Who we are
Our story
Social Faciliation is a project that began taking shape in 2019, in an attempt to generate a network of people sharing the same values, vision and mission and working in different locations and languages, promoting social and cultural transformation from perspectives such as group facilitation, systems thinking and deep ecology, gender perspective and the relationship between inner transformation and social and group transformation..
The Spanish-language branch, Cultura Facilita was born from the work begun by Miguel Plaza ("Aua"), in both the Spanish peninsula and the Canary Islands, ongoingly nourished through a variety of collaborations. Over the years, several collaborations and conversations have been simultaneously generated. So, in dialogue with Martina Francesca (Italy) and Júlia Vilageliú (Catalonia), new dimensions of the project are coming into being and acquiring a collective dimension, and a network is being developed, under the local names of La Prossima Cultura in the Italian territory (from 2018) and Col·lectiu Posidònia in Catalonia (from 2018).
Social Facilitation arises mainly from the need of an international dimension for the projects Cultura Facilita and La Prossima Cultura, to spread our work to other countries of Europe and the Mediterranean, and also worldwide.
The list of collaborators has continued growing over the years, and several people have joined or are in the process of joining our different local teams. There are three levels of membership within the structure of the project: Members, Collaborators (sometimes regular, as well as one-off collaborators), and Multipliers (patrons or friends of the project).
The team
"Aua", Miguel Plaza
Nature-lover and "unlearner", my vocation is to foster social and cultural transformation from different perspectives. My origins and rural life, and my history of participation in social movements, connect me to the "earth" dimension of life, to community and to collective work for social and environmental justice. Facilitation has been my main activity since 2016, specializing in the emotional management of groups and conflict transformation. I also work with groups of men around gender and sustainable masculinities and do research in the fields of Systems Thinking, Deep Ecology and Group Dynamics. I mainly work in the north-central part of the Spanish peninsula and Catalonia, as well as in the Italian territory, facilitating in Spanish, Catalan, Italian and English. For more than a decade I have been carrying out training and accompanying processes in different organisations, institutions, participatory processes, international events, groups and communities.
The pillars of my training come from my collective experience, self-management and popular education, as well as from various different fields: Systems Thinking, Complex Systems, Gaia Theory, active listening and Nonviolent Communication, the curriculum of the IIFACE (Institute for Facilitation and Change), Joana Macy’s The Work That Reconnects, the Oasis Game and Elos Philosophy from Brazil, ZEGG-Forum, Social Theatre, Process Work, Ecodharma, etc. I am Bachelor in Theoretical Physics and Complex System Physics, Master in Oceanography with experience in different fields of research and university teaching.
I am part of the Cultura Facilita - Col·lectiu Posidònia and La Prossima Cultura project network, as well as of the Ecodharma-Ulex project. I am a member and accredited expert facilitator and trainer of the IIFACE (International Institute of Facilitation annd Change), and a member of the Accademia di Facilitazione. I participate in Fritjof Capra's Systemic Thinking network and Joanna Macy's The Work That Reconnects network.
Martina Francesca
I am a group facilitator: I accompany groups and organisations to give space to the best version of themselves and put into practice innovative models for collective work. After doing a degree in engineering, I discovered facilitation in 2011 through participating in the Transition Town movement, at both local and international level. During these years, I have been enriching my toolbox as a facilitator: the Elos Institute's Oasis Game, Nonviolent Communication, decision-making methods, Joanna Macy's "The Work that Reconnects", Process Work, etc.
I co-authored the manual of group facilitation in Italian “Facilitiamoci! Prendersi cura di gruppi e comunità” (¡Let's Facilitate Ourselves! Caring for Groups and the Community). Since 2019 I have been participating, as an organiser and trainer, in year-long group facilitation courses in the Italian territory. Also since 2019, I have been collaborating with Democratic Society and with the Centre for Climate Assemblies to explore how a greater participation by people in political decisions could be part of the response to the complex times we are living through. Via these last two experiences, I am going deeper in how to facilitate deliberative democracy processes, for example citizen assemblies. In the Italian state, I am part of the scientific committee of "Accidental Politicians", and I am working with others to give birth to a National Observatory of Citizen Assemblies.
The Social Facilitation Project, and its twin project in Italy, La Prossima Cultura, and Cultura Facilita in Spain, are the synthesis of all these experiences, and aim to support a deep cultural change in people, groups and society.
Collaborators
We collaborate in the different territories with a variety of people (facilitators, trainers, activists, etc).
Being this a network project, in Social Faciliataion, we also include collaborations with other people from the Italian, Spanish and Catalan branches of this project, as well as with many other collaborators form other countries, who accompany us in spreading our vision and diseminate our work in other worlwide areas such as Latin America or Middle East.
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