I recently finished reading our good friend John Restakis book Humanizing the Economy. It has an excellent chapter on social cooperatives in Japan and goes into detail on the spectacular emergence of the Seikatsu Consumer Cooperative movement which has more than 300,000 members. The Seikatsu are an inspiring example of how consumers are organising for… Continue reading
Date archives "July 2014"
A primer on global economic sharing, part 1
“In an increasingly unequal and unsustainable world, governments must urgently move beyond the restrictive political and economic ideologies of the past and embrace solutions that meet the common needs of people in all countries. This primer outlines the extent of the interconnected global crises we face, and points the way towards an alternative approach to managing… Continue reading
Why peer-to-peer payments could be as big as the internet
Duncan McCann of the New Economics Foundation makes a very good parallel between the fledgling internet of the ’90s and the current state of P2P currencies such as Bitcoin, arguing that they could be about to revolutionise commerce in the same way that the internet has transformed communication. Source: http://www.neweconomics.org/blog/entry/why-peer-to-peer-payments-could-be-as-big-as-the-internet Back in early 90’s a… Continue reading
Movement of the Day: the Commune of Europe
Excerpt: “As Interventionistische Linke (D) and coalition of Social Centers (I) we met in the squares and streets throughout Europe, when – happily with many others – we began to discuss and struggle not only in narrow spaces defined by the boundaries of nation-states, but in and towards a real shared transnational perspective. Of course… Continue reading
Towards a money for the common(s): a conference report
Reprinted, almost in full, from Effimera: “Here is the report of the workshop on ““Alternative Money and Financial Institutions of the Commons”. This is the 3rd meeting on the the proposal of a Money of the Common, after London, Amsterdam and Stuttgart. The first organized in Italy by Effimera with the collaboration of Macao. A… Continue reading
Save the Teatro Valle Commons in Rome!
The three-year occupation of Teatro Valle in Rome is now legendary: a spontaneous response to the failures of conventional government in supporting a venerated public theater, and the conversion of the theater into a commons by countless ordinary citizens. Now the mayor of Rome is threatening to end the occupation, evict the commoners and privatize… Continue reading
Commons Libraries Project Report
Congratulations to Common Futures and Common Libraries on their first successful 6 months and the publication of their first report you can download it here or read it embedded below. “Common Futures is a socially conscious business working with the public, private and third sectors to explore and kick at the boundaries of the community ownership… Continue reading
How many peers does it take to change a light bulb?
You may not see Jean Lievens very often in this blog, but rest assured that he’s an integral member of the P2P Foundation. Jean is the co-author (with Michel Bauwens) of “Der Wereld Redden”, a book of conversations between Michel and Jean on how a Global P2P approach could save the world from the convergence of crises… Continue reading
Rebuilding care services: could social co-operatives be the answer?
Pat Conaty writes for The Guardian on how a democratic ownership model could help improve public trust in social care. Source – http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2014/jul/04/social-co-operatives-rebuild-care-services Hardly a month goes by without another scare story about aspects of our health and care services. The prosecutions at Winterbourne View, and the massive collapse and public sector rescue of Southern… Continue reading
Can ‘Radical Transparency’ Encourage Responsible Businesses?
Non-market innovation through the co-production of public services
Republished from James Angel: “Successive governments have pursued an agenda of market competition, outsourcing and privatisation within public services. Their aim? Innovation – the kind that clunky, state run services apparently cannot deliver. For our politicians, the market has become synonymous with better services at lower costs. But is this actually the case? Evidence is… Continue reading
Project of the Day: Coopfunding
The P2P Foundation is a full supporting partner of the Cooperativa Integral Catalana, or CIC. We feel that they’re doing essential work in prototyping pre-figurative models of peer production, governance and property. You can find a lot of information about them, their ethics, and long term plans in their excellent English website, or in our own… Continue reading
Erik Olin Wright on Transforming Capitalism through Real Utopias
Erik Olin Wright from Stuart Platt on Vimeo. Professor Erik Olin Wright. Transforming Capitalism through Real Utopias. The David Frisby Memorial Lecture 2013. Glasgow University. 1st March 2013 Professor Wright is Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin (Madison). He is one of the world’s leading analysts of contemporary class formation, and his work… Continue reading
What is Enspiral? A FAQ
We’ve already talked about the Enspiral network as a living example of Open Cooperativism. By that we mean, P2P/Commons-oriented ethical enterprises configured to build a real collaborative economy where all stakeholders, and the environment they inhabit, are taken care of. To find out more, it’s worth reading their FAQ. Here’s what Enspiral’s Alanna Krause has to say… Continue reading
Goteo: Cloudfunding the Commons
Here’s a short article written by Jeffrey “Bezdomby” Andreoni, originally published by our friends at Shareable. It provides a brief overview of Goteo, our go-to P2P Commons-oriented crowdfunding platform. Please read and share! Ever wanted to contribute to a crowdfunding campaign but didn’t have money to spare? Goteo, a now mature crowdfunding website for social and open source… Continue reading
The Great Promise of Social Co-operatives
The austerity agenda is often presented as inevitable, which is really just a way for corporatists and conservatives to dismiss any discussion or debate. “There are no alternatives!” they thunder. But as Co-operatives UK demonstrates in a brilliant new report, there are a growing array of highly practical alternatives that are both financially feasible and socially effective. They are… Continue reading