Excerpted from Tom Standage: “Like coffee itself, coffeehouses were an import from the Arab world. England’s first coffeehouse opened in Oxford in the early 1650s, and hundreds of similar establishments sprang up in London and other cities in the following years. People went to coffeehouses not just to drink coffee, but to read and discuss… Continue reading
Date archives "June 2013"
Public Education as a Commons
Public education should not be over-centralized, argues John Michael Greer, in the context of the USA: “There are a few—a very few—things that can usefully be done for education at the national level. One of them is to make sure that the child in Lincoln is not denied equal access to education because of her… Continue reading
Brazil: from a consumer inclusion model to a citizen inclusion model
We salute the protests, because the streets are the cradle of democracy. In History, the streets are the place where struggles are born and end up not only reaching the epicenter of political power, but also alternating the arenas and political agendas, forcing everyone of us to revisit our practices and proposals. On democratic regimes,… Continue reading
A social-democratic(ish) response to Kevin Carson’s anarcho-libertarian P2P-ism
Patrick S. had an interesting reaction to an earlier posting by Kevin Carson: “As usual, Kevin makes some very strong points, but as usual, I feel he also tends to overstate his anarcho-libertarian case in a few places in a way that I feel deserves a (hopefully not over-long) response. I do agree with aspects… Continue reading
An essay for all MBA students: From Profit Maximization to the legitimate pursuit of gain
One cannot simultaneously indulge in the so-called “profit principle” as a principle of profit maximization and take business ethics seriously. A principle represents the first or highest aspect of conduct. By explaining the maximization of a certain value orientation, e.g. profit, into a “principle,” all possible conflicting aspects are subordinated unchecked. Thus it is profit… Continue reading
Sharing is not a Market Failure
Republished from Philippe Aigrain: “An endless stream of law proposals, soft-law initiatives and free-trade agreements keeps trying to eradicate or prevent the non-market sharing of digital works between individuals. New strategies are pushed using incentives and threats so that intermediaries will police the Internet to save the scarcity-based business models of a few from the… Continue reading
Cooperative Transitions for a Resilient Economy (4): Fossil Fuel Free Kristianstad
* Book: The Resilience Imperative. Cooperative Transitions to a Steady-state Economy. by Michael Lewis & Pat Conaty The wonderful and important book by Michael Lewis and Pat Conaty describes the important social innovations that will be an indispensable part of the emerging new economy. It’s one of the best guides and we highly recommend it… Continue reading
Noam Chomsky: We must defend the global commons!
Excerpted from Noam Chomsky’s American University of Beyrouth speech: “I’ve visited Lebanon several times, moments of great hope, and also of despair, tinged with remarkable determination to overcome and to move forward. The first time I visited – if that’s the right word – was exactly 60 years ago, almost to the day. My wife… Continue reading
Project of the Day: CECOSESOLA, the task-based cooperative in Lara, Venezuela
CECOCESOLA = the Central Cooperative for Social Services of Lara: “A cooperative where there are no positions, only tasks to be done”. “The Central Cooperative for Social Services of Lara (CECOSESOLA) is technically a cooperative of cooperatives, but the name is a little deceiving. When the new Cooperative Law was passed in 2001 allowing the… Continue reading
Cooperative Transitions for a Resilient Economy (3): The Co-operative Land Bank
* Book: The Resilience Imperative. Cooperative Transitions to a Steady-state Economy. by Michael Lewis & Pat Conaty The wonderful and important book by Michael Lewis and Pat Conaty describes the important social innovations that will be an indispensable part of the emerging new economy. It’s one of the best guides and we highly recommend it… Continue reading
Dale Carrico on the inevitability of mixed economic and societal models
The ongoing generational churn of the plurality of stakeholders who make up the present world, peer to peer, ensures that the ongoing accomplishment of equity-in-diversity is endlessly renegotiated, re-enacted, re-figured. What tends to be called “capitalism” and “socialism” are historically unrealized, logically unrealizable derangements of either the diversity dimension or of the equity dimension of… Continue reading
Book of the Day: Economic Bicameralism in the Firm
* (French) book: Gouverner le capitalisme? Pour le bicamérisme économique. PUF, 2012 The author, Isabelle Ferreras, explains why this book is important: “Everyone knows that a job means more than a paycheck, particularly in a service-based economy, where workplaces are the locus of constant interpersonal interactions. And yet the predominant theories of the firm, whether… Continue reading
Cooperative Transitions for a Resilient Economy (2): Mutual Home Ownership
* Book: The Resilience Imperative. Cooperative Transitions to a Steady-state Economy. by Michael Lewis & Pat Conaty The wonderful and important book by Michael Lewis and Pat Conaty describes the important social innovations that will be an indispensable part of the emerging new economy. It’s one of the best guides and we highly recommend it… Continue reading
Project of the Day: ARIA’s open source drones for food transport
“ARIA, Autonomous Roadless Intelligent Array, is an open source autonomous logistics infrastructure (Dronenet) that leapfrogs traditional road infrastructure”: 1. ARIA today (June 10) announced a strategic open innovation partnership with Ooooby to augment it’s local food delivery network using autonomous aerial vehicles (commonly known as drones). Under the partnership’s goal, Ooooby, an online farmers market,… Continue reading
Book of the Day: How Diversity Creates Better Groups and Societies
* Book: The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies. By Scott E. Page. Princeton University Press, 2012. The publishers write that: “In this landmark book, Scott Page redefines the way we understand ourselves in relation to one another. The Difference is about how we think in groups–and how… Continue reading
Cooperative Transitions for a Resilient Economy (1): Community Land Trusts
* Book: The Resilience Imperative. Cooperative Transitions to a Steady-state Economy. by Michael Lewis & Pat Conaty The wonderful and important book by Michael Lewis and Pat Conaty describes the important social innovations that will be an indispensable part of the emerging new economy. It’s one of the best guides and we warmly recommend it… Continue reading