“Just as we want ‘many centers’ of social entrepreneurship, we need ‘many centers’ of legal activity. These centers won’t build themselves. To erode monopoly power with start-ups in business we need upstarts in law, channeling their ingenuity to building our polycentric system.” The Radical Social Enterpreneurship blog introduces the concept of polycentric law: “Polycentric law… Continue reading
Date archives "January 2013"
Why commercial p2p sharing companies like AirBnB and Uber need to be regulated
The Randian, simplistic free-market thoughtlessness behind the wave of “peer-to-peer” companies, and especially those who are trying to uproot regulations that protect consumers, is far from the wave of the future: it’s hucksterism masquerading as progress, hubris as vision, callous selfishness as community-mindedness, and it’s a disaster waiting to happen. Tom Slee is responding to… Continue reading
Replacing Intellectual Property Rights by Idea Credit Rights
Excerpted from Heather Marsh: “Copyright and patent laws which are structured to ensure fame and profit for those that can afford the fees and are the quickest to file forms have created a society and a history filled with people celebrated for creations they did not originate and filled also with creative people who died… Continue reading
David Rovics’ song for the Commons
A song about the commons:
P2P Democratisation of the State vs. anarcho-capitalist libertarianism
“The simple truth of the matter is that it seems to me all the great libertarian and pragmatic competitive advantages free marketeers endlessly promise us while the rubble pile of neoliberal catastrophe rises higher and higher before the eyes of anybody not lucky enough to roost at its summit are actually most likely to find… Continue reading
The Crisis of Value in a Collaborative Economy
This isn’t really an anti-capitalist phenomenon. It’s more a process of capitalism’s evolution. It’s the consequence of collaborative forces coming into play in an economy that is no longer preoccupied with living hand to mouth. The Financial Times on how one form of capitalism threatens another … Excerpted from Izabella Kaminska: “In many fields, investment… Continue reading
Is the internet revolution inconsequential? (as compared to the 2nd industrial revolution)
A very important read. Completely agree with Kevin Kelly on this one. Kevin Kelly discusses the the thesis of a paper by Robert Gordon, * Is U.S. Economic Growth Over? which claims that internet did not produce a productivity revolution and is inconsequential. Kevin Kelly, after describing an example of Yunnan farmers preferring connectivity to… Continue reading
A sceptical review of Chris Anderson’s Makers
Excerpted from David Rotman: “What kind of future might the maker movement bring us? Anderson envisions it could mean that “Western countries like the United States regain their lost manufacturing might, but rather than with a few big industrial giants, they spawn thousands of smaller firms picking off niche markets.” The problem with this thesis… Continue reading
Trend of the Day: Bossless Companies
Two different sources discuss both Valve and GitHub as examples. Rachel Emma Silverman introduces the topic by referring to the mixed results of the research into the topic: “Recent research on the value of flat organizations has been mixed. One study, by researchers at the University of Iowa and Texas A&M University, found that teams… Continue reading
A proposal for Governance by User Groups
Republished from Heather Marsh: “Governments up till now have been run by hierarchical groups, which act as the final authority on all topics for an entire region for an arbitrarily specified length of time or until they are overthrown by another group. What these authorities govern is a series of systems, controlled by the state… Continue reading
Dale Carrico on the (need for the) democratisation of the state
I appreciate the politeness with which you to entreat me to renounce either my commitment to the democratic state form or my commitment to nonviolent stakeholder politics and change, but I fear I must decline. I am committed to both, and I believe that it is those who find these commitments incompatible who are wrongheaded… Continue reading
Can material production be organized through the p2p mode of production?
A major protest movement has swept the globe in 2011. What if these protest movements put the appropriation of major means of production and their re-organization in a P2P cooperation system on their agenda? Excerpted from Jakob Rigi in the Journal of Peer Production: “Today the social mode of production (P2P) has been extended beyond… Continue reading
Trend of the Day: Manuel Castells on the Rise of New Economic Cultures
Excerpted from an an older interview of Manuel Castells by Paul Mason for BBC 4: “When I mention this alternative economic culture, it’s a combination of two things. “A number of people have been doing this for quite a while already because they don’t agree with the meaninglessness of their lives. Now there is something… Continue reading
Is there an evolution towards an more egalitarian commonwealth?
In 1991, a researcher on communal economics, Allen Butcher, predicted a deep trend towards a more egalitarian commonwealth, and he produced three different graphics. 1. The Economic Evolution towards a more egalitarian commonwealth: The “Ownership/Control Matrix charts the evolution towards more participatory governance and property systems: “Ownership/Control Matrix—a two-dimensional model of political-economic structures, with common… Continue reading
The Political Economy of of Global Sharing
Excerpted from Adam Parsons: “There are many reasons why we should be talking more about sharing today in the field of politics and economics. For a start, examining government policies through the lens of sharing helps us to navigate the often complex debates of rival political parties, and not get lost in political spin or… Continue reading
Community-Based Co-op Economy vs. the “A-Moral Capital Economy”
Dave Pollard explains the difference between the two models: Most people have been brought up to believe that the competitive, grow-or-die, absentee-shareholder-owned, “free”-trade “market” economy is the only one that works, the only alternative to a socialist, government-run economy. This myth is perpetrated in business and other schools, by the media, by accountants and lawyers… Continue reading