A cooperation project with shared governance and work carried out within a network
The process of co-construction is at the core of this project and is expressed through its mode of shared governance – from the phase of conception to the phase of project assessment – and the establishment of a network of 8 partner cities.
The reflection commences at Rennes, in Le Blosne district, the project governance is materialised at two levels:
– a Reflection Group that accompanies the reflection on the project in a collective dimension.
– a Decision Committee that arbitrates and is responsible for the project.
The Reflection Group is composed of migrant or non-migrant citizens, local players, photographers, social sciences researchers and the transnational coordination team. It meets every regularly in Rennes, in Le Blosne district. The mission of the Reflection Group is to issue reflections and proposals on the central lines of the project, to prepare methodologies for the collection of migrant testimonies, to participate in the seminar for the transmission of these methodologies to local teams, to participate in restitutions and local actions of dissemination, to participate in the project assessment seminar.
In order to extend this network of migrants and attempting to reconcile their double culture and enhance the collection throught a dynamic of cooperation and shared experiences, The Encyclopedia of migrants will depend on the mobilization of a network of 8 partner cities from the Atlantic side, situated between Brest and Gibraltar, and 8 operational partners (associations, universities, museums, etc.) in France, Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar.
A 6-phases project
This European cooperation project will be undertaken over a period of four years, from 2014 to 2017, and will take place in 6 phases:
1/ a conception phase (2014-2015) that consists of meetings of the project Reflection Group based in the Le Blosne district in Rennes to co-construct methodologies for the collection of testimonies (work meetings every 2 months), and also establishing the network of 8 partner cities in France, Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar (cooperation trips).
2/ a transmission phase (2015) that will be carried out in a seminar for the transmission of methodologies for the collection of testimonies to the operational partners of the network’s 8 cities, who will communicate them to the local teams. This seminar will be organized in Paris on November 2015.
3/ a collection phase (2014-2016) of the 400 testimonies by the local teams (two persons collecting testimonies and two photographers per city) in the 8 partner cities, that is 50 testimonies in the first city (Rennes, in Le Blosne district) and 50 testimonies in the other 7 cities.
4/ a publication and production phase (2014-2017), which will result in the production of two versions of The Encyclopedia of migrants (January, 2017), and in the prior preparation of guides, a reference kit, a project website and, afterwards, an educational booklet and a documentary film.
5/ a dissemination phase (2014-2017) with a series of local restitutions and actions for the dissemination of the work and sharing of experiences in the network’s 8 cities on a European scale (exhibitions, meetings-debates, projections, festive events, workshops…)
6/ an assessment phase (2017) which will be carried out in the form of an assessment seminar in Gibraltar in June, 2017 and that will include the project team and provide information for the final assessment report.