Date archives "June 2014"

Biourbanism: Rethinking the Science of Space

by Anna Bergren Miller, originally published by Shareable Biourbanist Marco Casagrande helped reshape Treasure Hill, near Taipei, into a sustainable urban community. (David Chu / Flickr) The International Society of Biourbanism (ISB) is an international network of scholars and design professionals dedicated to transforming architecture and planning practice through the application of scientific theory. The ISB’s annual summer school will take place… Continue reading

Green Governance 6: Advancing a New Legal Architecture to Support the Ecological Commons

This is the last in a series of six essays by Professor Burns Weston and me, derived from our book Green Governance:  Ecological Survival, Human Rights and the Law of the Commons, published by Cambridge University Press. The essays originally appeared onCSRWire. I am re-posting them here to introduce the paperback edition, which was recently released. This extract was… Continue reading

There is such a thing as a free lunch: Montreal Students Commoning and Peering food services

The following article is republished here with special thanks to the author Katarzyna Gajewska. She is the author of the book: Transnational Labour Solidarity: Mechanisms of Commitment to Cooperation within the European Trade Union Movement (Routledge, 2009, 2013). You can support her independent research through her crowdsourcing campaign: http://goteo.org/project/basic-income-and-peer-production . At three Montreal’s universities, collectives… Continue reading

FLOK Society: Pro-commons in Ecuador (a conversation with Michel Bauwens)

This article was written by Pilar Sáenz and Maria Juliana Soto. In collaboration with Carolina Botero of the Karisma Foundation – http://www.digitalrightslac.net/en/flok-society-procomun-en-ecuador-una-conversacion-con-michel-bauwens/ Last April, we received in Colombia the visit of Michel Bauwens, P2P Foundation founder and Research Director of the Ecuadorian FLOK Society project. Bauwens conducted a series of workshops and conferences in Medellin and Bogota, and in… Continue reading

Green Governance 5: The Commons as a Growing Global Movement

This is the fifth of a series of six essays by Professor Burns Weston and me, derived from our book Green Governance:  Ecological Survival, Human Rights and the Law of the Commons, published by Cambridge University Press. The essays originally appeared on CSRWire. I am re-posting them here to introduce the paperback edition, which was recently released. This extract… Continue reading

Neuroergonomics, Urban Design, Sociogenesis by Stefano Serafini

“What if, instead of breaking them, the design of cities could naturally feed social ties? There must be a way for urban planners to make cities more human-centred and livable, by focusing on how the built environment affects sociality.” ABSTRACT The International Society of Biourbanism (ISB) is organizing a Summer school in neuroergonomics and sociogenesis,… Continue reading

Putting the “Sharing” Back into the Sharing Economy

Adam W. Parsons of www.sharing.org, writing for dissidentvoice.org, provides a clear explanation of the encroaching enclosure of the commons and tendency for existing social relationships to become monetized, ironically under the monicker of the ‘sharing economy’, and suggests ways in which true P2P sharing matrices can be strengthened.   Far from promoting communitarian values, providing… Continue reading

Social Change through Re-Learned Powerfulness

Excerpted from Cathy Fitzgerald: “One of the things that make happy, however, is self-efficacy. Doing things, creating things, and thus contributing to a feeling of self-determination in one’s life. Having the feeling that there is some control, a certain power. And if ecology (and evolution) teaches us one thing, it’s that we don’t need silver-bullet… Continue reading

Wirearchy 5: Hacking As Purposeful Organizational Change

Welcome to the fifth and final essay in our series exploring Wirearchy, “The power and effectiveness of people working together through connection and collaboration…taking responsibility individually and collectively rather than relying on traditional hierarchical status.” Today’s chapter is short and sweet: Jon Husband, the creator of Wirearchy, talks about the possibility of scaling up grassroots and collaborative organization…. Continue reading

Essay of the Day: From the Monetary to the Financial Production Economy

Excerpted from Andrea Fumagalli: “With the advent of the capitalist system of production, money becomes an expression of capital and its social relationship of exploitation with labour. With the transition from the Taylorist – Fordist capitalism to the cognitive and financialised bio-capitalism, the main function of money has changed. The credit function, typical of a… Continue reading

Green Governance 4: The Commons as a Model for Ecological Governance

This is the fourth of a series of six essays by Professor Burns Weston and me, derived from our book Green Governance:  Ecological Survival, Human Rights and the Law of the Commons, published by Cambridge University Press. The essays originally appeared on CSRWire. I am re-posting them here to introduce the paperback edition, which was recently released. This extract was… Continue reading

Rethinking Labour as a Network-Movement

Valuable and concrete reflections are being published, filling public understanding of the nature and dynamics of the most-recent social and emancipatory uprisings, known also as Global Revolution. The recent articles by Bernardo Gutiérrez and Rodrigo Nunes, both of whom involved in the 15M, Occupy, Gezi, and Brazilian uprisings and systematically put their self-reflections together in a framework of a collaborative action-research network, also… Continue reading