CO-LAB FOR FUTURE ECONOMICS
The economy is not broken.
Unfortunately, it is working exactly as designed.
We believe we can design it differently to serve humanity. Therefore, we are doing it.
The CO-LAB for Future Economics is a nonprofit research and do space based in Vienna (Austria) and Bloemfontein (South Africa). We build the intellectual and practical foundations for economy development that starts inside communities. With that, we are building the evidence that humanity in the economy works.
WHAT WE ARE
A research and do space.
Not a think tank.
Not a charity.
Not a social business project.
CO-LAB for Future Economics is a nonprofit association registered under Austrian law, based in Vienna, with a legal presence under South African law, registered and based in Bloemfontein.
We exist because the dominant economic paradigm is producing predictable, documented, compounding consequences. The alternatives either stay theoretical or local. We close that gap. We generate economic theory from our field work and return it to practice as something useful. Our research does not precede our work. It emerges from it.
We are not neutral. We believe the economy is a social practice, consciously designed, historically specific, and therefore open to redesign. We are here to do that redesign. Rigorously. On the ground. With the people it concerns. We work where the conditions for community economy development already exist beneath the surface. Currently, that ground is Africa. The logic travels further.
WHAT WE BELIEVE
Economy is a social practice. It can be redesigned.
Economy, at its root, is how a community manages its resources to secure its own survival. That is not a metaphor or a socio-romantic fantasy. That is the original definition. Older than markets, older than money, older than states.
We have drifted from that far enough that the consequences are evident: climate breakdown. Debt. Social fracture. Loneliness. This is the moment to redesign the economy back to its radical (“root”) meaning: to serve humanity.
Insight 01
“The Western world has a specific, narrow definition of economy that mistakes extraction for prosperity.”
Insight 02
“The informal economy is not a glitch in the system. It fills gaps where the formal economy leaves people behind.”
Insight 03
“Where the state is strongest, community is weakest. That is not coincidence. That is design.”
WHERE WE WORK
We work where
social capital is richest.
Social capital is the foundational resource for any economy that serves humanity. It is also the one resource the dominant economic paradigm has most consistently eroded, except where formal systems have failed to deliver.
Where formal systems are absent or unreliable, communities do not wait. They organize, build networks, informal exchange systems, and mutual support structures that formal economies cannot replicate. That social capital is the most valuable raw material for building a regenerative economic paradigm.
That is why we work in Africa. Not because Africa needs saving. Africa holds what much of the Western world has lost: dense community networks and adaptive informal economies as prerequisites for local regenerative economies. People who cannot afford to wait for external solutions don't wait. And that sets the tone for our work in other parts of this world where people want to take economy development into their own hands.
WHAT WE DO
Economy development. Not economic development.
The distinction matters.
We accompany and support communities in developing their local economies, starting from within, with the capital a community already holds: its resources, relationships, and knowledge. In practice, we bring together the three forces any economy needs (technology, capital, and humanity in the broadest sense, as humanities, social sciences, community knowledge, policymaking, advocacy) and work in an iterative loop of research, design, and build.
1 | Field Approach
We co-create with communities through an iterative approach of co-design, build, and revise. We constantly return to what we have learned, what patterns we recognize, what we understand better than before, and weave it in immediately.
2 | Research
That iterative reflection generates knowledge. We investigate, document, and publish the patterns of community economies, the mechanics of social capital, and the conditions under which regenerative models take hold.
3 | Strategic Field Partnerships
Because we have learned what we have learned, we can offer something a conventional consultant cannot: pattern recognition and implementation capacity built entirely from the ground up.
THE FIELD WORK
We do what we say. What Matters is the proof.
Our field initiative, What Matters, is where our research and thinking meet the ground. Community economy development in practice. Currently in Bloemfontein (South Africa) with some activities in Kenya and Germany.
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GLOBALLY
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SOUTH AFRICA
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KENYA
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GERMANY
THE RESEARCH
We publish what we find important.
Not all of it is for free.
Our research sits where most economic inquiry does not: inside the communities it studies, building theory from practice rather than testing theory upon it. Our research methodology is Grounded Theory. Our field of interest is the intersection of community economies, informal economic systems, and the conditions under which regenerative economic models take hold and scale.
We investigate the mechanics of social capital as economic infrastructure, the patterns of relational versus contractual/transactional economies, the systemic reasons why formal development consistently fails to deliver, and what community-based economic resilience looks like.
We publish papers, field reports, and strategic analyses. Some openly. Some exclusively for members and strategic partners.
STRATEGIC FIELD PARTNERSHIPS
Good intentions for development are not enough. We help to change that.
Some governments, municipalities, investors, and foundations have reached the same conclusion: the way they have approached economic development is not delivering. The objectives look promising on paper. The money is invested with good intentions. However, the impact does not follow.
We work with these partners to change that. Not by selling a one-size-fits-all framework. But by bringing field experience, research grounding, uncomfortable questions, and implementation capacity into the room. And the best: we stay through the entire process.
We offer
1 | policymaking and investment strategy labs,
2 | co-design implementation strategies,
3 | and implementation support.
Always rooted in what works on the ground and in the service of economy development that holds beyond the project cycle.
If you are a community or socio-economic fabric weaver and are interested in strategic field work partnerships, please visit us at What Matters.
WHO WE ARE
One vision. Diverse backgrounds.
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NICOLE BASTIEN
Founder & President at CO-LAB Austria
Co-Founder & Director at COLAB South Africa
Vision, Capital & Community Economy
DevelopmentVienna, Austria
& Munich, Germany -
ANNEEN MAREE
Co-Founder & Director at COLAB South Africa
Partner at CO-LAB Austria
Vision, Community Economy Development
& Regenerative Ecosystems
Bloemfontein, South Africa -
KARAN SIKRI
Partner at CO-LAB Austria
Marketing & Communication
Business & Financial LiteracyHamburg, Germany
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ANJA SCHERBE
Co-Founder & Vice-President at CO-LAB Austria
Co-Founder & Director at COLAB South Africa
Governance & Compliance, PolicmakingVienna, Austria
& Germany
No Funnel. Direct Contact.
If this speaks to you, write to us directly. We would love to hear from you!
WORK WITH US
