ICS Working Paper Nº1/2018

ICS W O R K I N G P A P E R S 2018 14 cover only a residual number of these initiatives and tend to concentrate on the most well established and iconic, mostly the pioneers within the Portuguese CBI universe, such as the Tamera healing biotope. There are, to the best of our knowledge, only three exceptions which constitute our core data sources. The first one is CATALISE – a national research project that broke away from the prevailing single-case study approach, looked into Portuguese CBIs from an overarching perspective and attempted recognized organization. Second, there is Rede Convergir – the biggest national network hub for CBIs. Third, still in an embryonic development stage, there is ECOLISE , a European coalition bringing together national and international networks of CBIs, as well as organisations supporting community-led transition towards sustainability (see Annex 2 of Appendix A for a detailed description). There is no exact account of how many CBIs exist in Portugal. Available information is highly fragmented both in source and structure, limiting possibilities for a systematic analysis of their location, size, objectives and underlying philosophy. This data scarcity may be due to the absence of a national network that aggregates and records all sustainability and societal transition CBIs. Our next best option was thus to review the existing three initial attempts. CATALISE identified a total of 471 CBIs (2015/2016), contacted each individually and then carried out a detailed questionnaire on all 84 respondents (Marques Balsa et al., 2016: 33). Rede Convergir totaled 184 (2018) initiatives who voluntarily registered on their webpage, while ECOLISE identified 171 (2018) CBIs on their interactive map. However, the absence of coordination or cumulative effort between these different initiatives, which was not their objective, resulted in different identification and classification methods as Rede Convergir and ECOLISE’s interactive georeferenced maps illustrate. CATALISE used subnational thematic networks (e.g. Social Development) and forums, including Rede Convergir, as data sources. They did so using wide-ranging classification categories that failed to help navigate CBIs’ high degree of heterogeneity (i.e. social intervention, economic project or environmental project). This lack of data organisation translated into a fragmented and non-user friendly database, which in turn might have hampered their final findings. For example, the overrepresentation of CBIs from specific thematic networks in CATALISE’s database might make some thematic areas appear falsely predominant (e.g. social economy, cf. Marques Balsa et al., 2016: 33), disguising the actual functional distribution on the ground. This, however, may spring from the desired emphasis of CATALISE’s funding body (i.e. F.C.Gulbenkian) on the social issues of CBIs. On the other hand, Rede Convergir is an actual bottom-up initiative, as mapped CBIs voluntarily and independently signed up and filled out their questionnaires to feature on the network’s webpage. The latter leads to the conclusion that Rede Convergir better reflects the actual active CBI landscape in Portugal. Nevertheless, it is possible that only a fragment of the real number of CBIs joined Rede Convergir , due to either unawareness of the existence of the network or a legitimate will to remain somewhat “off the grid”. Finally, ECOLISE seems to build their database on information from transnational and sub-national networks, such as the Transition network or Rede Convergir , which may justify the similar mapping outcomes.