Presentation short abstract

This contribution, by an inter-disciplinary team of practioners, technicians and academics, will reflect on the experience of Public-Economic-Community (PEC) Planning in the Basque town of Hernani. The focus is on how such "pre-revolutionary planning" can support a ecosocialist-degrowth transition.

Presentation long abstract

With a population of 20,000, the predominantly industrial town of Hernani is located 8km southwest of Donostia-Sant Sebastian. As the pandemic hit, it quickly became evident that residents faced intersecting crises – lack of internet-access for home-schooling, farmers unable to deliver products to market, informal workers left without income. What emerged in response was a unique approach to democratic economic planning (Hernani Burujabe, “Sovereign Hernani”), bringing together organised residents, the transformative economy, and the municipality (Egia-Olaizola et al 2025). With the process consolidated over subsequent years, this Public-Economic-Community (PEC) Planning approach wasn’t just about meeting basic needs, but articulating a new political approach of territorial sovereignties.

Since Summer 2025, a group of practitioners, technicians and academics began collaborating to understand how and why PEC might function as a tool for ecosocialist-degrowth transition. With the practical goal of renewing and strengthening the process, we have been guided by a series of questions: What are the limits/prospects of political agency formed at the ‘local’ level? What political subjects might be forged through such territorial processes? What are the limits of non-antagonistic planning processes, and what antagonistic politics might they come to support? How could PEC help ‘de-link’ a hitherto heavily industrial local-economy? Can we hypothesise what vernacular forms such radical democratic economic planning might take? How far this process can be extended in its relationship with capitalist state?

Our contribution will reflect on this ongoing process and what we perceive are the central challenges in developing PEC as a tool for transition.