PROGRAMME SEVILLA

PROGRAMME SEVILLA

WEDNESDAY, 20 JUNE 2007

· 19:00 h.
- Presentation by Javier Mohedano and Mar Villaespesa

· 19:30 h.
- Lecture by Juliet Flower. The Spatial Unconscious of Capitalism
This paper addresses the psychical structuring of capitalist discourse and how it impacts its built environments, cities, suburbs and marketplaces. It analyzes the unconscious fantasies that underlie its principal features. I treat the 'big box' store, the opposing representations of cities vs suburbs and positive alternatives that disrupt these fantasies.

· 20:30 h.
- Lecture by Dean MacCannell. Staged Authenticity Today
This lecture addresses the selective removal of barriers to perception in urban and suburban design. "Staged Authenticity" is the pretentious revelation of back region "secrets" that began as a way of attracting and accommodating tourists, but is now spreading to every region of advanced capital. In my presentation I will treat this phenomenon as a technically paranoid structure. I will describe the parallels between new prison design and new urbanist development.

THURSDAY, 21 JUNE 2007

· 11:30 h. EXPERIENCES IN ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM
- With the participation of Plataforma Ciudadana Refinería No. A Refinery in Extremadura. A Refinery in Extremadura?
Over two and a half years ago, the Regional Government of Extremadura announced the construction of a refinery in Tierra de Barros, one of the richest agricultural zones of Extremadura and even Spain. From that moment onwards a critical group arose in the villages affected by this project who viewed it critically and, questioning the construction of the refinery which would be harmful for health, the environment, sustained development, etc., started a laborious campaign to offer information to the citizens. The authorities defending the project did not accept the discrepancies and directly started a campaign to disqualify those opposing the project.

- With the participation of Burla Negra-Rede de Acción Socio-Cultural Arredemo. Action and Culture in the Galician Social Movement
The creation of the Nunca Máis social movement which arose after the catastrophe of the Prestige ship, propitiated in Galicia, a fecund period of experimentation in civilian action that lasted almost four years until the regional elections of 2005 took place. In this movement popular culture, the art of intervention and new technologies in communications merged. We will review the birth of the movement and the experiences in Galician activism during this period.

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· 19:30 h.
- Lecture by Esther Velázquez. Virtual Water: a Way to Integrate Ecological Economy into Economy Approaches
As Mishan stated in Costs of Economic Development (1970), it is necessary to "convince people of the need for a radical change in the usual way of observing economic events" which, traditionally, have been centred on analysing reality from the viewpoint of the market and financial aspects. This radical change can be done by Ecological Economy which analyses, among other things, the physical dimensions of the economic activity. From this point of view the new concept of virtual water will be presented as a way to integrate water parameters in economic plans and in the management of national and international commerce.

· 20:30 h.
- Lecture by Federico Aguilera. Deterioration of Democracy, Environmental Damage and Civilian Society: an Approach
The democratic legitimacy of a government depends on the existence of a debate that is public and open as well as informed both during the elections as well as when it comes to taking public decisions. However, the usual feature is the absence of this debate to keep the citizens from understanding, participating and having an influence in matters that are really of interest to them. Political professionals only recognise the legitimacy of the elections in spite of the fact that the Spanish Constitution clearly states the right to participate in a direct way in public matters. All of this reveals serious doubts on the real quality of democracy. In fact, environmental deterioration is more and more frequently a direct result of the breakdown of the quality of democracy and an authoritarian manner (lacking debate, transparency, in an intimidating way) of decision taking (imposition). In contrast to this situation, citizen movements have shown that in some cases, it is possible to practice a democracy in the sense of public debate and reasoned argumentation, of improved quality better than the "official" quality. The problem consists of the capacity of keeping this up in time, without suitable material means and in a context that is threatening as well as the difficulty of facing personal demons of "homo demens", which frequently cancel out "homo sapiens".

FRIDAY, 22 JUNE 2007

· 11:30 h. EXPERIENCES IN ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM
- With the participation of Asociación Mesa de la Ría. Huelva. Territory and Speculation
We present, from different points of view, the creation and backing of a social movement that struggles seeking out a different type of development of a physical space with a high ecological value, very much deteriorated by an industrial chemical basic activity (AIQB) -imposed during the Franco's dictatorship and developed during 45 years- extraordinarily contaminating: the ría de Huelva and its environs. We will explain the defence that multinationals do of their interests from a point of view that is exclusively financial, by means of manipulation and control of propaganda media and how the citizens' groups have opened a breach that is starting to crack open the vault of fear and social contamination. The perspectives that are offered by recovering the space called "Punta del Sebo" from a socio-economic point of view for the city itself and its surroundings, based on criteria of sustained development, conclude the claims that uphold this discourse.

· 12:30 h. ARTISTIC PRACTICES
- With the participation of Isaías Griñolo. Toxic Power ALWAYS Lies: Three Examples
1. Of how ENDESA, no. 1 Leading Power Company in Sustainability, constructed, without a license, a new combined cycle power plant and how the citizens, when finding out they had been deceived, organised a way to say NO to this lie.
2. Of how FERTIBERIA, a company that in 2007 created the Chair for Agro-Environmental Studies to develop fertilizer that respects the environment, and at the same time has kept up for years now, some pools measuring 1.200 hectares with 120 million tons of radioactive phosphoplasters barely 500 metres away from the city of Huelva.
3. Of how AIQB -short in Spanish for Chemical and Basic Industries Association-, states: "The social implication of industry in Huelva is shown in many layers of society and provincial institutions by means of the collaboration of the company in Education, Culture, Sports, the Arts and Popular Traditions. The industry assumes that sustained development is not just a label, but a necessary goal and a commitment for future generations"**, and what it really is.

* According to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index.
** Manifesto/institutional declaration of AIQB (February 07).

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· 19:30 h.
- Lecture by David Harvey. Neoliberalism and Uneven Geographical Development
Uneven geographical development fostered through decentralization of territorial and administrative powers has played a crucial role in advancing the cause of neoliberalization around the world. The effect has been to accelerate the centralization of capital and the concentration of class power, proving once again that decentralization is one of the most effective means, when properly organized, for exercising centralized control. At the same time, this decentralization offers certain new possibilities for oppositional politics, but those opportunities can only be taken advantage of when the dangers are fully understood.

PROGRAMME TARIFA

PROGRAMME TARIFA

TUESDAY, 17 APRIL 2007

· 19:00 h.
- Introduction by Javier Mohedano and Mar Villaespesa

- Conference given by Manuel Delgado. Erupting, Interrupting. Role of the Masses in Contemporary Urban Activism
One of the unique characteristics of urban struggles in all periods has been the main role assumed in them by the masses, i.e. small or large crowds of people appearing who gave rise to forms of social action which were at the same time extremely ephemeral and energetic. Whether in the form of a merged mass or of small groups of great agility - assuming molar or herd-like aspects -, these types of pedestrian coalitions have been seen to stir up history and become the main actors in the most disturbing and worrisome aspects of urban life. The masses have frequently appeared sentenced to disappear, as a result of civil changes which seemed to renounce the collective appropriation of public space, but evidence does not stop providing signs of their strong role as instruments for challenging and sabotaging the powers that be. One example of this role of the masses as an altering tool is shown in certain expressions of urban insolence in present-day Barcelona.

· 20:00 h.
- Conference given by Arantxa Rodríguez. Reinventing the City. Paradoxes of Neoliberal Urbanisation in Europe
Throughout the last two decades, the challenged raised by the new conditions of the globalised economy have had significant consequences for cities. The adaptation to the changes caused by restructuring and globalisation processes has altered not only the form and functionality of urban areas but also the priorities, objectives and forms of public intervention in the city. The search of competitiveness transforms into the main argument of the "new urban policy" and this into a key instrument of the local management of the global economy. But the competitive reorientation of urban policy requires dynamics of permanent reinvention and the strategic projection of the cities in an effort to maintain the advantage in the struggle to be exceptional. In this presentation certain paradoxes of this strategy will be discussed enabling the revealing of the limits of neoliberal urbanisation.

WEDNESDAY, 18 APRIL 2007

· 10:30 h. CASE STUDY
- With the participation of Eduardo Serrano and José María Romero. ZoMeCS: Strength and Danger
The Metropolitan Area of the Costa of the Sol (ZoMeCS) is a territory which runs along the fringe of the coast of Málaga, from Nerja to Estepona, with an urban development in which it is difficult to define the limits of each municipal territory. This situation of macrodevelopment allows us to point out that, more than being faced with a metropolitan area, we are faced with a macro city in permanent expansion. ZoMeCS is a prototype, a laboratory where the forms of the contemporary territory are put into practice, forms which will end up affecting many places. But we are also faced with an exceptional opportunity to try out forms of living and of habitation which involve new ways of being social and likewise a new symbiosis between man and nature. It is not very useful to confront territories such as ZoMeCS with traditional "town planning" weapons; it is not even sure that such a word, derived from urban, is appropriate when conceptual categories such as tourism, residence, municipality, classification, plan and others end up hiding more than understanding their meaning.

· 11:30 h. EXPERIENCES IN TERRITORY ACTIVISM

- With the participation of Abel Lacalle. Pangolfism and Territory in Almería
The coast of eastern Almería is becoming the object of a significant urbanisation process implying severe economic, social and environmental problems which can be analysed in one specific case such as the tourist project of Macenas. The town planning project wishes to prove a complex for tourist residential, hotel and golf uses, irreparably destroying a natural habitat of significant environmental value, away from the main centre, with severe water stress, an occupation of the public domain which is currently the object of review and non-compliance with legal provisions.

· 12:30 h.  ARTISTIC PRACTICE

· With the participation of Rogelio López Cuenca. Two or Three Maps

Presentation of various examples of his works, both completed and in progress, such as Nerja Once (Barcelona, 2004), Málaga 1937 (Málaga, 2007), Roma 1937 (work in progress) and others as yet untitled, such as that of the Picassisation of Málaga. Using such examples as a starting point, more general matters will be dealt with, procedures of a global nature but the specific embodiment of which is perfectly visible on at local level in these places.

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· 19:00 h.
- Conference by Ramón Fernández Durán. Spanish and Worldwide Urbanising Tsunami
Spain became the epicentre of the world property bubble during the period 1998-2005 and the EU country with most residences per thousand inhabitants. While the Spanish State was becoming one immense Marbella, and the culture of speculation penetrated into a large part of the social mass, under the slogan of "Not for sale" social protest tried to defend the territory. Different local resistance processes against the Spanish urbanising tsunami have been developed, giving rise to a popular movement which is organised, transcends local spheres and shows signs of continuing in crescendo. The movements in defence of the territory are joining the demonstrations in favour of decent housing. Only through people's movements and awareness-raising will it be possible to reorient, through complex molecular processes from the bottom up, the territorial disaster bequeathed to us in recent years by the urbanising tsunami.

· 20:00 h.
- Conference given by Pilar Vega. Time and Mobility in the Territory of Commuter Belts
The territorial model has transformed the distribution of social time and the form in which this is perceived, making it a rare asset. The organisation of the productive activities of the territory and of transport is based on two factors enabling alleged "time-saving": acceleration and speed. However, the energy necessary to achieve that speed which bridges spaces and time generates environmental unsustainability and social inequality.

THURSDAY, 19 APRIL 2007

· 10:30 h. CASE STUDY
- With the participation of Juan Requejo. Integrated Processes on the Coast: Convergent Planning and Integration of the Territorial Scale and the Maritime-terrestrial Scale
At present we are witnessing a proliferation of urban planning initiatives and a reality subject to the multiple regulations of the various items of legislation prevailing over coastal territory. Nevertheless, all this administrative and social energy does not appear to be capable of directing the processes towards optimum formulae for taking advantage of opportunities, and nor is it capable of containing transforming tendencies (especially town planning ones) which destroy the environment, spoil attractive landscapes and trivialise the countryside. Perhaps the key to public intervention is to be found in the combination of sectorial visions and in the integration of the various scales of intervention.

· 11:30 h. EXPERIENCES IN TERRITORY ACTIVISM
- With the participation of Estebán de Manuel. Design of Social Management Processes of the Habitat: Jnane Aztout_Larache
Morocco is presently confronting the strategic programme VISION 2010. One of its axes is tourism. In support of this strategic axis there appear investment programmes in infrastructure and in the fight against poverty. Larache, the city on which this presentation is focused, has been surrounded by a belt of bidonvilles. 40% of the population live in these districts. The Moroccan government has initiated a National Plan for Fighting Against Unhealthy Habitats, called Villes sans Bidonvilles. In this context, the university NGO Architecture and Social Commitment and the research groups ADICI and GIEST are developing a pilot experiment in urban and social transformation using participative action research methodology.

-  With the participation of Luis Andrés Zambrana. The transformation of the Aljarafe district of Seville and popular resistance

The Aljarafe district of Seville has become the fourth largest metropolitan area of Spain. This district has undergone transformations in various periods of the 20th century, with the years from 1950-1975 standing out, when a pocket of the population from the rest of the province moves to the city to work, expelled from agriculture; 1975-1995, after the choice of the Aljarafe district as a space for terraced houses with plots, in an attempt to seek the rural compared to the urban; and the present, with the loss of the rural environment and its conversion into an urban space with no rationality. The proposals from Town Planning General Plans (in Spanish, PGOUs) arising from the town halls and the citizens' responses will be analysed.

· With the participation of the local groups Agaden, Apymeta, Cigüeña Negra and Verdemar-Ecologists in Action. 

PARTICIPANTS

PARTICIPANTS

Federico Aguilera
Professor of Applied Economy at the University of La Laguna. National Prize for the Economy and the Environment (2004). Teaches the subjects of Economy of Natural Resources and the Environment and Ecological Economy . Among his publications are [From environmental economy to ecological economy] De la economía ambiental a la economía ecológica (1994), [Economy and the environment: A state of the question] Economía y medio ambiente: Un estado de la cuestión (1998) and [The Quality of Democracy and Environmental Protection in the Canary Islands] Calidad de la democracia y protección ambiental en Canarias (2006).

Manuel Delgado
Graduated in Art History, Doctor of Anthropology, Senior Lecturer in Religious Anthropology and coordinator of the Doctorate Programme 'Anthropology of Space and Territory' at the Universidad de Barcelona. Among his published Works are From the Death of a God (1986), The Public Animal (Anagram Essay Prize, 1999), Urban Dissolutions (2002) and Shifting Societies (2007).

Ramón Fernández Durán
Civil Engineer and Town Planner. Guest Lecturer at the Universidad Carlos III in Madrid and in the Geography Faculty of the Universidad de Barcelona among others. Member of Ecologists in Action and author of titles such as Transport, Space and Capital (1980), The Explosion of Disorder. The Metropolis as the Space of the Global Crisis (1993) and Spanish and Worldwide Urbanising Tsunami (2006).

Juliet Flower
Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine. She has written numerous articles on the city (including Las Vegas and San Francisco), and on architecture and psychoanalysis ("The City at the End of History", "FreudSpace" and "Urban Perversions"). She has recently made a study of Lacan's critique of capitalism in his Seventeenth Seminar, and was most recently The Cassal Lecturer at the University of London, presenting "The City, Year Zero: Memory and the Spatial Unconscious" at the Institute for Advanced Study. She is the author of Figuring Lacan (1986), The Regime of the Brother (1991) and The Hysteric's Guide to the Future Female Subject (2000).

Isaías Griñolo
Visual artist. In recent years, he has worked on the project Asuntos Internos. La Cultura como cortina de humo (Internal Affairs: Culture as a Smokescreen) which questions cultural policies and their social implications and within whose framework he has carried out the following works: "Debris. Stories, Images and arguments of ecological practices in Andalusia", "The hardship of Death I. The cultural logic of chemical capitalism" and most recently, "Forgetfulness. 14 documents on a forgotten place; the Bullring of Badajoz".

David Harvey
Professor Emeritus of Anthropology of City University of New York (CUNY) and Doctor in Geography of Cambridge University. Renowned social theoretician and one of the most influential geographers of the past thirty years. Author of numerous essays of great importance in development of modern geography as a discipline and books that are already classics on town planning and the spatial dynamics of capitalism. Among his works are Social Justice and the City (1973), Consciousness and the Urban Experience (1985), and translated into Spanish Spaces of Hope (2003), The Condition of Postmodernity (2004) -considered by the London Independent as one of the fifty most important non-fiction books published since 1945-, The New Imperialism (2004) and Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography (2007).

Abel Lacalle
Lawyer and Lecturer in Law at the Universidad de Almería, specialist in Environmental Law. Among his works we could highlight his legal responsibility in actions carried out by environmental NGOs before the European Union and in opposition to projects such as the transferral of water from the Ebro river to Spanish Levante region (Plan Hidrológico Nacional 2001) or that from the Júcar river to the Vinalopó river basin. He is currently the Vice-President of the Fundación Nueva Cultura del Agua. He collaborates with the organisation 'Red Andaluza por la Defensa del Territorio de Almería'.

Rogelio López Cuenca
Visual artist. His work explores the processes in the construction of identity through contemporary iconography and world languages. He has carried out interventions in public urban spaces, for television and on the Internet (www.malagana.com) as well as taking part in the Biennials of Johannesburg, Manifesta 1 (Rotterdam), São Paulo, Lima and Istanbul.

Dean MacCannell
Professor of Environmental Design and Landscape Architecture at the University of California (Davis). His work on tourism is featured in the BBC miniseries The Tourist (1996). He is the author of more than eighty articles and monographs on cultural and critical analysis. Among his books, those translated into Spanish are The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class (2003) and Empty Meeting Grounds (2006). His current book projects are The Ethics of Tourism and Design's Diaspora.

Esteban de Manuel
Senior Lecturer in the Department of Architectural Graphic Expression at Seville's Architecture School and chief member of the research group ADICI-HUM810. He runs the Aula Sevilla-Larache, whose cross-curricular concerns are education aimed towards development, citizenship and interculturality. In 1993, he founded a university-run NGO in Architecture and Social Commitment which has carried out four international co-operation projects in Morocco and eight more in Peru, Santo Domingo and Nicaragua.

Juan Requejo
Graduated in Economic Science and Geography from the Universidad Autónoma de Bellaterra in Barcelona. He works in the consultancy group Arenal Grupo Consultor and in Asistencias Técnicas Clave. He has given professional advice to various international organisms (the United Nations, the European Commission) as well as to foreign governments (Morocco, Mozambique), regional governments (Andalusia, the Basque Country, the Canaries) and other public administrations. He has taken part in regional planning processes. He has recently collaborated with teams designing new tourist resort cities on the coasts of Morocco and Saudi Arabia.

Arantxa Rodríguez
Senior Lecturer in Applied Economics at the Universidad del País Vasco. She has carried out graduate and doctorate studies in Economy and Geography at the University of California, Berkeley. Among her most recent research work is a comparative analysis of productive and territorial restructuring and regeneration policies in European metropolitan areas. Among her publications are Innovation, Competitiveness and Urban Regeneration. The Rhetorical Spaces of the 'Creative City' in the new Bilbao (2005), Neoliberal urbanization in Europe. Large-Scale Development Projects and the New Urban Policy (2002) and Reinventing the City. Miracles and Illusions in the Urban Revitilization of Bilbao (2002). In addition, within the field of Feminist Economy she has published Women, Families and Work in Spain: Structural Changes and New Demands (2000).

José María Romero
Architect, and Lecturer in Projects at the Architecture School in Granada. He has obtained the following prizes: Europan III in Belgium (1994), the First Railway Prize in Cádiz (2003) and the Málaga Architecture Prize (1993, 2003 and 2005). He has published several titles and coordinated the 020404 books. Drift in ZoMeCS (2004) and Nerja. Landscape ZoMeCS (2005). He has been a patron of the Rizoma Fundación since 2006. He is currently carrying out work on the pedestrianization of the old Cádiz highway in Málaga, and organizes the workshop The Recovery of Urban Rivers, Forests and Beaches in Marbella. 

Eduardo Serrano
Graduated in Architecture from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and a Doctor from the Architecture School of the Universidad de Granada. He worked as an active architect between 1975 and 1990. He has been involved in teaching for the last ten years, collaborating with teachers José María Romero and Rafael Reinoso at the Architectural School in Seville and in Málaga University's Geography faculty. Co-director and co-founder of Rizoma Fundación and the Revista aperiódica de arquitectura Rizoma in Málaga, in which he has published many articles. 

Pilar Vega
Geographer, holds a diploma in Town and Country Planning and Land Transportation. Co-founder of the Group of Studies and Alternatives Gea21, where she currently works in the sustainable planning of territory and transport. She has been the Technical Manager of Sustainability Strategy for the Balearic Government's Transport System and among her most important works are her participation in the Strategic Plan of Infrastructure and Transport (PEIT), The Green Book of Accessibility in Spain and the coordination of the Rationalisation of Transport in Work Centres. She is co-founder of the Women's Town Planners' Collective and the Pedestrians' Association (APIE).

Esther Velázquez
A doctor in Economics from the Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Seville and lecturer in the Economics, Quantitative Methods and Economic History department of the same university. A member of the managerial board of the European Society for Ecological Economics (www.euroecolecon.org/) and author of such titles as Rural Tourism and the Environment: A Proposal for a Methodology of Analysis (2003) or The Modernisation Plan of the Andalusian Fishing Sector (2003).

Luis Andrés Zambrana
Senior lecturer in Applied Economics at the Universidad de Sevilla and member of the AREA group (Andalusian Economy Regional Analysis). One of the founders and coordinators of the University and Social Commitment Collective (www.institucional.us.es/compromiso) and the Aljarafe Habitable collective (www.aljarafehabitable.es). His research work attempts to bring the university closer to society. He has published numerous articles in scientific education journals and the book The Design of a New European University. Some Reasons. Some Consequences (2007). Currently working on the economic dynamics that are transforming the Metropolitan Area of Seville and, in particular, the area of Aljarafe. 

Agaden
An association, which emerged in 1976, as a response to the situation faced by nature in the Cádiz province (deforestation, pollution, the desiccation of land, property speculation, etc.). It is organised by sections which each deals with different natural regions within the province of Cádiz and, although co-ordinated by a common organ, they work autonomously. There are currently four sections: AGADEN-Bahía, with its headquarters in the capital of Cádiz itself; AGADEN-Campo de Gibraltar, with its headquarters in Algeciras; AGADEN-La Janda, with its headquarters in Benalup and AGADEN-Sierra, with its headquarters in Ubrique. The group has taken part in numerous consultancy and management groups related to the environment.

Apymeta
The Association of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses in the Tarifa region was founded with the aim of bringing together businessmen from small companies in the Tarifa area to defend their common interests (agreements with banks, relationships with the Council, etc.). One of the ideas that they are convinced about and which they defend is sustainability, to this end they have taken part in various meetings and promoted, together with the Council and businessmen in the tourist industry, the Strategic Plan of Tourist Development 2015.

Asociación Mesa de la Ría
A social movement formed by free and independent citizens that propose a debate on the recovery of the Francisco Montenegro Avenue in Huelva to be used by citizens. Their goal is for no more new contaminating factories to be installed in Punta del Sebo, so no new industries of this type become rooted in the environs of Huelva, as well as progressively and step by step liberate this territory for the city as stated and signed by social agents in 1991, the environmental defence of the ría de Huelva, the demolition of the new thermal plant that Endesa has built without a license, the paralysation of dumping phosphoplaster in the marshlands and the regeneration of the marshlands of the Tinto and Odiel rivers. More information: http://www.mesadelaria.org/ 

Burla Negra-Rede de Acción Socio-CulturalArredemo
A collective made up of Galician actors, writers, painters, sculptors, creators, teachers, communicators, thinkers and citizens united by a common sense of indignation at the petrol spillages that the Galician coastline has suffered and the irresponsible attitude of governments when dealing with these ecological catastrophes.

Cigüeña Negra
Organisation made up of volunteers and created in 1997, centering their work on the study, conservation and the distribution of information in general and in particular the migration of birds in the Straits of Gibraltar, representing, as it does, the border between Europe and Africa. They have taken part in activities against the building of the A-48 motorway between Algeciras and Vejer, as the area is an important ecological area with a large number of protected spaces and species. 

Plataforma Ciudadana Refinería No
Made up of parents, educators, the unemployed, workers, businessmen, farmers and students who are in total opposition to the setting up of petro-chemical industries in Extremadura. They consider that such industries represent an attack on the sustainable development and the exploitation of renewable energies in the area, thus creating a negative impact for the quality and image of the products of the agricultural, food and tourist industries in Extremadura and south-western part of the Iberian Peninsular, which have meant a continuous risk for the health and qualify of life of those towns directly affected by these industries. 

Verdemar - Ecologistas en acción
Ecological group based near the border with Gibraltar and part of the Andalusian Federation of Ecologists in Action, a federation of more than 300 ecological groups based in various towns and cities in the region. It forms part of the so-called 'social ecologism' which understands that environmental problems have their origin in an increasingly globalised model of production and consumerism from which other social problems arise. They have developed awareness raising campaigns, and public or legal accusations against acts which damage the environment, whilst drawing up specific and viable alternatives in each of the areas in which they undertake their activities.