Astrid Lorenzen: The Fab Lab Fabulous St. Pauli, founded in 2011 by an interdisciplinary, tech-savvy group, is located right in the middle of one of Hamburg’s liveliest neighborhoods. It’s one of roughly thirty Fab Labs in German-speaking countries. An open workshop, it offers anyone interested access to the usual wood- and metalworking tools (milling machine, punching… Continue reading
Originally published here on Six Wayfinder. Francesca Bria: Until today digital social innovation (DSI) has been mainly driven by grassroots social movements, hackers, geeks and civil society groups. Huge sums of public money have supported digital innovation in business, as well as in fields ranging from the military to espionage. But there has been very little systematic support… Continue reading
Neal Stephenson. The Diamond Age: or, a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer (1995). In Four Futures Peter Frase poses, as a thought experiment, an “anti-Star Trek”: a world that shares the same technologies as Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s post-scarcity communist society, but in which those technologies of abundance are enclosed with “intellectual property” barriers so that capitalists can continue to… Continue reading
A report authored by Nicola Mullenger that captures what a small gathering of city makers talked about in March in Madrid, adjunct to the Idea Camp that ECF organized. Introduction “This report highlights the conversations that took place during the Innovative City Development meeting, which was held in Madrid in March 2017. The meeting brought together… Continue reading
After exploring some of the exciting initiatives developed by Frome’s radical town council in last week’s episode, this second episode of Upstream’s documentary series investigates the themes of economic inequality, gentrification, and poverty within the town of Frome and also at a national and global level. In the 1970s and 80s, a series of economic… Continue reading
This is a really crucial policy paper, because it shows the inter-relationship between 2 , or even 3 crucial factors in the success of the energy transition in Germany: First of all came the voluntary, politically and ecologically motivated pioneers, who made it politically viable to introduce the second factor, without which it would have… Continue reading
We need a new paradigm, informed by the past, which can address most of the problems that capitalism has been creating, for the benefit of the many and of the environment. Four years ago, Thomas Piketty published his best-seller that tried to provide a working model for capital in the twenty-first century. The reasons why Piketty failed… Continue reading
Neil Thapar: The first part of this blog introduced the most recent iteration of domestic land grabs, by way of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). These investment schemes threaten an equitable and sustainable future for farmland ownership and stewardship by prioritizing profits, commodifying land as a financial asset, and consolidating ownership with absentee-landlords. As the… Continue reading
Guy Standing. The Corruption of Capitalism: Why Rentiers Thrive and Work Does Not Pay (London: Biteback Press, 2016). I looked forward to reading this book based on previous readings of Guy Standing’s work, based on his status as both a labor organizer and a theorist of the precariat’s role in the economy. I wasn’t disappointed. At the… Continue reading