Autonomy vs Institutionalisation

The city decided to invest circa 20 milion Euros into the renovation of the Pekarna complex. This has been a big struggle so far. The architects in charge of the renovation don’t understand what is specific about Pekarna and its particular cultural and social dynamic which makes the centre what it is. Likewise, the municipality doesn’t understand how the centre works and why autonomy is so important for it. For us autonomy doesn’t mean that we can do whatever we want but that we have certain ideas about how the world should look like and how we should run our affairs. After a long struggle, especially in last two years, the first building is now being renovated while works will be carried out on the other buildings over the next 2 or 3 years. Anytime someone supports your work financially, you never really know whether they do this because they truly like what you’re doing or because they want to buy you or shut you up. In the current situation, when we are receiving much more money compared to the past, I think the city is doing both. On the one hand, they would like to buy us but on the other I think they really understand the importance of what we are doing. None of this however affects our main concern, which is how not to become a regular part of the present system, which you just can not escape if you are taking the money from the government. The main question thus is how not to get institutionalised, when to say: „Ok, that’s enough, we should stop now.“ The only solution is self-control. When you accept more money, you should be able to involve more people. More money shouldn’t mean more money for the same amount of people, but it should mean investing directly into involving new people, new ideas, new projects, new associations. I don’t believe in the growth of an organisation, I believe in staying the same but empowering others to try to do things themselves. This is one solution how to avoid becoming (too) institutionalised. The second one, which I like even better, is that when you realise you became too big or that you have moved into places that aren‘t really yours just because that’s where the money is, you dissolve your association and start something new from the beginning, somewhere else, so that you don’t build a myth for yourself about yourself and about what you are doing. This is a rather difficult way because it demands a lot of energy and trust. I think we will try out this way because it looks like we have grown too much and that we are becoming a partner of the municipality, and I don’t think that being a partner of something which isn’t good is a great idea.

CultureFighter

Autonomy vs Institutionalisation

Gregor Kosi

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