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Her background

Orsolya is an ecological economist. As a researcher she has participated in various interdisciplinary projects exploring the relationship between human and nature. Among others she has dealt with ecosystem services, community supported agriculture and socio-economic impact of cultural heritage. 

Her work at Cargonomia

She has coordinated a participatory action research project within Cargonomia as part of a Phd project. She is coordinating cargobike educational programs and activities, recycling workshops, and organizing workshops and lectures on sustainable food systems.

Cargonomia’s purpose is to "contribute to the transition towards a sustainable and just future by questioning the mainstream economic system."

Through their different activities, Cargonomia offers many services oriented towards the sustainable development of their territory and the well-being of citizens. Whether it is through the production and distribution of seasonal, local and quality veggies, or by raising awareness towards more sustainable means of transport (cargobike) and finally by organizing workshops, events and training for the population on these topics. This allows people to reflect on a new way of thinking about society, territorial development and lifestyle.

People working for Cargonomia are not paid. The money that Cargonomia receives is only used for new projects. It stays within the organization. Most members have another job. Orsolya sees an interest in this because the work done at Cargonomia is not done for money. In this way, the work provided to Cargonomia is not correlated to a monetary value. This meaning at work brings well-being to their daily lives because at the end of the week they feel that they have really done something to make the world a little more sustainable. It also helps to manage the frustration what one could feel related to the degrading environmental and social context.

"Cargonomia is more like a lifestyle". Many intangible resources are developed every day through their activity:

• Skills such as farming (the trainees go at least once a week to help at the farm) or cargobike reparation, organizing and facilitating events, coordinating groups.

• Knowledge through all the events they organize to talk about many topics around degrowth. And at the same time through all the research/cooperation work with universities and research institutes.

• Members obtain a strong social capital and embeddedness in the local civil society with the access to events and network through the cooperation of Cargonomia with many other civil organizations.

• Conviviality which is provided by the time spent with the community and members of Cargonomia, and by the feeling of doing something important.

• As a "coordinator" of good cooperation between actors of the territory, trust appears as a key resource that must always be maintained over time (meeting, feedback). 

Cargonomia appears to be a hub for the development of many intangible resources, both for the members of the organization and for other people of the territory.

Due to its numerous activities, some externalities have been identified:

• Improvement of the health of the citizens of Budapest through the production and distribution of quality, local and seasonal vegetables.

• Reduction of air and noise pollution in the city. Development and training around the use of cargobikes allows, on a small scale, to move towards soft mobility in the city.

• Development of the knowledge of citizens and other people outside Budapest on a new model in response to today's stakes: degrowth.

• Development of social links between inhabitants via their community space open to all. Workshops, debates, or any kind of events allow people to gather, create quality relationships and encourage creativity.

Cooperation is central to Cargonomia's work. Most of the time, it is an exchange of resources based on solidarity. Several types of cooperation have been identified:

• A continuous cooperation in the activity around the production of veggies. Cargonomia acts as a coordinator between the different actors involved in the distribution of veggies. They help to maintain a sustainable relationship between the different companies (Zsamboki, Cyclonomia, Bike delivery companies). The trainees of Cargonomia work at least one day a week in the farm of Zsamboki Biokert. In addition, many citizen events are organized by Cargonomia in collaboration with the farm or with Cyclonomia around the cargobikes. This helps to keep a link and a good relationship between the different actors involved in the projects. According to Orsolya, continuous communication is essential to carry on with cooperations, to discuss all partners' needs and desires and to satisfy everybody's interest. It is therefore easier to establish a dialogue by creating meetings to organise the activity in the best possible way according to the constraints of each party.

• A cooperation that started to be established with municipalities in Budapest. Some members of Cargonomia are invited to events organized by the municipalities in order to share their experience and what they do. The municipalities are increasingly interested in what Cargonomia is doing in order to build a more sustainable collaboration for the coming years.

• Cooperation with European universities. For example, many interns from French universities have spent a few months at Cargonomia. Some members are also active in the field of research and cooperate with institutes, particularly on the theme of degrowth.

These various cooperations allow Cargonomia to develop many intangible resources internally and to have a positive impact on its territory and the people who live there.

Low Tech Lab interview of Cargonomia

• Difficulties linked to their status due to their desire to go away from the monetary system. Managing to do things differently in a system where money is the usual language. 

• Difficulties in involving people in the long term.

It is rather difficult to make links between Cargonomia's business model and the FCE. Indeed, Cargonomia does not have a business model as such because they are outside the market system. The members are not paid and therefore mostly have another job on the side. They do use some funding to develop their projects. Cargonomia is therefore a bit outside of the FCE logic, but it is a very interesting model that has some common points with FCE.

First of all, Cargonomia is perfectly in line with a territorial approach. They try to respond to the primary needs of a territory, particularly in terms of food and mobility. As a facilitator of cooperation between companies that contract their exchanges financially, Cargonomia makes it possible to move towards a territorial performance on these subjects.

Secondly, we have seen how central cooperation is to Cargonomia's activity. This cooperation with many actors from the territory and even from elsewhere (municipalities, universities, local businesses) allows to respond to the needs of the territory in the most efficient way. This cooperation allows the development of many intangible resources (knowledge about degrowth, skills at the farm or cargobikes, confidence between the actors, etc.). The importance of these intangible resources are clearly identified by Cargonomia. Being in a degrowth process, the logic of reducing material resources to develop intangible ones is a point of convergence with the FCE. Human development is central to Cargonomia's activity.

Finally, because of their desire to respond to numerous environmental and social issues, positive externalities produced by Cargonomia could have been identified (reduction of pollution impacts in the city through soft mobility, provision of healthy food in harmony with nature, creation of social links between people in the area, etc.).

Cargonomia is therefore a very interesting collective that has enabled us to understand a so-called "degrowth model" a little better. We were able to perceive the links and divergences between the FCE and degrowth. 

We would like to make it clear here that there is no question of negative criticism of this project. The aim is to imagine a fictional story about he development of a similar company through the FCE concepts. It is also a way to inspire people in a concrete way.

We are in 2030, Cargonomia has continued its efforts. These efforts have become more productive, more relevant and more visible to more and more local actors thanks to the framework provided by the FCE...

More and more tensions over food supplies are occuring in Budapest. As a result, citizens, the municipality and other local actors have become increasingly aware of the importance of a local and resilient food supply. As demand grew, so did the number of initiatives undertaken, and many volunteers joined the collective.

Cargonomia has become a facilitator of cooperation in Budapest to meet citizens' primary needs.

Cargonomia continues to facilitate cooperation between the Zsamboki farm and Cyclonomia, a cargo bike producer, to meet food and mobility needs. The daily use of cargo bikes has spread throughout the city and more and more people are changing the way they move around. This is leading to some positive impacts for the city. The municipality has seen a significant reduction in the use of private cars in recent years, in favour of soft mobility, particularly cycling. This means a significant reduction in CO2 emissions in the territory.  

Concerning the needs of housing, the collective's mission is to enable all citizens of Budapest to have a roof over their heads. To this end, they have initiated the creation of a temporary space dedicated to the homeless people. Thanks to the cooperation between Cargonomia and a number of local players, the homeless people are able to get back to meaningful work. With the help of the municipality and a number of real-estate agencies, Cargonomia helps them to find accommodation and thus contributes to their reintegration into society.

The municipality, having understood the interest and seen the benefits of developing this type of cooperation on its territory (reducing pollution in the city, helping to achieve carbon neutrality objectives, reintegrating the poorest people into society, etc.), allows Cargonomia members to have access to accommodation in a Budapest residence (payment of their rent). Furthermore, through their cooperation with the Zsamboki organic farm, in which they continue to be active, Cargonomia members benefit from the farm's products in exchange for their services. Those exchanges allows Cargonomia members to live off their work within the collective. They no longer need to have a side-job, as was the case in 2023. The money that the collective can earn through various means (paid workshops, public funding, etc.) is only used to finance the development of the activity. 

One of the notable project of the last few years has been the development of a local currency, the Buda, by Cargonomia and the municipality. This enables local players to develop and promote local consumption for citizens. This currency will only circulate in the territory of Budapest via voluntary local players. Citizens can benefit from discounts on some local products if they use it.

Through these various experiments, Cargonomia and the city of Budapest are increasingly recognized as a model of degrowth by other territories. The members are therefore sharing their knowledge, accumulated over the last fifteen years, to enable other territories to embark on this new way of organising society.