64 sebastien.keiffatwikispiral.org (remplacer le at par un @ pour que cela fonctionne)