CERN Europe

This group generally meets each month on Zoom (usually the second Friday of the month, at 10am to midday, Central Europe Time). The group also has a weekly writing group which meets each Friday.

2026

The year started with a discussion of Wendy Harcourt's new book Conundrums of Care: Feminist Entanglements in Critical Development Studies (which is available as an open access publication). The group will continue sharing each other's draft and published works, including Elizabeth (Za) Barron's draft book manuscript Emplaced Sustainability; Henna Elise Ventovirta's research on international climate camps from an embodied community economy perspective; Aviv Kruglanski's draft book manuscript Wild Yeast Economies: Control and spontaneity in alternative organizing; Julyan Levy's research on plant agency from a diverse economies perspective.

2025

For 2025, the group read recent publications by CERN Europe members, including:

• Christina Jerne's 2025 book, Opposition by Imitation: The Economics of Italian Anti-Mafia Activism (published by Minnesota University Press as part of the Diverse Economies and Livable Worlds book series)
• Katherine Gibson's Letter to Julie written in 2020, in which Katherine updates Julie on what has happened in the area of diverse and community economies scholarship in the ten years since Julie's death (Katherine will be a Visiting Professor at Leuphana University in Germany during the Summer). Click here, to access the Zoom recording of Katherine's discussion with CERN EU.
• Anne-Charlotte Marcombe's co-authored 2024 piece on "Redefining Responsible Consumption and Decent Work: Insights from the Second-Hand Industry in Uzbekistan," from the Journal of Eastern European and Central Asian Research.
• Martin Parker's 2024 chapter ‘Future Organizing: Necessity and Experiment’. In Weik, E, Land, C and Hartz, R (eds) Handbook on Organizing Economic, Ecologic and Societal Transformation.

They also shared works-in-progress, including:

• Tom Smith and Naděžda Johanisová's forthcoming book Sustainable Economic Alternatives: The Promise of Eco-Social Enterprises for Non-Growth Economies.
• Peter North's project, After Capitalism, After Communism: Towards a Feasible and Diverse Socialism. Lessons from the Lenin Shipyard and beyond.

2024

For 2024, the group used an open stammtisch style approach so there was a chance to get to know others working on community economies in Europe, and an opportunity for problem solving or discussing draft papers and other things that members were working on. 

In February 2024, the group met for a special meeting, Community Economies and Science-Fiction: a discussion/workshop with Jana Gebauer of the Unleashing Fantasy Collective.

2023

In 2023, the group met to discuss special topics, including: 

• A meeting focused on community economies in Central and Eastern Europe
• A meeting that included a screening of The Banker Ladies, based on the research of Caroline Shenaz Hossein, with a special Q&A with Andria Barrett from Ontario. For CE News on The Banker Ladies, click here. For Caroline Shenaz Hossein's Big Thinking on the Hill lecture, click here.