Autonomous groups Sample Clauses

Autonomous groups. In this section cases are discussed that describe themselves as autonomous or more or less independent in relation to to their surrounding structure. Two examples of this kind are Drama Group and the Free Sport Association, both from Gothenburg. At the time of the ARP, the Drama Group was right in the middle of a transition phase. Due to the members age (they had all turned eighteen) they had to leave the institutional setting of The Cultural School of Gothenburg, where they had been a group for some years. The group had decided to instead continue as an autonomous theatre association – a change they described with the metaphor “like moving away from home”: The formation process of this new setting, and the learning from it, was also the focus of the groups’ ARP. Simultaneously, the group was involved in writing a play together: The Free Sport Association has been an autonomous sport association for some years, and their primary activity is to train parkour together. In administrative meaning, the Free Sport Association is a member of the Swedish Gymnastic Association, which in turn is part of the Swedish Sport Federation. In their daily activities though, this is of less importance than their network of other action sport associations. Many of the members share earlier experiences of lack of support in doing their activity, and in having troubles making themselves heard in different sport contexts. In the Free Sport Association they have used this knowledge to instead create a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere. At the time of the ARP start up, the Free Sport Association faced a big problem – the premises of their current training facility were to be demolished, and they were in great need of a new place. In their ARP, they wanted to face this problem, but also to develop their ideas about a new kind of meeting place. In their vision, this should be a place where many sorts of groups with different interest and activities, could come together “under one roof”. Instead of common activities, the place should be unified by a common participatory ideology of democracy, openness, collaboration, knowledge- and experience-exchange, sustainability and self-maintenance – what they framed as “creating a fully democratic meeting-place”. The Drama Group and the Free Sport Association have a similar conception about who were regarded as “we” in the ARP context – the members of their own association, but the disparity in duration, size (5 versus 600 members) and activi...