The Décentrale is a property with an old art-nouveau villa, located on Mont-Soleil in the Jura mountains of Switzerland.
The Décentrale serves as a hub for projects that encourage a society that is self-organising in decentralised and bottom up governance structures. It stands for manifesting change that is anti-authoritarian, anti-technocratic and anti-centralization.
Each summer the St-imier gatherings take place here. The St-Imier gatherings include workshops on social permaculture, autonomous organising, citizen journalism, peer to peer learning, work on building a fair ecosystem, and developing the required technology. The Décentrale supports project groups that share its vision and mission, by inviting them for separate retreats or by integrating their workshops into the summer program of the yearly St-Imier Gatherings.
For a schedule of other workshops around the year join the telegram info channel of the Décentrale or have a look at our agenda.
People participating in the St-Imier Gatherings and participating on workshops, can sleep over at the Décentrale. The Décentrale has two dormitories, during the summer there is a yurt participants can sleep in and the surrounding park offers additional places for campers and tents.
If you are participating on a workshop at the Décentrale we ask you to respect our house conventions. The Décentrale is a vegan space. If you are wondering why you can find out more here. We at the Décentrale are convinced that horizontal and non hierarchical organisation forms play a very important role in addressing challenges in our societies. By applying permaculture design principles to all areas of live, we change culture towards more collaboration, solidarity and self empowerment.
Out of workshops at the Décentrale the Synergiehub project emerged. The Synergiehub is an open network for projects that aim to transform society towards a self-empowered culture of synergetic cooperation for improving the commons and the quality of all life. You can be part of that open network and join the Synergiehub Telegram group in order to get in touch with other changemakers.
Réseaux Caux connects different movements, groups and individuals with the spirit and values of Initiatives of Change, in Switzerland and in the world. Réseaux Caux offers structures by means of which we help each other to align our behavior with the values that every person intuitively carries within themselves, understanding the world as an interconnected web of relationships that grows out of the fundamental rights and duties that every life has by virtue of the inherent dignity with which it is on this earth.
Through RAC, local people and organisations from the community of St-Imier meet regularly in order to support each others activities and join forces for new community projects. If you are a member of the St-Imier community and are interested in joining us, you can send us a mail at info@decentrale.ch.
Espace Noir is an anarchist culture center that offers a large variety of services and activities in St-Imier. It has a bar where you can meet and enjoy a tasty beer and snacks. You will also find a book shop where you can order any books or buy from the selection of French books on topics related to anarchism. The cooperative also organises concerts, theatre plays, debates and has a small cinema showing documentaries and movies. Find out more at espacenoir.ch.
The aim of World Wide Wisdom is to create a network of individuals whose ideas and activities are focused on critical analysis, debate and writing on anarchy, panarchy, polyarchy, personarchy and problemistics. The center is located in St-Imier and offers access to a large amount of books and documents on the before mentioned topics. The WWW Research and Documentation Center also offers accommodation. You can find out more about it at wwwisdom.net.
The chamber of commerce for the Social and Solidarity Economy brings together a multitude of economic actors who share common values and are committed to the ecological and social transition. Their common goal is to maximize their positive impact on society. To learn more, visit apres-bejune.ch.
Around Faircoin, we aim to manifest a global money system that encourages a culture of cooperation, replacing the competitive capitalist system. As a grassroots movement, we together build a fair, social, ecological and therefore a sustainable economy from the ground up. In a culture of solidarity and based on local autonomy and translocal collaboration, we leave current oppressive authoritarian structures behind us.
The Décentrale is located in the heart of the mountain top hamlet Mont-Soleil at 1200m altitude. Mont-Soleil is well know for it’s renewable energy installation and is part the Chasseral Nature Park and the Swiss Energy Park. It provides research, innovation and demonstration facilities for wind and solar power and attracts a significant amount of visitors. Mont-Soleil is reachable by Funiculaire cable railway from St-imier, witch is located 400m below in the valley. This makes the Décentrale conveniently reachable via a two minutes walk from public transportation, see https://wiki.synergiehub.ch/sbb-cff for details.
