Synergia Co-operative Institute is an international network of educators, practitioners, and organizers dedicated to educating, connecting, and activating communities to explore and enact practical pathways for navigating collapse with wisdom and care—laying the groundwork for place-based political economies that honor and serve the whole of life.
For over a decade, we have supported thousands of changemakers in more than 60 countries through transformative learning journeys, including our flagship Massive Open Online Course (MOOC): Toward Co-operative Commonwealth, Transition in a Perilous Century.
Our programs blend intellectual rigor, practical tools, and collaborative inquiry, supporting participants to address the intertwined crises of our time with wisdom, courage, and care.
Living in a Predicament without Solutions
Our Vision
The tension between hope and realistic, meaningful action is central to navigating our predicament.
Six of the nine planetary systems that sustain life on Earth are irreversibly breached. The laws of physics, not human will, now dictate the future. Two centuries of fossil-fueled expansion are unravelling into a toxic brew, threatening the whole round of life.
Islands of Coherence
The Great Unravelling is underway. Meeting basic needs—food, water, shelter, energy, social care, livelihoods, and ecological health—will depend on local and regional collaboration. Like mycelial networks exchanging nutrients and signals, strengthening community resilience is a pragmatic, adaptive response to collapse.
Synergia adopts Islands of Coherence (IOCs) as a strategic framework for navigating systemic breakdown and fostering resilience. Rooted in systems thinking and complexity science, this concept is applied to societal collapse and transformation.
But Islands of Coherence are more than refuges—they are seedbeds for a new political economy. As larger systems decay, communities, businesses, and local governments will share a common interest: to meet basic needs while safeguarding their ecological, social, cultural, and economic integrity.
This vision anchors the next phase of Synergia’s work: to educate, animate, connect, and co-delineate pathways for navigating collapse.
Our focus on local resilience does not retreat from the importance of political action, organizing, or resistance to neoliberalism and oligarchic power—nor does it reject the importance of political economy. On the contrary, it grounds transformative efforts in lived realities while challenging the forces that undermine social and ecological well-being.
Traditional economic assumptions—about value, ownership, and governance—are upended. Economic activity must be relational rather than extractive, pursue sufficiency rather than accumulation, and foster cooperation rather than competition.
In short, Synergia envisions a political economy in service to life.
Our Mission
What
Synergia educates, animates, and connects people to explore and implement practical pathways toward regenerative, place-based political economies. Through theory, models, and tools, we support communities in building Islands of Coherence—spaces where new forms of culture, economy, and governance emerge, rooted in sufficiency, solidarity, and the commons.
How
Based on a decade of highly interactive online education (Towards Cooperative Commonwealth: Transition in a Perilous Century, with 4,000+ participants), Synergia continues evolving its approach.
We recognize that many organizations, networks, and communities of practice already offer high-quality education, facilitation, and technical support relevant to our mission—spanning grief work, movement building, mutual aid, ecological stewardship, policy advocacy, governance, and more. Rather than duplicate these efforts, Synergia seeks to weave an ecosystem of shared purpose and complementary strengths.
By connecting, cohering, and amplifying each other’s work, we aim to expand our collective impact and provide learners with multiple entry points—meeting them where they are in their own transition journey.
Who
Synergia engages a globally diverse community spanning generations, educational backgrounds, and cultures. Our participants include young activists, experienced organizers, and lifelong learners—each bringing gifts, questions, and a shared need for sensemaking and meaningful dialogue.
Through outreach, dialogue and collaborative analysis, we seek to support people on their journey, strengthening networks of learning and action beyond what any single initiative could achieve.
Many educational organizations, networks, and communities of practice offer high-quality education, facilitation, and technical support relevant to our mission. They span a continuum of services, educational resources, and support – grief work, movement building, community organizing, mutual aid, ecological stewardship, policy advocacy, governance, and more.
Synergia will invest in exploring the opportunity to connect, cohere, and amplify each other’s work. Weaving together an ecosystem will increase our collective impact and provide learners with multiple entry points that meet them where they are in their transition journey.