Silke Helfrich has a more extensive report from the Dakar World Social Forum, read it here.

She concludes her report by referring to the increased recognition of the commons, and predicts that the next Forum may well adopt it as integrating framework:

“At the World Social Forum in Dakar the commons were not yet discussed as a new paradigm – instead they were present as „the Water commons“, as „natural commons“ and as „Knowledge Commons“ in different places. Each of the communities adressing the specific issue it feels comfortable with. This is a limit we’ll try to overcome next time, I was happy to find a lot of new allies in Dakar – from Mali, France, Bolivia, India or Brazil!

So, the proposal for the next World Social Forum in Porto Alegre is to propose the commons as a framing for the alternative paradigm (everybody talks about but only a few people try to describe), and to put this discussion at the very heart of the Forum. The idea is to design the commons debate in such a way that the whole power of the convergence of movements can really unfold.

At the GRAP Seminar, where I spoke with Susan George, Boaventura de Souza Santos, Joan Martinez Allier and others I could shortly present my ideas for how to describe the new paradigm from a commons perspective. Again, I don’t really care, if you call it Commons; Commons Based Peer-to-Peer Economy or Solidarity Economy or Buen Vivir … I care of the fact if people identify with the ideas, aims and core-beliefs described in the second column of the following table“:

(click here for enhanced vision)

Table:

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