“This time, however, it is women who must build the new commons so that they do not remain transient spaces, temporary autonomous zones, but become the foundation of new forms of social reproduction. If the house is the oikos on which the economy is built, then it is women, historically the house workers and house… Continue reading
Date archives "January 2011"
Thomas Greco: The debt crisis is global and needs a structural solution through credit commons
Excerpted from Reality Sandwich. Thomas Greco: “If the world has become so prosperous and productive, why all this debt, and why does it continue to grow ever more rapidly? It is not a matter of policy, i.e., how we operate a flawed system. The problem is structural and systemic. The system is designed to create… Continue reading
Cory Doctorow reviews the Net Delusion
It seems that Morozov wants to see the chaos of popular, grassroots movements replaced with a kind of orderly, top-down style of regimented activism led by intellectuals whose thoughts can’t be pithily expressed in 140-character tweets. Whether or not Morozov sees himself as one of those intellectuals is never explicitly stated. In a nutshell, this… Continue reading
Tunisian Minister, Sami Zaoui, on the internet-enabled “bloodless revolution”
The internet and social media were crucial for the success of the Tunisian revolution: Here are additional details provided by Tunisian Internet Agency (French initials: ATI) director Kamel Saadaoui, in Wired: “Saadaoui described the governmental oversight of the internet as an encrypted interface built and maintained by the ATI. Only the government can manipulate it…. Continue reading
A (video) celebration of the revolution in Egypt
Video: (you may have to register, Youtube has deemed this an ‘adult only’ video) For internet access issues in Egypt, and efforts to restore it, see here. Please do have a look at this remarkable action guide that Egyptian activists have distributed, specifically asking to avoid Facebook and Twitter to avoid detection: translated here Please… Continue reading
Book of the Week: 100 cases of Changeability
Book: “We can change the weather – 100 cases of changeability” Wynants, M. (ed.). Crosstalks, 2010 This fourth ‘Crosstalks’ book (VUB, Belgium) edited by our friend Marleen Wynants describes 100 tangible local initiatives from all over the world that fit into a constructive and holistic movement for social and ecological change. Drawing from a pool… Continue reading
The great currency debate: public fiat money vs. gold-backed money
We often cite and excerpt Ellen Brown, who is, along with Bernard Lietaer and Thomas Greco, amongst our 3 preferred monetary transformation excerpts. To help situate Ellen Brown’s positioning in the larger currency debates, here’s a good explanation of one of the key debating points by Eric Blair. Eric Blair: “There seems to be another… Continue reading
Ralph Nader and Ron Paul: an unusual progressive – libertarian alliance against corporatism ?
Intriguing conversation that shows possible commonalities between usually opposing political forces:
From Lockean to common property: reviving the Swedish Meidner plan
Excerpted from David Harvey: (Source: Radical History Review Issue 109; Winter 2011) 1. Lockean Property “For Locke, individual property is a natural right that arises when individuals create value by mixing their labor with the land: the fruits of their labor belong to them and to them alone. This was the essence of Locke’s version… Continue reading
The role of the teacher in an ecology of open learning
Excerpted from a longer and well-linked article by Stephen Downes, who warns against the current trend of extreme teacher accountability, as it fails to see many other players: ” Though there may still be thousands of people employed today with the job title of “teacher” or “educator”, it is misleading to suggests that all, or… Continue reading
How deregulation killed the bees
Tom Philpott introduces the documentary about the EPA’s failure to rein in the use of clothianidin in Grist magazine: “In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, President Obama made the case that excessive regulation is a key factor holding back the U.S. economy. The president may have been seeking to burnish his bipartisan credentials with… Continue reading
Money is a relation, not a commodity: from private borrowing to public credit
We have emerged from the financial crisis with new clarity: Money today is simply credit. When the credit is advanced by a bank, when the bank is owned by the community, and when the profits return to the community, the result can be a functional, efficient, and sustainable system of finance. Must read explanation excerpted… Continue reading
Real community-based microcredit banks are not the culprits
David Korten has a detailed but very comprehensible explanation of what kind of microfinance has become abusive, and they are not the community banks. He concludes his review, which I recommend you read in full, as follows: “The microcredit experience brings to light a larger principle: the institutional structure of a financial system determines where… Continue reading
Starfish – A User Owned Distributed Network
Raffael Kéménczy (http://kemenczy.at/) is proposing a roadmap towards a distributed net that will populate what has been called by someone else the “last square mile”, with our own wireless links. The network so established between our computers and phones will first of all function to interconnect us locally, stimulating local activity, exchange and interaction. It… Continue reading
David Harvey’s critique of Eleanor Ostrom’s Commons approach
An excerpt from David Harvey (from the Radical History Review Issue 109 Winter 2011) 1. Problem of scale “Ostrom shows that individuals can and often do devise ingenious and eminently sensible ways to manage common property resources (CPR) for individual and collective benefit. These case studies “shatter the convictions of many policy analysts that the… Continue reading
The first Fablab house
Eric Hunting reports: “I saw this in an article on the international Solar Decathlon of student-designed prefab sustainable housing. The Decathlon has been an annual event here among US universities for about a decade and now has gone international. Yes, this is called a Fab Lab House because it’s made in a fab lab, or… Continue reading