climate crisis, inequality and digitization – Ateneu

Cooperativism as an engine of resilience and local transformation

We begin 2026 immersed in a global context marked by major interconnected challenges: the climate crisis, the increase in social inequalities and accelerated digital transformation. These phenomena have a direct impact on people’s daily lives and on the way we organize ourselves as a society. Faced with this scenario, the social and solidarity economy (ESS) emerges as a necessary alternative to build collective, rooted and sustainable responses.

From the Ateneu Cooperatiu del Baix Llobregat we want to put on the table how cooperativism and ESS can be key tools to face these challenges from a transformative and people-centered perspective.

Climate crisis: sustainability with social justice

The climate emergency is an undeniable reality. The year 2025 has closed with new global temperature records and growing concern about the impact of extreme climate phenomena. In this scenario, the traditional economic model, based on unlimited growth and resource exploitation, is increasingly showing its limitations.

The ESS proposes another way of producing, consuming and living, which has sustainability at the center and which understands that there can be no ecological transition without social justice. Agro-ecological consumer cooperatives, energy-efficient collective housing projects, sustainable mobility initiatives, recycling and reuse companies… are just some examples of experiences that are already contributing to a change of model from the territory.

The Baix Llobregat has inspiring initiatives that work from the green and circular economy, and that demonstrate that it is possible to generate economic activity and employment without putting the planet at risk.

Social inequality: cooperating to redistribute opportunities

Inequality has grown alarmingly in recent years. The precariousness of work, the difficulty of accessing housing, digital gaps and unwanted loneliness are just some of the problems that directly affect a significant part of the population.

The ESS, from its essence, works to reduce inequalities: because it puts people at the center, distributes the value generated more equitably and encourages democratic participation within the projects. Cooperatives, associations and foundations aim not only at economic viability, but also at social impact and the transformation of people’s living conditions.

Socio-labor integration projects, care cooperatives, community services and digital inclusion spaces are very valuable instruments for guaranteeing rights and generating networks. The Ateneo, with more than 100 accompaniments during 2025, has been with many of these initiatives that seek to reverse inequalities from a collective approach.

Digital transformation: technological sovereignty and responsible uses

Digitization is radically changing the way we work, communicate and access services. Despite the obvious benefits, it also generates risks: digital exclusion, concentration of power in the hands of large platforms, mass surveillance and loss of technological sovereignty.

The social and solidarity economy is committed to an ethical digitization, centered on people and based on open knowledge. There are technological cooperatives that work with free software, digital platforms for collective use, digital literacy initiatives and projects that recover self-management as a value against the logic of the digital market.

The University also supports these technological projects with a transformative vocation, which understand technology as a tool and not as an end, and which are committed to training and participative processes.

Cooperativism as a systemic response

Faced with these three major challenges – ecological crisis, inequality and digitization, the ESS does not only offer one-off solutions, but a systemic proposal. A paradigm shift that puts life at the center and defends a democratic, equitable and rooted economy.

The social and solidarity economy is not a utopia: it is a growing reality that is already present in all economic sectors. But to move forward, it needs more support, more network and more institutional recognition. And it also needs meeting spaces, mutual cooperation and reflection such as those promoted by the Ateneu Cooperative del Baix Llobregat.

This 2026, from the Ateneo we want to continue to bet on the consolidation of collective projects, the promotion of the cooperative model and the construction of alliances between sectors to face global challenges from local action.

An invitation to join

We invite all those people, groups, administrations and organizations who want to be part of this transformation to approach the Ateneo. Whether you have an idea to start up or are already part of a project, we are by your side to grow another economy.

Because in the face of a complex and changing world, cooperativism does not just resist: it advances.

Consult the services of the Ateneo and how we can accompany you a www.ateneucoopbll.cat