The following preprint is available: ------- E. Carletti - M. Grandis Fundamental groupoids as generalised pushouts of codiscrete groupoids Dip. Mat. Univ. Genova, Preprint 603 (2013). http://www.dima.unige.it/~grandis/GpdClm.pdf Abstract. Every differentiable manifold X has a ‘good cover’, where all open sets and their finite intersections are contractible. Using a generalised van Kampen theorem for open covers we deduce that the fundamental groupoid of X is a ‘generalised pushout’ of codiscrete groupoids and inclusions. This fact motivates the present brief study of generalised pushouts. In particular, we show that every groupoid is up to equivalence a generalised pushout of codiscrete subgroupoids, and that (in any category) finite generalised pushouts amount to ordinary pushouts and coequalisers. ------- Before submitting it, I would like to know if the ‘generalised pushouts’ we are using (or similar colimits) have been considered elsewhere. (They are not simply connected colimits, in the sense of Bob Pare, and indeed they cannot be constructed with pushouts.) With best regards to all colleagues and friends. In particular to Ronnie Brown and Bob Pare, whose results are used in this preprint. Marco [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]