Community-Supported "Everything" | 024

21/08/2025 1h 11min Episodio 30
Community-Supported "Everything" | 024

Listen "Community-Supported "Everything" | 024"

Episode Synopsis

(Economic) Transformation & Socio-Ecological Resilience - Through Social Innovation and regional ecosystems of community-based practices


Charlotte von Wulffen, board member of the CSX Network and research associate at Leuphana University for Social Innovation, shares how “community-supported everything” is evolving from its agricultural roots into a broader economic practice. We trace CSX back to CSA farms that spread rapidly in the 2010s and now inspire models for coffee, olive oil, yoga, arts, and more.

I ask Charlotte to make it tangible, and we walk through a yoga-studio example: members support the studio year-round so it survives empty summers, not just crowded winters. We discuss the shift from “What can I buy?” to “What does this place and community need to thrive for a year?”—including money, time, and invisible “community work.” We talk about moving "beyond veggie boxes" and fixed prices to cultivating appreciation, agency, and prosumer roles that reconnect us with people and processes behind our essentials.

Together, we imagine city “third places,” multi-use spaces, and member-run hubs that bundle many CSX suppliers, easing administrative work for people who can’t attend ten different meetings a week.

Charlotte highlights today’s headwinds—price shocks, failing small shops, and strained eco-logistics—and why many pioneers are reorganising toward regional value chains. We explore how logistics firms might pivot from “selling to shops” toward stewarding storage and flow for communities. We reflect on how CSX can be a social safety net in climate-related disruptions by strengthening neighbourly ties and local access to food and basics.

Scaling here means a paradigm shift: redesigning ownership, decision-making, and trust—rather than churning out another product.

Finally, we call for transdisciplinary, diverse coalitions to move CSX from the pioneer phase to an ecosystem that many can join.


💡 HIGHLIGHTS of this Episode
✨ “Price” is the wrong question—we ask what the place needs to exist next year, not what a cucumber “costs.”
✨ Consumer or co-creator? CSX turns anonymous buying into visible roles: money, time, skills, and sharing the risks
✨ Yoga studios, arts, olive oil—community-supported business models aren't just for hippie farms; it’s a template for services and culture
✨ From shops to hubs—member-run “third places” and regional logistics can knit pioneers into resilient ecosystems
✨ Scale the paradigm, not the product—the real growth lever is how we own, decide, trust, and communicate


👋 ABOUT Charlotte (she/her)
Charlotte von Wulffen studied Environmental Sciences (B.Sc.) at Leuphana University and Interdisciplinary Public and Nonprofit Studies (M.Sc.) at the University of Hamburg. From early on, she has been interested in cooperative ways of living and economic organization. Since 2021, she has been engaged in the CSX network - the network for community-supported entrepreneurship. During her undergraduate studies, she gained practical experience as part of the management team of a CSX company and co-founded a cooperative. Today, she works and conducts research at Leuphana University, exploring how community-supported entrepreneurship can foster social and ecological transformation.

🔗 CONNECT & follow Charlotte's work
👉 LinkedIn



📚 RESOURCES to dive deeper
➡ CSX Network
➡ Leuphana University
➡ Communicorn Conference 2025
➡ Communicorn Podcast
 
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💌 CONNECT & engage with Pia
Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn to follow and support each other’s work. 🤗
If you consider yourself an #impactjobseeker or aspiring #impactpreneur at the beginning of your journey, jump on my Newsletter “Impact Insights” where I regularly share tools and best practices from my work as a sustainability consultant and system change facilitator. 🤓⚖
For daily insights “behind the scenes” and event updates, join the extended community on the @work.with.impact Instagram account. 🧐💓

🔔 Wanna see Pia and Charlotte live and in-action?
Come to the COMMUNICORN CONFERENCE! 🦄🦄🦄
📌 Lüneburg, Germany
📅 16.&17. September
👉 All info here (German)

Take care of yourself and others!
Pia 🤍

P.S. You can also watch this Episode on our YouTube Channel to see our faces 👋 🙂

#community #communitysupported #community #alternativeeconomies #regeneration #CSA #CSX #local #resilience #solidarity #coops #commons #ecosystem #sustainability #impact #food #logistics #membership
 

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