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About.
What the federation is, how it is structured, and where to find each piece. The orienting document.
On a piece of land in the south of Portugal, the federation's first Lab has been operating since May 2023. This page describes how the federation holds together: the documents that carry it, the Lab that practises it, and the infrastructure on which it grows.
The federation is held by six foundational documents. Each carries a specific weight. Together they describe what Syntrociety is: a federation of , each a registered cooperative or legal equivalent, anchored on land or in a community committed to long-term presence, signing the same , adopting the same , registering its work in the same framework. The federation does not own the Labs; it articulates the form within which they operate, federates what they learn, and represents them where representation is needed.
The Charter is what every Lab signs: five principles binding without forcing sameness. The Practice is how the principles are lived: eight working disciplines observed in the federation when it is working well. The Helix is the governance architecture: four roles around shared territorial work, with three already held by the federation and the fourth open to public authority.
The is the regulatory condition under which the federation operates: higher policy adopted, lower frameworks not yet written, the federation working in the space between. The Story is how all of this came to be, told by the people who carried the work. Status is the live legal disposition of the federation, updated as stages are reached.
Beside the six, two infrastructures support the work. SYFERS is the research and documentation framework, with two open tools and a public repository. Heal the System is the federation's editorial publication, written from the ground at member Labs and signed by the federation.
The federation operates by what we call the cell-principle. No centre that holds the structure; the pattern lives in the cells themselves, and the whole arises between them. Labs are cells: autonomous in their own reality, fractal-part of the shared ground, co-formative in what the federation as a whole means. For the working-out, /cell-principle.
Read in any order. Most readers begin with Story or Charter. Institutional partners often begin with Helix. Researchers usually begin with the Implementation Gap.
- Commitments01
Charter.
Five principles every Lab signs: Truth, Freedom, Responsibility, Openness, Consent. The legal minimum.
Read→ - Daily disciplines02
Practice.
Eight working disciplines that describe how Labs operate day-to-day. How the Charter is lived.
Read→ - Governance03
Helix.
Four roles, three held by the federation, one open to public authority. The shape of the partnership.
Read→ - Position04
The Gap.
The regulatory condition in which the federation works. Higher policy adopted, lower frameworks not yet written.
Read→ - Origin05
Story.
How the federation came to exist, told by the people who carried it. The human account.
Read→ - Live disposition06
Status.
The federation's current legal stage. What exists, what is being prepared. Updated as stages are reached.
Read→
The federation has one operational Lab today: Cooperativa Integral Sulitânia, CRL (NIF 518771571), at Quinta da Fornalha in Castro Marim, Algarve, Portugal. See Labs for detail.
More Labs are invited. A cooperative that signs the Charter, adopts the Practice, and registers its work openly is a member of the federation as a peer of the first Lab. The federation's legal entity is being prepared in parallel; until it is registered, the cooperative signs on the federation's behalf with a written commitment to transfer or extend the relationship once the entity exists. See Status for the legal disposition.
For cooperatives or initiatives considering joining, the practical pathway is described at Become a Lab.
What emerges between is openly registered. No decision without a trace.
Correspondence, formal proposals, and partnership inquiries are welcome at the addresses below. While the federation entity is in preparation, the cooperative receives correspondence on the federation's behalf.
- Federationhello@syntrociety.org
- First Labgeral@sulitania.pt
- HeadquartersQuinta da Fornalha, 8950-186 Castro Marim, Algarve, Portugal
What the federation makes is tools. The six documents are not declarations; they are instruments with which each Lab registers its work, and with which the work of each Lab becomes legible to other Labs, researchers and authorities.
What policy frameworks ask for turns out to be the same as what the place where the work happens needs.
§ Methodology
The federation does *boundary work.*
The federation works at multiple boundaries where existing structures do not yet reach. Implementation gap, two cultures gap, quadruple helix gap, legibility gap, anchor gap. Not one specific gap, but boundary work as methodology.
Read boundary work →§ Frequently asked questions for this page
Frequently asked questions.
As peers. Each Lab is sovereign over its own land, members, governance, and finances. What binds Labs is a shared Charter, a shared Practice, and shared infrastructure that no Lab would build alone.
The federation is not a centre above the Labs; it is the overlap between Labs. Council works by consent with representation from each Lab. What one Lab learns becomes visible to other Labs through SYFERS, not through directives from above.
→ See this answer on the central FAQ pageA Living Lab is a place or community where people work lifelong on questions that cannot be answered in a laboratory setting: how do you live regeneratively, how do you govern together, how do you regenerate land in collaboration with seasons.
A Syntropic Living Lab is the more specific federation form: Living Lab work anchored in syntropic thinking (wholeness, connection, living systems). Sulitânia is the first Syntropic Living Lab; more Labs are welcome in the federation as they sign Charter and Practice.
Read more at /about, or /story
→ See this answer on the central FAQ pageThree things distinguish the federation: open research (SYFERS makes each Lab academically legible), shared Charter (five principles bind Labs without determining their form), and mainstream strategy (federation positions regenerative work in EU frameworks without giving up its character).
Other ecovillages can have one or more of these; the federation has all three as structural discipline. This does not distinguish who is better, but who can be a federation.
Read more at /story, or /research/two-cultures
→ See this answer on the central FAQ pageBecome a Friend. The Friends programme supports the federation financially and with attention. A portion of each contribution goes to Labs that host Friends, per overnight visit or per other agreed form.
Being a Friend is not membership but a connection. Friends receive federation updates, get priority for Sulitânia visits, and support work that would otherwise be more dependent on EU funding. For those who take the federation seriously without being able to be a Lab themselves, this is the place.
→ See this answer on the central FAQ page