This post about Athens-based “Pagaki” collective is the first of a series which is going to document various work collectives in Greece. For this article we asked “Pagaki” (which stands for “bench” in Greek) to provide us with a version of their manifesto/about us in English. Needless to say more, we let people from “Pagaki”… Continue reading
Date archives "August 2012"
Pam Warhurst on Incredible Edible in Todmorden
Recommended talk: “What should a community do with its unused land? Plant food, of course. With energy and humor, Pam Warhurst tells at the TEDSalon the story of how she and a growing team of volunteers came together to turn plots of unused land into communal vegetable gardens, and to change the narrative of food… Continue reading
Ecosphera in Forli: Community-supportive Type B cooperative systems in Italy
Watch this interesting presentation:
A return to a political economy based on distributed property
John Médaille is a U.S.-based ‘distributist’. Distributism is a tradition which originated within Catholic social thought and stresses that the distribution of property between all citizens is a prerequisite for a just and prosperous society, and sharply distinguishes equitable markets from capitalism. This speech was given in Romania, for the Advanced School of Economics, under… Continue reading
The loss of unity and polarisation within the Occupy movement
The following is from a long analysis of what went wrong with the Occupy movement. It traces its dislocation to the loss of the unifying encampments, the subsequent polarisation within the movement, and the rise of confrontational tactics that lacked a connection with mass movement. Excerpted from a long analysis by Jen Roesch: “It would… Continue reading
Hackitat – A film about political hacking, world wide
What compels some people to spend a lot of time and energy on setting up servers, creating programs and even committing crimes to help people in a dictatorship in another country to communicate freely? Who are the people building a nation on the Internet and why are they doing it? How are the hackers in… Continue reading
Ten Citations on peer to peer spirituality
For the sources, go here. Simply I learned about her, and ungrudgingly do I share — her riches I do not hide away – Old Testament, The Book of Wisdom 7,13 I. John Heron on the relational ground of human consciousness. “I prefer to think of the spiritual development of human culture as rooted in… Continue reading
Why is the UN Trying to Take over the Internet?
In an article published by Forbes Magazine, Larry Downes rightly denounces efforts by the International Telecommunications Union to gain control over the Internet. The main bone of contention seems to be a proposal to make senders pay a fee to receiving countries – for content the users in those countries request. Since most Internet content… Continue reading
The extraordinary militarized New Zealand police raid against the Kim Dotcom filesharing company
Evidence of extraordinary ‘over the top’ military tactics during the illegal raid in New Zealand: Via: “Kim Dotcom, the founder of file sharing site Megaupload, was arrested in January by the New Zealand Police in response to US charges of criminal copyright infringement. Since then he has been the topic of enormous controversy and still… Continue reading
Interspecies communication (2): Where does life start?
The academy is now being infiltrated by non-indigenous voices articulating the idea that life/not life is too binary and restrictive. This indicates greater scope at this moment in history for bringing indigenous voices to the conversational table. What is different between indigenous and Western standpoints? Kim TallBear, a cultural anthropologist of Dakota background, continues our… Continue reading
From downloadable chemistry to desktop chemical processing plants
Abhijit Anand Prabhudan writes that: “Modern chemical processing plants take multi million dollar investments. 3d printing is not just for creating solid objects, this innovation points to new direction. Think about this such 3d printers can be refined and developed to produce not just pharma but most essential chemical formulations needed by individuals and households… Continue reading
Commoning in a post-socialist ‘Eastern European’ context: The forest commons as political issue in Bulgaria
Excerpted from MARIYA IVANCHEVA: First, on the general context of the commons revival in Western Europe: “The concept of “the commons” – here defined as goods and services that are managed by and serve the interest of the community that produces them – has suddenly attracted the attention of European left-wing movements. Various theorists and… Continue reading
Every Human is an Interspecies Community! On Hypersex, Frenemies and Symbiogenetics
Excerpted from Dorion Sagan: “Life deals in … mixed cultures. It has been working with crowds for billions of years. Most of the DNA of the estimated 100 quadrillion cells in our bodies is not “ours,” but belongs to cohabiting bacteria. Ten percent of our dry weight is bacteria, but there are ten of “their”… Continue reading
Debating Abundance vs Sustainability in the Anthropocene
Joshua Yates that our entry into the Anthropocene, where the course of nature is determined by human activity, may force us to abandon dreams of material abundancy that has driven post-Enlightenment history. Joshua J. Yates, excerpted from a much longer essay in Hedgehog Review: “Recently, the language of sustainability has found new impetus in the… Continue reading
Occupy, Anthropology, and the 2011 Global Uprisings
Source: InterOccupy.net Cultural Anthropology has just launched its sixth Hot Spot — Occupy, Anthropology, and the 2011 Global Uprisings. The collection is guest edited by Jeffrey S. Juris and Maple Razsa, and includes 20 essays from ethnographers and activists around the world. ***ESSAYS*** Jeffrey S. Juris and Maple Razsa, Introduction: Occupy, Anthropology, and the… Continue reading
The long and inevitable decline of internet advertising
Google has been spending $10 in investor money for every $1 in advertising revenue. Funding for ‘free’ internet infrastructures cannot rely on advertising. Here are some crucial data. Steve Arnold: “TEM: The disturbing decline in Google’s online advertising efficiency. Let’s look at this point because it weaves together a number of soft nudges into a… Continue reading