Date archives "February 2018"

Mutual Aid Network: an update

The Mutual Aid Network(s) has always been a great source of inspiration for the P2P Foundation. A living, thriving example of what we term as a meta-economic network, MAN was also recently featured as a case study in our Commons Transition Primer. To see what they have been up in the last year, read this… Continue reading

New poll: 82% of Uber users ready to quit the service

This recent poll – conducted by the New Economics Foundation – shows that 82% of Uber customers would be likely to use an alternative service with better rights for drivers. New Economics Foundation:  Four-fifths of Uber customers would use an ethical alternative – and over half would pay a higher fare to do so App-based companies like Uber… Continue reading

Transition Together: An International Symposium on the need for societal transitions and systems level change

I will be participating as keynote speaker and panelist in a very important and I think rather unique symposium whereby various movements will think about converging their strategies. Thursday, 21 June, 2018 – 18:00 to Saturday, 23 June, 2018 – 13:00 The 4th International Transition Design Symposium 6.00pm Thursday 21st June – 1:00pm, Saturday 23rd June 2018… Continue reading

Seeds: commons or corporate property?

This is one of the most dynamic and illuminating films (39 min.) I have seen for quite a while. It follows the lives and struggles to save seeds – families, small farmers, communities, nations. It brilliantly facilitates deepening our understanding on several fronts – the predatory core and corruption of global capitalism in the seed… Continue reading

Hack the Cape: crisis or opportunity?

By James Gien Wong and Jose Ramos  The city of Cape Town is confronting an unprecedented water crisis. Because of a complex number of factors, including a prolonged drought, the city is facing a complete shutdown of its municipal water distribution. The city has already established a “Day Zero”, the day when all taps will… Continue reading

Help Support the Urban Commons Cookbook!

Who doesn’t want an Urban Commons cookbook? Help support this project by pitching to their Kickstarter page. The following was written by Mary Dellenbaugh-Losse, founding member of the Urban Research Group and co-editor of the Urban Commons Cookbook. Mary Dellenbaugh-Losse: Dear friends of the urban commons, As some of you already know, a few members… Continue reading

Universal basic services could work better than basic income to combat ‘rise of the robots’

Continuing the conversation on Basic Income, which has been widely covered in this blog, we now turn to something more akin to Dmytri Kleiner’s concept of Basic Outcome, where essential services (and rights) are provided outside of the market sphere. It would, however, be wise to combine Universal Basic Services described by ULC/IGP with our proposals for… Continue reading

Michel Bauwens: Talking Solutions for a Post-Capitalist Future

Our colleague, P2P Foundation founder Michel Bauwens was recently interviewed in Chiang Mai, his city of residence, by Pim Kemasingki. This article was originally published in City life Chiang Mai. Pim Kemasingki: The past couple of years have been rather unsettling for many of us who look out at a world we hardly recognise and certainly… Continue reading

What is Holochain and why does it matter?

In this video, Holo/Holochain co-founders Eric Harris-Braun and Arthur Brock and ICO Project Lead Jean Russell explain what Holo and Holochain are and why it matters. Additionally Jamie Klinger explains the finer dimensions of Holochain in the post below: Holochain : The Blockchain picks up a Dimension Jamie Klinger: Bitcoin’s central mechanism — the Blockchain — is a monumental achievement in… Continue reading

Predatory Delay and the Rights of Future Generations

Alex Steffen addresses a crucial issue in the context of the changes and transitioning we need to make our societes and economies environmentally acceptable and compatible with climate change requirements. Sure, we can all see change, but we can also see that the change is not nearly fast enough to avoid clear catastrophes. One of… Continue reading

In Search of Benevolent Capital: Part I

This two-part, semi-gothic literary essay seeks a provisional definition of “benevolent capital” and a working description of types of artistic and scholarly work that have no value for Capital as such. The paradox observed is that such works may actually appeal to a certain aspect of Capital, insofar as present-day capitalism has within it forms… Continue reading

Basic income in the ‘long now’: three critical considerations for the future(s) of alternative welfare systems

Rok Kranjc: Many of today’s proposals for and experiments with Universal Basic Income (UBI) in so-called developed countries seem to be congruent with, and indeed in some instances explicitly catered towards maintaining the dominant political economic architecture and status quo imaginary. Some of the more salient narratives regarding UBI present it as a silver bullet… Continue reading

The dangers of focusing all our attention on Donald Trump

Trump’s erratic presidency is a manifestation, not the cause, of democratic decay. The unfolding political crisis will outlast him. So must the resistance. Jerome Roos: It’s been a year since Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States of America — and we’re already exhausted. Exhausted by the endless stream of sexist and… Continue reading

‘CultureBanked®’ – Our Digital Cultural Commons?

Written by Liam Murphy and originally published in VoluntaryArts.org, this is a very important development, close to our CopyFair concerns. Liam Murphy: This piece is part of a weekly series of articles curated by Voluntary Arts and authored by cultural thinkers and doers. The series will be published between November 2017 and March 2018. It is… Continue reading

Coops Viadriana. A new illustrated mag about Platform Cooperativism

The people behind Coops Vidriana wrote to us to let us know about their new gorgeous-looking magazine on Platform Cooperativism. It’s bilingual (German/English) and features a bunch of new articles and some drop-dead stunning design. Jana Pirlein has been kind enough to pen the following intro for the P2PF blog. Jana Pirlein: We, a group… Continue reading

Podcast: How did the advent of agriculture impact humanity?

For the last 150,000 or so years of human evolution, not a whole lot changed. That is, until about 10,000 years ago, when in the blink of an eye we began organizing societies in very, very different ways. We went from small bands of hunter-gatherers to massive state societies; from having a relatively low ecological… Continue reading