Date archives "August 2015"

A review of Paul Mason’s PostCapitalism: what about the precariat ?

Excerpted from NIKI SETH-SMITH: “This gets to the heart of my objection to Mason’s book. His economic analysis is sound. His projections for the future, were the world not to undergo a radical system change, are disturbingly plausible. My query is with his new political subject. In other words: who is our Furiosa? Let’s look… Continue reading

We need to take our data back !

“Our overall behaviour online suggests that, collectively, the network supports and encourages a digitally socialist viewpoint: sharing, collective ownership and control of the means of production, and so on. But counter-intuitively, our desire to have lots of free stuff has created powerful data landowners and landlords, to whom we are quite happy to cede power… Continue reading

“Don’t Owe. Won’t Pay.” Everything You’ve Been Told About Debt Is Wrong

By Charles Eisenstein for Yes Magazine The legitimacy of a given social order rests on the legitimacy of its debts. Even in ancient times this was so. In traditional cultures, debt in a broad sense—gifts to be reciprocated, memories of help rendered, obligations not yet fulfilled—was a glue that held society together. Everybody at one… Continue reading

Book of the Day: The Utopia of Rules

* Book: The Utopia of Rules. David Graeber. 2015. As usual, a landmark book, this time the authors tackles the history of bureaucracy and the state-corporate nexus. Excerpted from David Graeber: “At least since the 19th century, the idea that a market economy is opposed to and independent of government was used to justify laissez-faire… Continue reading

The role of the ‘on demand economy’ in post-welfare capitalism

If an higher education equivalent of Amazon or Google along the lines sketched above did come into being, it would disrupt the public university still further – only this time by means of an innovative, profit-driven, ‘sharing economy’ business operating according to a post-welfare capitalist model, just as Airbnb is currently disrupting the state regulated… Continue reading

Essay of the Day: Italian Precarious Workers Between Self-Organization and Self-Advocacy

* Essay: “Inspire and conspire”: Italian precarious workers between self-organization and self-advocacy. Annalisa Murgia and Giulia Selmi. Interface: a journal for and about social movements, Volume 4 (2): 181 – 196 (November 2012) From the abstract: “The scenario we see today in the labor market in Italy is composed of a progressive proliferation of non-standard… Continue reading

Extraenvironmentalist – Interview with Michael Lewis and Pat Conaty on The Resilience Imperative

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting with authors Michael Lewis and Pat Conaty on a number of occasions. The depth of the knowledge they share is grounded in inspiring real world economic alternatives making “The Resilience Imperative: Cooperative Transitions to a Steady-State Economy” an essential read. So I was delighted to come across this excellent… Continue reading

Women in P2P: Alison Powell (Part 2)

Alison Powell interviewed by Rachel O’Dwyer (Part 2). See here for Part One. Alison Powell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media & Communications in the London School of Economics. Her research examines the history and future of openness within new media. Alison’s research explores open-source cultures including community wireless networks, free software advocates… Continue reading

Thomas Greco brief report on Sardex Mutual Credit Trade Exchange

In his recent newsletter Thomas Greco reports on his recent trip to Sardinia where he met with business people using the Sardex mutual credit trade exchange. >“I recently spent a few days on the Italian island of Sardinia conferring with the founders and administrators of Sardex (http://www.sardex.net/), a commercial credit clearing exchange that has been… Continue reading

Book of the Day: Communal Luxury

“Kristin Ross argues that a rich legacy of ideas and practices developed during the Commune – the workers’ democracy that ruled Paris for two-and-a-half months in 1871 before being violently suppressed – needs to be recovered for the twenty-first century. *” * Book: Communal Luxury: The Political Imaginary of the Paris Commune, Kristin Ross. Verso,… Continue reading

Tim O’Reilly on explaining the dominance of the new on demand monopolies

Excerpted from Tim O’Reilly: “One way to think about the new generation of on-demand companies, such as Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb, is that they are networked platforms for physical world services, which are bringing fragmented industries into the 21st century in the same way that ecommerce has transformed retail. Let’s start by taking a closer… Continue reading