This post was originally published in The Nation Candidate Donald Trump made a campaign stop in February 2016 hosted by South Carolina’s Broad River Electric Cooperative. After taking the auditorium stage, observing that “it’s a lot of people,” and joining the audience in a chant of his surname, Trump began by asking, “Do we love… Continue reading
Dear Birdies, The tweet-powered t-shirt vending machine in the room at Twitter’s shareholder meeting didn’t work at first. A Twitter employee attending to the machine walked me through the three hashtags required to get the shirt, but the machine wasn’t recognizing my tweeting. So, after 10 minutes of small talk with the employee about our… Continue reading
Most readers of this blog don’t need an introduction the commons, but there are always newcomers for whom a short overview would be useful. The Transnational Institute and the P2P Foundation have done just that with an attractive new publication “Commons Transition and P2P: A Primer.” The beautifully designed fifty-page booklet does not dumb down the topic; it simply makes… Continue reading
The following excerpt is from a post originally published on thenextsystem.org. To read the complete paper, download the PDF here. Overview The country of one’s dreams must be a country one can imagine being constructed, over the course of time, by human hands.” -Richard Rorty Among capitalism’s many critics, it is standard procedure to state… Continue reading
An interview with Michel Bauwens, conducted by Vasilis Niaros. Vasilis Niaros: Can you give us a short background of the project? Michel Bauwens: Ghent is a mid-sized city of about 300,000 inhabitants, with a huge student population, and a prestigious history. It was once the biggest city in northwestern Europe (12th-13th century). It has had… Continue reading
This campaign aims to collect money in order to cover travel and accommodation expenses for members of Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) groups that are going to participate in the UniverSSE 2017 Congress, and also some of its administration costs. Click here to support the campaign General Information UniverSSE 2017 is the 4th European Congress… Continue reading
The Transnational Institute for Social Ecology, an Athens-based group with a commitment to democratic and ecological cities, recently published an interview with me, conducted by Antonis Brumas and Yavor Tarinski. Among the topics discussed: the compatibility of commons and markets; the potential of urban commons; the links between commons and ecology; and my sense of… Continue reading
No more poverty, no more hunger. Protect the forests and oceans, clean renewable energy for all. World peace. This isn’t a John Lennon song, it’s UN policy. All these and much much more make up the Sustainable Development Goals – the globally agreed wish list for saving the world and building a better future. If… Continue reading
12th Global to Local Webinar Recording with Alnoor Ladha & Helena Norberg-Hodge, April 19th, 2017 Originally published on localfutures.org. Chat transcript available for download as PDF here. A 500-year-old economic and political system is dying. ‘Trump trauma’ is affecting people around the world, but the current climate (in every sense of the word) is not the… Continue reading
This post by Anna Coote was originally published on the New Economics Foundation. The paper may be downloaded in PDF form. The New Economics Foundation works to build a new economy where people can really take control. To move towards that goal, we have to think about two things: the process of gaining control, and… Continue reading
This post by webrussels, residents of Brussels on their way to restore hope, reinforce equality and empower citizens, was originally published on Medium.com In ten years, old political systems will be gone. All around Europe we are seeing a wave of change of communities and citizens coming together to take power back from politicians. Citizens… Continue reading
Cross-posted from Platform.coop. Save the Date November 10-11, 2017 The New School Experiments with cooperatively owned online platforms are demonstrating that democratic business models can be a dynamic force in building a more equitable economy for people across various income, race and class strata, starting with the most vulnerable populations. The platform co-op movement disrupts… Continue reading
Opening: Friday, 26 May 2017, 17:00-20:00 hrs Exhibition: until 16 July 2017 Introduction “. The title heralds our new modus operandi, presented initially in the form of an exhibition that opens on 26 May 2017. With this change we aim to act on our political-aesthetical intentions and face their urgencies with “working for the commons”… Continue reading
The Commons, as an idea and practice, has emerged as a new social, political and economic dynamic. Along with the market and the state, the Commons is a mode of societal organization. Commons are a shared resource which is co-governed by its user community, according to the rules and norms of that community. Commons include… Continue reading
This post originally appeared in On The Commons. An excerpt from the recent book SOS: Alternatives to Capitalism (New Internationalist Publications). Finding ways to democratically control our common wealth, from Quebec to India Richard Swift: The commons is not just a battlefield between corporate predators and those who resist them – it is also a source of… Continue reading
Another contribution from Jordan Greenhall. This post originally appeared on Medium. Jordan Greenhall: There have been a lot of conversations about Bitcoin over the years. Is it a currency or an equity or a commodity? Is it a store of value? Is it a “settlement mechanism”? Is it not money at all, but merely an… Continue reading