Crowdfunding: The Revival of the Civil Society?

People's Sagrada Familia

This is a story on crowdfunding in catalonia:

A distinctive component of the new generation of crowdfunding models is its symbiotic relation with the Web 2.0, also known as the “social Web”. Crowdfunding thrives into the conversational streams of the social web and contributes to generate new ones.  Unlike precedent fundraising campaigns, crowdfunding fully embraces seamless connectivity and interaction: donors are certainly expected to contribute, but they are also encouraged to comment, ask, share, and participate. And, by actively engaging people, crowdfunding open calls are able to build new online communities, which in turn contribute to expand the social graph.  In the end, a successfully achieved crowdfunding goal is more than the sum of its donations: it is a shared co-production.

(...)

However, the recent economic downturn cannot be the only explanation of the phenomenon, since other European regions undergoing similar stresses have fell short of breeding such an ecosystem. Other variables should therefore be considered, such as the role played by the particularly dense network of groups, movements, organizations, associations, etc. that have traditionally articulated Catalan civil society.  View the full story, it’s interesting!