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About Syntrociety.
People living together, caring for their surroundings and sharing what they learn.
Syntrociety is building a federation of independent . These are places where people bring together living together, restoration and learning. The work began in 2023 at Sulitânia in southern Portugal. The cooperative is winding down its work at the previous site and looking for a new home.
Living together calls for space for people and agreements on shared responsibility. Restoration calls for care for soil, water, biodiversity and the relationships around a place. Learning calls for observing what happens, adjusting our approach and sharing experience.
A Lab brings these tasks into everyday life. People make agreements, care for their surroundings and build work that can sustain them. How this takes shape depends on the place and the people involved.
The federation connects these independent Labs. The sets out five shared principles. The describes eight ways to put them into practice. This allows Labs to support one another and share experience while retaining their own character and responsibility.
SYFERS is an open framework for working and learning in regenerative communities and cooperatives. It connects shared decisions, people's involvement, records of practice, economic continuity and learning from change. Syntrociety connects independent Labs. SYFERS helps make their work practical, open to learning and transferable. Initiatives outside the federation can also start with their own question.
The federation operates by what we call the cell-principle. No centre that holds the structure; the pattern lives in the cells themselves, and the whole arises between them. Labs are cells: autonomous in their own reality, fractal-part of the shared ground, co-formative in what the federation as a whole means. For the working-out, /cell-principle.
Start with the Story for our origins or Status for the current stage. The Charter and Practice describe our shared foundations. Helix and The Gap explore cooperation and policy in more depth.
- Shared principles01
Charter.
Truth, Freedom, Responsibility, Openness and Consent: the five principles a Lab commits to. Our common ground.
Read the Charter→ - Everyday practice02
Practice.
Eight practices for working together, making decisions and learning within a Lab. Each Lab develops its own approach.
Read the Practice→ - Cooperation03
Helix.
How communities, researchers, businesses and public authorities can work together. A model for partnership.
Explore Helix→ - Policy and implementation04
The Gap.
Where policy ambitions diverge from the rules that initiatives work within. A question that needs examining in each place.
Read The Gap→ - Origin05
Story.
How experience at Sulitânia led to Syntrociety and the idea of a federation. What we learnt along the way.
Read the Story→ - Current stage06
Status.
What exists, what is being prepared and who currently acts as the legal counterparty. Where things stand.
View Status→
The first Lab is Cooperativa Integral Sulitânia, CRL (NIF 518771571). Work began in 2023 at Quinta da Fornalha in Castro Marim, Algarve. The cooperative is winding down its work there and seeking a new site. Its experience provides the foundation for Syntrociety’s further development.
We invite other cooperatives and initiatives to help build the federation. The shared foundations are the Charter, Practice, and documenting and sharing the work. The federation’s separate legal entity is being prepared. See Status for the current legal position and cooperation through Sulitânia.
Considering forming a Lab with your initiative? Become a Lab sets out the principles and the route to an initial conversation.
Shared agreements and experiences are recorded so we can learn together.
Read about the social and ecological contribution we aim to make.
Would you like to take part, share knowledge or explore cooperation? Write to us. Sulitânia also receives formal proposals on behalf of the federation in formation. Please contact us before arranging a visit: work at the previous site is being wound down.
- Federationhello@syntrociety.org
- First Labgeral@sulitania.pt
- HeadquartersQuinta da Fornalha, 8950-186 Castro Marim, Algarve, Portugal
Recording agreements, experiences and results helps people elsewhere learn from them. Researchers can investigate questions; public authorities and funders can better understand what is needed. Uncertainty, limitations and what is not yet working must remain visible too.
Cooperation, nature restoration and shared learning connect everyday work in a place with wider policy ambitions.
§ Methodology
Working across boundaries.
Residents, entrepreneurs, researchers and public authorities bring different knowledge and responsibilities. We explore how they can develop shared questions and workable agreements. We call this approach boundary work.
Read about boundary work →§ Frequently asked questions for this page
Frequently asked questions.
Syntrociety is building a federation of independent Labs. The Charter and Practice describe shared principles and approaches. Each Lab carries its own responsibilities.
The intention is to share experience and make decisions affecting the Labs together with care. We develop and evaluate how this works in practice with the groups involved.
→ See this answer on the central FAQ pageA Lab is a place or shared practice where people live together, restore their surroundings and learn from it. In everyday life, they investigate how these three can strengthen one another.
Syntrociety aims to connect independent Labs so experiences and useful methods can travel further. The first work began in 2023 at Sulitânia.
Read more at /about, or /story
→ See this answer on the central FAQ pageLive together. Restore. Learn. We want to connect personal freedom with shared responsibility for one another and our surroundings.
The Charter provides shared principles. SYFERS supports cooperation, recording and reflection. A healthy economy must sustain the work over the long term.
Read more at /story, or /research/two-cultures
→ See this answer on the central FAQ pageWith knowledge, time, resources or concrete cooperation. The Ring is being developed to connect this involvement.
There is not yet an active offer of fixed participation or visiting benefits. In an initial conversation, we explain what is possible and what agreements are involved.
Read about The Ring, Discuss your contribution
→ See this answer on the central FAQ page