The HETEROTOPIA TOUR is an educational approach based on learning by travelling, built on three pillars: community living, eco-sustainability and entrepreneurship education.

The aim of the tool is to provide individuals and organisations with guidelines on how to successfully implement a Heterotopia Tour, sharing the best practices piloted since the first Tour in 2013.

In those times of globalization, as people have been facing several crisis at a time (economic, social, environmental, cultural), travelling is a great “opportunity to learn, to be formed, to professionalize, through intercultural dialogue, meeting foreigners, and welcoming otherness” (“Traveling Experiences and Lifelong Learning - https://voyageformation.sciencesconf.org/, University of Rennes II - France, 2017).

It is in this perspective that, since its creation in 1998, the French organization Via Brachy (www.viabrachy.org) has been running travel-based trainings to support people in their personal development and socio-professional journey, including disabled people and people with fewer opportunities.

The “Heterotopia Tour” - a tool that the association has been developing since 2013 - refers to M. Foucault’s concept of “Heterotopia” (“hetero” = other ; “topos” = place). It mostly consists in visiting places in which citizens are taking action to meet their needs while taking into consideration the needs of the society they belong to and the need to preserve and regenerate ecosystems.

The Heterotopia Tour is designed as an inclusive learning experience which impacts a person on several levels, so that they can become a key player in the change they wants to witness for themselves and for the society they are part of, while respecting ecosystems and human dignity.

Within the project "Idea(l)s in Action" - Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Partnership - the four organisations, Via Brachy (FR), Forme (IT), New Loops (PT) and European Village (GR) has implemented four Tours in four different countries with the aim to train professionals on the methodology and to share their best practices through this guide.

The Methodological Guide is available in five languages: https://idealsinaction.viabrachy.org/doku.php/start

The findings during the Tours are documented and available online thanks to the creation of a transmedia platform by Cinergies (GR): http://heterotopies.net/