The common political conversation about our shared economic future focuses on achieving an escape velocity where the post-war growth boom can return as usual. While years of lackluster economic performance mount, a rapidly growing global economy is still discussed like it is readily just over the horizon. Can the factors creating a slower growth world… Continue reading
Date archives "June 2016"
Essay of the Day: Striking with Social Media
Article: Striking with social media: The contested (online) terrain of workplace conflict. By Martin Upchurch and Rickard Grassman Organization, 08/2015 From the abstract: “In this article, we review the workplace battleground and explore the potential of social media for mobilizing social movements in labour conflicts and beyond. By conducting a case study with empirical accounts… Continue reading
Erik Olin Wright on models for a Post-Capitalist Unconditional Basic Income
“The distinguished sociologist explains why a basic income would not be a “disincentive” to work (unlike means-tested anti-poverty programs), argues that basic income does not “subsidize low wages” in a morally problematic way, discusses the potential impact of basic income on unions and progressive politics.” Podcast via Against the Grain. Why is this podcast important?… Continue reading
The Emergence of Commons and Guilds as a Silent Revolution
Before knowing the historical work of Tine De Moor, the Belgian commons historian who studied the emergence of commons and guilds in the ‘high middle ages’ in the Low Countries (Holland and Belgium), I had assumed the commons were a permanent fixture of social life. And in a way they indeed are but they also… Continue reading
Early P2P File-sharing and Open Source Practices in 80s Yugoslavia
“Many of these users became its programmers and participated in an early version of file sharing. During the mid-1980s, Belgrade radio show Ventilator 202 broadcast computer software live so that listeners could record games and electronic journals onto cassette tapes. Some of this software was programmed and submitted by listeners themselves, reflecting an early open… Continue reading
Making Sense of the Emerging Economy with Yochai Benkler
The schematic (R) and reality (L) of an open source hardware device called the Keyquencer In my 20s I had the impression that my reality was fundamentally illegible to the academics of the past. Making a living from open source hardware meant I was participating in an international network of people who freely shared their… Continue reading
Why the P2P and Commons Movement Must Act Trans-Locally and Trans-Nationally
Michel Bauwens (Madison, Wisconsin), June 12, 2016: Part One – Analyzing the global situation One of the best books I have read in the last ten years is undoubtedly, The Structure of World History, by Kojin Karatani. Karatani focuses on world history as an evolution of ‘modes of exchange’, i.e. how humans produce, but most… Continue reading
Project Of The Day: Technologia Incognita
During my graduate studies, I spoke with an anthropology professor, who explained his paradigm of cultures. In her view there are expending societies, maintaining societies, and creating societies. While it is difficult to categorize an entire society in a single term, humans evolved into modernity by developing social ideals. Hacker communities are no different. From the… Continue reading
The Gender Wage Gap Part Three: Emotional Labor and Other Conundrums
Part Three in my video series on the wage gap aims to open a creative conversation about the future of work, money and gender. I start by discussing some of the current feminist arguments advocating that women be paid for their emotional labor as a way of closing the wage gap, and I share why… Continue reading
No recognition of ‘One Humanity’ at the World Humanitarian Forum
In light of the overwhelming moral imperative to share planetary resources more equitably and protect the lives of those facing humanitarian emergencies, the World Humanitarian Summit is yet another reminder of the huge gulf between government priorities and the desperate reality of the world situation. “For how much longer do we want to witness the… Continue reading
Benjamin Tincq on constructing a Sustainability Commons movement
A growing movement that combines open source design with sustainability is creating an exciting alternative to profit-driven, proprietary sustainability products. As we face urgent issues like climate change, the ability of open source communities to quickly and inexpensively create solutions makes increasing sense. One project that clearly recognizes this big opportunity for impact is POC21,… Continue reading
Fully Automated Luxury Communism
“There is a tendency in capitalism to automate labor, to turn things previously done by humans into automated functions. In recognition of that, then the only utopian demand can be for the full automation of everything and common ownership of that which is automated.” This podcast, featuring a conversation between Aaron Bastani and Kirsty Styleslwas forwarded to… Continue reading
Diversity and Plurarchy as the essence of distributed networks
Diversity always was an important subject for las Indias. We were born a community of conversation. And for a long time, we had in common an (online) conversation, not an economy. While our conversation and its results took place on the Internet, everything was easy. If we published an online book and there were two… Continue reading
Recycling plastics everywhere with cheap open source machinery
This is a promo video of the Precious Plastic project, which provides both the open source designs and the instruction manuals for the free sharing of cheap DIY machinery to recycle plastics everywhere. It’s a good example of what distributed manufacturing model of ‘cosmo-localism‘ can do. From the shownotes to the video: We developed DIY… Continue reading
The Commons as Property
Michel Bauwens: Should commons be non-property ? There is a strong tendency in contemporary thought, to be anti-property and to define Commons as being non-property. For example, in this otherwise excellent keynote of Yochai Benkler at the Ouishare conference of 2016 ([1]), listen to the first ten minutes, it would seem he counterposes the commons… Continue reading
Land Use and Energy Use Taxation and Dividend
A commons-oriented taxation proposal by Chris Cook. You can download the original PDF here. “The rationale for these Proposals is the principle that those who benefit from privileged property rights over commons should share the benefits of such rights with the society which confers them. The same rationale applies to the taxation of business and… Continue reading