Excerpted from Rajesh Makwana: “Bearing in mind the urgent need to implement sharing on a systemic and global basis, a fresh evaluation of the sharing economy from the perspective of social justice and environmental sustainability is presented below. The five general positions that follow do not present a comprehensive critique by any standards, but they… Continue reading
Date archives "June 2014"
Project of the Day: DIWO Co-op
DIWO Co-op is a worker-owned co-op located in Madrid, Spain. Recently, they were featured on the Spanish TV program “La Aventura del Saber“. This program forms part of a larger project, “La Aventura de Aprender“, which analyses the ways in which communities learn from each other and give back to the Commons. The following video will… Continue reading
Establishment elites are no longer in control: the rise of global bottom-up politics
We’re republishing interesting remarks from Immanuel Wallerstein: “The list of countries with enduring and worsening civil strife is growing. A short while ago, the world media were highlighting Syria. Now they are highlighting Ukraine. Will it be Thailand tomorrow? Who knows? The variety of explanations of the strife and the passion with which they are… Continue reading
Eben Moglen: “Snowden and the Future”
The ongoing Snowden revelations about NSA surveillance have all sorts of implications for the rule of law, constitutional democracy, geopolitical alignments, human rights and much else. The disclosures deserve our closest attention for these reasons alone. But what do these revelations have to do with the commons? If we regard the act of commoning as… Continue reading
Wirearchy 3: Knowledge, power, and an historic shift in work and organizational design
Welcome to the third in a series of essays 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.” In today’s essay Jon Husband, the creator of Wirearchy, talks about knowledge, power and the dissonance that is generated. Check back next Friday… Continue reading
Douglas Rushkoff on the space between samples, derivatives and the way out
In this, the final installment of our serialization of Penny Nelson’s Douglas Rushkoff interview for HiLobrow magazine, the conversation turns to the differences between analogue and digital media, the derivative life and how to get out of this whole mess. In case you didn’t catch them, here are the links for part 1 and part 2 of this… Continue reading
The Commune movement is organising in Venezuela
Excerpted from EWAN ROBERTSON: “Communards have been meeting around the country on an independent basis to better organise their movement and present the government with their proposals and requirements for development. In the Andean town of Mesa Bolivar, Mérida state, some 600 communards representing over 50 communes in the region gathered last weekend to discuss… Continue reading
Langdon Winner’s first impressions of FLOK’s “Buen Conocer” Summit
Extracted from Langdon Winner’s blog, here are his first impressions of FLOK’s “Buen Conocer” summit, just two weeks ago. l Session of the Free Libre Open Knowledge summit in Quito I’ve just returned from the best conference I’ve ever attended. It was the “summit’ of the Free Libre Open Knowledge FLOKSociety held in Quito, Ecuador…. Continue reading
Project of the Day: Open State.cc
There was a lot of great stuff at this year’s Ouishare Fest, but Dominic Wind’s presentation on Open State really shook me. In talking with others afterwards, we agreed that it had been amongst the most powerful. While other sharing initiatives mentioned environmental conservation as a “positive element” of the mutualization of resources, there was precious… Continue reading
Alternative Money and Financial Institutions of the Commons: a first laboratory of discussion
This is a workshop to be held in Milan, Italy, on 21 and 22 June 2014. Here is the announcement with an explanation of what will be discussed and a list of the speakers and their talks. Today we witness different attempts to create a process of “exodus” and “subtraction” to the world of financial… Continue reading
Welcome to the SWARM Economy by Joel Dietz
The internet is a massive network of individuals freely sharing information. It has transformed and flattened traditional power structures and governments that attempted to shackle it. It has produced incredible innovations in technology and greater human freedom. At the same time, the financial elite has erected massive walls that have protected it against these changes…. Continue reading
Douglas Rushkoff on debt, outsourcing and suburban isolation
Continuing our serialization of Penny Nelson’s interview with Douglas Rushkoff for HiLobrow magazine, this week the conversation turns to the emotional components of debt, the inherent structures of corporations and why men must be kept busy with the front lawn. We recommend that you read the first part if you haven’t already, to get some context. Please,… Continue reading
Chattanooga gigabit internet enables local economy, shames internet behemoths
Al Jazeera reports about the City of Chattanooga’s super high speed internet that enables all kinds of new economic activity. It was the public local electricity company that laid fiber optic cables to transmit customers’ meter readings and at the same time provide high speed (one gigabit) internet connections to homes and businesses in the… Continue reading
The Communal State project in Venezuela
Excerpted from EWAN ROBERTSON: “The Venezuelan government and commune movement are taking steps to move towards the creation of what is referred to as a “communal state”, which involves community organisations assuming collective control of local production and decision making. Communes in Venezuela are formed out of groups of community councils, which are small neighbourhood… Continue reading
The Consolidation of Indigenous Resistance against Extractivism
Excerpted from Manuela Picq: “Indigenous peoples are contesting extractive projects in various, complementary ways. Collective marches have multiplied as an immediate means of resistance throughout the Americas. In 2012, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador led thousands of people on a 15-day, 400-mile March for Life, Water, and the Dignity of Peoples, demanding a… Continue reading
Book of the Day: “Harvest” A Tragic Tale of Enclosure, Poetically Told
What does enclosure feel like from the inside, as a lived experience, as a community is forced to abandon its “old ways” and adopt the new worldview of Progress and Profit? British author Jim Crace’s novel, Harvest, a finalist for the Man Booker Prize in 2013, provides a beautiful, dark and tragic story of the first… Continue reading