Can we build new sustainable communities? Can we generate spaces for a “good life,” far from the anxiety of endless consumption and the exploitation of others and ourselves? Can we create a more democratic way of organizing communities and our own lives? This summer, a group of 11 Rice students engaged in such possibilities, confirming that “otros mundos son posibles” (other worlds are possible).
The experience took place in a new course, Otros Mundos, designed to explore the political potential of radical pedagogical experiences. The course was taught this summer in Barcelona and led by Luis Duno-Gottberg, the Lee Hage Jamail Professor in Latin American Studies, and community activist Víctor Giménez Aliaga, who received his Ph.D. in anthropology from Rice.
Organized into morning theoretical sessions and afternoon community engagement, the class offered an opportunity to learn about the movement of the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) in Catalonia, Spain. The movement strives for social transformation by constructing alternative economic projects, social structures and relations, in accordance with the values of cooperation, horizontalism, justice and consensus democracy.
After finishing his doctorate, Aliaga moved back to Barcelona to work with SSE organizations, which are devoted to another way of imagining and practicing economic and social relations. Duno-Gottberg has been developing academic and civic engagement programming abroad for over two decades.
The structure of this class aimed at an engaged and radical way of learning and interacting with communities. While the morning theoretical readings and debates offered an opportunity to question their hegemonic understandings of the economy and social relations, the site visits and community engagement opportunities provided practical examples of how SSE activists build housing, develop financial services, create community spaces and provide access to food and cultural programming in ways that are sustainable, cooperative and democratic.
Upon returning to Houston, they gathered their impressions and unanimously agreed on the need to promote similar radical learning experiences. Several of the participants had never left the United States, but none thought that it would be so impactful to partake in a course that would push them to reimagine social and economic relations.
An additional takeaway was the viability and value of a Rice Global experience, with classrooms way “beyond the hedges” — way beyond the United States. Such a vision would provide a relevant and exciting education, as it dares to explore other cultures and other ways of envisioning the world.
“There is a growing consensus in academia that we need to imagine solutions and transformations to address the climate crisis, the challenges of the Anthropocene, or the increasing economic inequality,” Duno-Gottberg said.
In Barcelona, participants learned that these new forms of political imagination are already being pushed in popular, practical movements such as SSE, among common people who are organizing and practicing social transformation throughout the world. The group agreed that connections and bridges between the university and these movements need to be built and to learn from political practices and collaborate in bringing forth the other worlds they enact.
— Ifeoluwa Idakolo
Sophomore, Social Sciences
— Katie Lu
Junior, Neuroscience
— Jonah Jimenez
Senior, Civil Engineering
— Manna Treviño
Junior, Biosciences
— Saul Gonzalez
Sophomore, Busines
— Elias Hansen
Senior, Sport Management and Religion
— Stephanie Martinez
Junior, Psychology
— Natalie Pellette
Senior, Civil Engineering and Visual and Dramatic Arts
— Alex Constantellis
Junior, History