Enspiral is a rather unique organisation, often featured in this blog. Over the years the number of participants, its core structure and overall network have evolved in fascinating and informative ways. This evolution along with the many lessons learned is chronicled in their collective book “Better work together”. As such the book does not theorise…. Continue reading
We should convince the rich that climate remediation is a sure thing and that they better get in on the ground floor We’ve been taking the wrong approach to communicating about climate change. I get that the situation is dire. Really dire. But it goes way beyond the fact that every year is the hottest… Continue reading
Reposted from Local Futures. The way trade works in the global economy can be insane – it wastes resources, worsens climate change, and undermines the livelihoods of millions of small-scale producers worldwide. Yet it is an almost unavoidable consequence of de-regulatory ‘free trade’ agreements and the billions of dollars in supports and subsidies – many… Continue reading
The P2P Lab is happy to announce the results of the Open Call for Ideas in the context of the “Open Source Agriculture Workshop”. The selection of the designers was made by members of the local community, informed by the following criteria: Does the solution fit with the values and principles of small-scale farming systems?… Continue reading
Why are so many zones of the world descending into chaos and confusion? There is no single reason, of course, but the French scholar of modernity, Bruno Latour, has a compelling overarching theory. In his new book, Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime (Polity), Latour argues that climate change, by calling into question the… Continue reading
In Part 1, I explained what I have in mind when I talk about “hierarchy” and “power”, introducing three different types of power: power-from-within or empowerment power-with or social power power-over or coercion In this second part, I get into the practical stuff: 11 steps towards healthy power dynamics. I’m primarily writing this for people that strive towards “non-hierarchical” organising, but expect… Continue reading
This post by Johanna Bozuwa was originally posted on thenextsystem.org Executive Summary: Electric utility (re)municipalization is gaining popularity as a strategy to shift away from a reliance on fossil fuel extraction in the context of combating climate change. Across the world—from Berlin to Boulder—communities have initiated campaigns to take back their power from investor-owned (private)… Continue reading
Introducing the Money Question, a new collaborative platform bringing together and amplifying heterodox approaches to improve the conversation on money. Coming 15/03/2019 Republished text from The Money Question Modern Monetary Theory Introduction In the space of little more than a decade, Modern Monetary Theory has spread from a relatively small group of academics to become… Continue reading
Call for Papers: “Ethnographies of Collaborative Economi(es) Conference” University of Edinburgh Friday 25 October, 2019 Website: https://ethnocol2019.wordpress.com/ Organisers: Penny Travlou (University of Edinburgh) and Luigina Ciolfi (Sheffield Hallam University) Background The terms “Sharing Economy” or “Collaborative Economy” have been commonly used in recent years to refer to a proliferation of initiatives, business models and forms of… Continue reading
We hosted a workshop on decentralised organising for the Civicwise network in Modena last week. At one point I said, “I don’t care about hierarchy, hierarchy is not the problem,” and immediately felt the temperature in the room drop by a few degrees. I know I can be provocative with my overly-concise use of language, so I… Continue reading
Reposted from CECOP/CICOPA Europe While the debate on democracy in the European decision making has become a priority in many political public discourses, the very legitimacy of the European project is raised by many as a scapegoat for social policy failures due to austerity measures. In this context, the quest for democracy in the public… Continue reading
Republished from Transformative Cities Since 2001 the Mexican government has been pushing municipal governments to privatize water. If this trend continues, 35 million people will be affected and community water management – with water systems built by the people and dating back more than a hundred years in some cases – will be destroyed. SAPTEMAC… Continue reading
This post by Julien Reynier is republished from Agtech L’Atelier Paysan is French non profit cooperative. We started in 2009 in South of France as project with a group of organic farmers dealing with a new global appropriation of farm technology. Based on the principle that farmers are themselves innovators, we have been collaboratively developing… Continue reading
Republished from Global University for Sustainability The Fifth South-South Forum on Sustainability (SSFS5) was organized by Global University for Sustainability and the Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University, together with 10 co-organizers, on 13–18 June 2018, in Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China. SSFS5 focused on “Transformative Visions and Praxis”. On Day 3 (15 June 2018),… Continue reading
Republished from Ripess.eu by Antonin Calderon & Jean Rossiaud (Leman Currency / APRES-GE in collaboration with Gaëlle Bigler (FRACP / URGENCI) This is the third issue of the series we started in October, on the theme of “local currencies”, after a general presentation of the advantages and challenges of local currencies through the example of the… Continue reading
This post by Betty Lim is reposted from Medium.com “The role of humans as the most important factor of production is bound to diminish in the same way that the role of horses … was first diminished and then eliminated.” Nobel Prize–winning economist Wassily Leontief, 1983 Very broadly, a paradigm is about the way you perceive,… Continue reading