With every day that we hold the square, we chip away at our fear, at our confusion, at our alienation. We improvise new ways of living, new relations, new forms of solidarity. We create. We meet each other. We share food, sleeping space, music and drink. We fight the cops together. We talk about what… Continue reading
Date archives "October 2011"
Moving towards a peaceful ‘war of manoeuvre’ in a global class warfare
22 September 2011 — The New Significance – Source: Social Network Unionism As P2P Foundation has also been closely following and reporting on it, P2P Global Revolutions has already been taking a momentum globally, since the historical event of Tahrir Square. The time table can also be read as the crystallisation of a P2P revolutionary work which can… Continue reading
Boaventura de Sousa Santos at the WSF (2): Sociology of Emergences
Excerpted from the article: * The WSF : Challenging Empires. http://p2pfoundation.net/World_Social_Forum”>Toward a Counter-hegemonic Globalisation Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Boaventura de Sousa Santos, on how this new type of ‘egalitarian’ sociology is practiced in the context of the World Social Forum: “Whereas the goal of the sociology of absences is to identify and valorise social experiences available… Continue reading
The commons and the growth issue
Excerpted from Silke Helfrich: ” * Commons reduce money-induced growth because they make us more independent of money. The more we produce commons, the less we or the state has to pay for goods. * Commons reduce population-induced growth because they are associated with a multiplicity of sufficiency strategies which create prosperity by sharing. *… Continue reading
Who should be involved in whole system conversations
Republished from Tom Atlee: “Consciously convened conversations have many functions. Many seek simply to get people talking with each other. Others try to bring together what they call “the whole system” to address that system’s collective issues or dreams. Who is involved in these “whole system” conversations? A “whole system”, in this case, involves all… Continue reading
David Graeber: Why are people occupying Wall Street?
Republished from David Graeber: “Why are people occupying Wall Street? Why has the occupation – despite the latest police crackdown – sent out sparks across America, within days, inspiring hundreds of people to send pizzas, money, equipment and, now, to start their own movements called OccupyChicago, OccupyFlorida, in OccupyDenver or OccupyLA? There are obvious reasons…. Continue reading
Boaventura de Sousa Santos at the WSF (1): Sociology of Absences
Excerpted from the article: * The WSF : Challenging Empires. http://p2pfoundation.net/World_Social_Forum”>Toward a Counter-hegemonic Globalisation Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Boaventura de Sousa Santos: “The sociology of absences consists of an inquiry that aims to explain that what does not exist is, in fact, actively produced as non-existent, that is, as a non-credible alternative to what exists…. Continue reading
Stowe Boyd on Hacking the Food System: Social Food- Taking Food Back From Corporations
From Hacking the Food System I believe that we will start to see a new factor: social food cooperatives. Social tools will lead to an alternative food system to the extent that people choose to spend more time involved in the production and distribution of food. This does not mean that everyone will become a… Continue reading
The Digital Scholar: How Technology Is Transforming Scholarly Practice
Presenting the book “The Digital Scholar: How Technology Is Transforming Scholarly Practice” by Martin Weller While industries such as music, newspapers, film and publishing have seen radical changes in their business models and practices as a direct result of new technologies, higher education has so far resisted the wholesale changes we have seen elsewhere. However,… Continue reading
The New York City “General Assembly” at #OccupyWallStreet: what’s the process
Reportage on decision-making at Liberty Plaza: Read this commentary on the significance of the Wall Street occupation by Pablo Ouziel at Truthout: “Wall Street is now occupied, and global indignation against plutocratic rule has reached its climax: it has come face to face with its source. Where things will go from here, nobody can predict…. Continue reading
Universities: Past & Future — 14-16 October 2011
From The University Project: Universities: Past & Future — 14-16 October 2011 An unconference weekend hosted by The University Project HUB WESTMINSTER, 80 HAYMARKET, LONDON SW1Y 4TE Could the spirit of enquiry and the community of learning which make up the idea of the university find a more hospitable home outside our current institutions? You are… Continue reading
The U.S. military and their command of the commons
Republished from On The Commons, an article by David Morris, the original contains a lot of interesting links! David Morris: “A few days ago I received notice of a New America Foundation (NAF) hosted conference in Washington, D.C. called “Beyond Primacy: Rethinking American Grand Strategy and the Command of the Commons.” At the conference NAF… Continue reading
Debtors’ of The World Unite! The Initiative to form an International Debtors’ Party
Via Dmytri Kleiner: Debtors’ of The World Unite! The Initiative to form an International Debtors’ Party. Congratulations to the Pirate Party having won an astounding 8.9% in the Berlin elections. As I wrote two weeks ago, this is their moment of relevance, the emergence of Information politics as a mainstream political topic. Having 15 Piratenpartei… Continue reading
Open Science – Making It Work
Mun Keat, who runs the blog over at the Wellcome Trust amongst other things, has a really interesting write up on the issue of Open Science from the recent Science Online London event (also posted here): In the conference’s opening keynote, physicist Michael Nielsen spoke about ‘open science’ – conducting research in a manner that makes ideas,… Continue reading
Policies to Promote Public Knowledge Goods and Knowledge Commons
Article: AN INTEROPERABILITY PRINCIPLE FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND GOVERNANCE: THE ROLE OF EMERGING INSTITUTIONS. By John Wilbanks and Carolina Rossini. This study examines the relationships among funders, research institutions, and the “units” of knowledge creation and local knowledge governance, which are hosted inside research institutions. Our goal is to uncover the knowledge spaces where commons-based… Continue reading
The spiritual underpinnings of the Mondragon project
“Alongside profit-oriented private enterprise and the various types of public enterprise, there must be room for commercial entities based on mutualist principles and pursuing social ends to take root and express themselves. It is from their reciprocal encounter in the marketplace that one may expect hybrid forms of commercial behaviour to emerge, and hence an… Continue reading