Lisbon · Stewardship · Community-building
Sensing Lisbon
From international residents to co-stewards of place.
Lisbon is under strain. Something essential is being lost from the exponential influx of people and capital. Our response was to convene a community of people who wish to contribute to the vitality and uniqueness of this city we all love.
Lisbon is at a threshold. It has never looked more beautiful, and yet something essential is fading away. Together with Michelle Holliday, we convened a first gathering of international residents - 24 participants from 11 countries - who love the city and know they are part of what’s collectively straining Lisbon. Our gathering took place at Impact Hub Penha de França.
We began where the discomfort was sharpest: what if the erosion of Lisbon’s soul is not a problem to be solved but a calling to recognize ourselves as part of the city’s living tissue and to participate in its regeneration? And if so, how to approach this in a right-relationship?
Rather than designing a program for participants to give back to the city, we spent 1.5 days listening, reflecting and being with ourselves, each other and Lisbon, lightly oriented by living system principles. This included an arrival dinner for sharing stories of our connection to Lisbon prepared by Portuguese grandmas from aVó Cooking Lab, a solo walk through a neighborhood most of us had never entered - Penha de França, acknowledging the distance between doing good and sensing what a place is actually asking for, and exploring what it means to be not merely a social club or networking group but a vibrant and impactful “learning ecology”.
A core belief we hold is that you cannot practice reciprocity with a place you have not yet met as an extension of you. This was a seed event to do so, and also to spark a larger series of gatherings aimed to listen and engage with Lisbon as a living place. We are now forming an enlarged stewardship group to carry forward the work.