RESOURCES 
made by ab__ members
links and images coming
Launch pamphlet
Launch postcards
ab__ afternoon breakfast zine
Fareshares
Sociocracy

What was ab__?

ab__ was an experiment
(2021-2025) 
in resource sharing across knowledges.

PROJECTS
shaped by, or emerged from ab__ network
links and images coming

City of Sanctuary
Colonial Lives of Property Reading Group
Commons of Annetta
Drying Time
a new pub for Friends of the Joiners Arms
Funky Fens
New Town Queers
Museum of Enclosure
Sonic A&E

our VALUES
📣 We members think that the current socio-spatial structures and systems we live under are not working, and that they exclude, brutalise, and reinforce inequality. We need to find ways of organising and distributing resources to support people doing the work to engage in and take action in the world to change things. For us, in this moment through ab__, this means doing the following:

**relational work**
We acknowledge the interconnectedness of the systems and environments we all inhabit. We work between and across professions, with an understanding that our work moves beyond. We are working with forms of relation that do not centre profit, commodification, extraction or oppression. Process and outcome are not different things. We understand our work as being intimately linked to the wider ecology and health of the planet.

**knowledge sharing**
We believe in the transformative power of transdisciplinary work. ab__ exists to bring together people with different experiences to think and work together using critical action research. We believe that situated and experiential knowledges are key to finding and understanding possible worlds. Our work is happening outside of, around and between institutions. We seek to openly disseminate the knowledge we generate.

**member run**
We are a decentralised network of community members and practitioners organised democratically: we shape our network and the projects within it. We commit to active participation: ab__ is the product of our work. Everyone has permission and responsibility to act. We keep bureaucracy to a minimum and use the organisational structure to distribute power. We seek autonomy, mutual support and trust. We use formal decision making to shape our shared administrative and infrastructural resources.

**experimentation**
ab__ is a tool for experimentation, to facilitate members, clients and the public at large to practice more equitable systems. ab__ uses action as research and research as action. Failure, and the learning derived from failure, is welcome.

**transformation**
ab__ seeks to actively transform non-equitable systems, for example those relating to climate breakdown, land ownership, borders, migration and asylum, gentrification, access to social capital, queer space, community design, access to care, food security, and labour systems. We are creating alternatives to the status quo, realising and learning from different ways of world-building.

We form organisational structures and relationships that work against societal oppression. We value labour which is otherwise under-recognised like community organising and care-work.

** collectivity**
We build legitimacy through being together - individually for confidence in our thinking and collectively for our capacity to take action. We find joy and resilience together. This makes it possible to believe that things can and will change. We are intentional in our actions and words. ****We engage with each other with respect, curiosity and empathy.

do you have content to add? changes to make? email

applications are closed. voting is open to ab__ patreon members now.

WORK IN PROGRESS: this website is being built!

WORK IN PROGRESS - building ab__ archive

Application FAQS:

How much funding will we receive?
We have £3000 pounds in total which we will split 6 ways, giving £500 to 6 groups.


How will the amount of funding for each project be determined?
All successful projects will receive an equal split. ab__ members will vote for the 6 projects they want to give funding to. The 6 projects that receive the most votes will be successful.

Will there be any requirements attached to the funding?
As long as your work can be understood in connection to our values there are no other requirements. Our knowledge sharing value means we'd like you to tell us what you've been working on back with us for publication on this website.

Are there any restrictions on the project timeline?
We would like you to share an update with us, if you're ready, around June 21st. We will check in later in the year if you're not ready yet.

What would be the deadline for spending this and how would we need to summarise what we have used it for?
We haven't set a deadline for you to spend the money but it would be best if it's a project you're working on now or in the next 6 months.
The main thing we'd like you to share with us is the knowledge you've developed through the project. This can be whatever format you choose. We won't ask for a breakdown of spending.