Date archives "August 2015"

Book of the Day: Decontaminating the Economy Through a Monetary Revolution

* Book (in french only): Decontaminate the economy – A monetary revolution, by Michel Laloux French title: Depollue l’economie [1] This book comes highly recommended by Raymond Aitken, who is translating the book and produced the synopsis below, and the author seems to be close to p2p theory in that he places civil society at… Continue reading

Special Issue of ALAI: Towards a People’s Internet

Latin America in Movement online is a monthly magazine that reviews regional issues, analyses social problems and engages in contemporary debates. It is an essential source of information for opinion leaders, social leaders , political activists , journalists and media , research centers , training schools , civil servants , development agencies and solidarity movements , among… Continue reading

What does Equipotentiality bring to the table in terms of Human Equality ?

Michel Bauwens, Chiang Mai, August 16, 2015: Commons-based peer production is a new way of value creation and distribution that was first defined by Yochai Benkler in The Wealth of Networks. In peer production, open and transparent technological platforms and technological infrastructures allow individuals to permissionlessly communicate, self-organize, and thus, to create value together. The… Continue reading

Learning To Be the System That We Wish to See in the World (Spanda Journal)

Article: Alexander Laszlo, Living Systems, Seeing Systems, Being Systems: Learning To Be the System That We Wish to See in the World | Spanda Journal, special issue on Systemic Chage, Pages 163-17 The special issue of Spanda Journal on Systemic Change has a very good article that offers a framework to understand technological change. This… Continue reading

Report: The Crisis of the Pastoral Commons

* Report: Crisis of Commons. Action Aid. Received from Sandeep Chachra, Executive Director. ActionAid India and Managing Editor, Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy (SAGE). From the abstract: “Pastoral system and pastoralism as a way of life and viable economic system find little space in development discourse. The issues relating to pastoral communities and their… Continue reading

Resource Cooperation through Transborder Communities: should we move to bioregionalism ?

“It’s time to consider that bioregional self-sufficiency—the principle of meeting human needs within the constraints of resource areas—is really what leads to democracy and prosperity.” Excerpted from James Quilligan: “For more than two centuries, laissez-faire economics has promoted the idea that free trade leads to democracy and prosperity. This concept may have had some significance… Continue reading

Essay of the Day: Transforming the Productive Base of the Economy Through Distributed Manufacturing

* Article: Transforming the Productive Base of the Economy Through the Open Design Commons and Distributed Manufacturing. By George Dafermos. Journal of Peer Production, 2015 From a special issue of the JPP journal, dedicated to the FLOK Society Project proposals, which are now continued by the Commons Transition Project. Summary: “This policy document examines the… Continue reading

Research: New Economic Cultures in Spain and Greece

* M.A. Thesis: The Transformative Effects of Crisis: A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the New Economic Cultures in Spain and Greece. Janosch Sbeih. Schumacher College, 2014 Here is a summary from the abstract, followed by two excerpts: “By adopting an action research methodology, I inquire into how far the responses of citizens to the global economic… Continue reading

Movement of the Day: the Center for Planetary Culture

“The Center for Planetary Culture is a new organization that uses the familiar structure of a think tank to explore cutting-edge ideas and practices. As part of our work, we consult, experiment, innovate, propose, propound and pontificate. We also incubate new media and technology projects. Our admittedly ambitious mission is to help humanity evolve to… Continue reading

Systemic crises require systemic answers: what will the Next System be like ?

“We are at a moment in history where we are facing what can only be called systemic difficulties. Ultimately that means we are going to have to develop a way to transform the system. That’s the challenge. It’s important to clarify that neither of the old models—traditional corporate capitalism in America and state socialism––neither of… Continue reading

Paul Mason on the rational case for panic, and the emerging post-capitalist alternative

A video presentation in the Guardian, related to the key message of his new book on Post-Capitalism: “The neoliberalist capitalist model has resulted in civil wars and economic disaster, and it’s only going to get worse. Unless, Paul Mason argues, we take advantage of the technological revolution we are living through and create a postcapitalist… Continue reading