Date archives "June 2012"

Designing an Economy of Provision

Article: Marvin Brown. Designing the Future Economy. Catalyst. Business Models, Design Management, Economy, ISSUE 10: CIVILIZING THE ECONOMY. Marvin Brown: ‘Can we design an economy that provides for everyone? In contrast to the current economic design that is limited to recording exchanges among property owners and therefore excludes the misery of people and the degradation… Continue reading

Book of the Day: Divine Right of Capital

The Divine Right of Capital: Dethroning the Corporate Aristocracy. Berrett-Koehler, 2001. Wealth inequality, corporate welfare, and industrial pollution are symptoms-the fevers and chills of the economy. The underlying illness, says Business Ethics magazine founder Marjorie Kelly, is shareholder primacy: the corporate drive to make profits for shareholders, no matter who pays the cost. In The… Continue reading

Five Ways Government Can Help Collaborative Consumption

Melissa O’Young: “There is now enough evidence to show that collaborative consumption can be good for the economy – it provides many environmental, economic and social benefits to society. Below is a list of five things governments can do to help facilitate the movement (moving from the scale of easy-to-implement interventions to interventions that require… Continue reading

We must avoid a new wrong turn of cooperativism: the strategic danger of collaborative ‘consumption’

Natalia Fernandez of Lasindias.net argues: By severing cooperativism from its communal origins and and focusing on consumption, British cooperativism and the ICA caused lasting damage to the transformative capacity of cooperativism, which we should not repeat today in the debate between the economy of the commons and collaborative consumption. She explains why (please note the… Continue reading

Open platform for peer-driven food production needs your help

Source: BoingBoing Please note now there are only 2 days left!   Devin sez, We need the crowd’s help to fund development (or just to find awesome pro-bono developers) of a platform that facilitates peer production driven local food systems. Think Craigslist meets Etsy with the ethos and practices of couchsurfing all about homemade, home… Continue reading

Book of the Day: Promise and Perils of Highly Interconnected Systems

Book: Interop: The Promise and Perils of Highly Interconnected Systems. Byh John Palfrey and Urs Gasser. Basic Books, 2012 In Interop, technology experts John Palfrey and Urs Gasser explore the immense importance of interoperability — the standardization and integration of technology — and show how this simple principle will hold the key to our success… Continue reading

Book of the Day: Promise of Regional Currencies

Book: People Money – the Promise of Regional Currencies. By Margrit Kennedy and Bernard Lietaer with John Rogers. Triarchy Press, 2012 ‘People Money’ is the first English edition of Margrit Kennedy’s and Bernard Lietaer’s 2004 German book ‘Regionalwährungen'(also published in French and Spanish). The Introduction by John Rogers: “The global financial crisis that began in… Continue reading

Labour and The Commons at Rio

Asbjørn Wahl comments on an important resolution adopted in Rio. In the resolution it is referred to ‘the Commons’ several times. What makes this remarkable is that the resolution is adopted by the Trade Union Assembly organised by International Trade Union Cpnfederation ITUC and Trade Union Confederation of the Americas. Wahl advises to the Norwegian… Continue reading

Project of the Day: Open E Land (Open Everything Land)

Open E Land is part of a worldwide movement working to transition to a sustainable, just, resilient social-economic model. Our name reflects our beliefs: Knowledge should be shared openly and not encumbered by patents or trade secrets. Our economic, environmental, and energy problems are all linked and cannot be solved in isolation. We need to… Continue reading