One of the highlights of my recent visit to Denmark, which included speaking at Reboot 9, extended conversations with my much admired friend Adam Arvidsson, meeting Uffe Elbaek, Jytte and Simon Kavanagh at the incredible Kaospilots.dk school at Aarhus, was an unexpected meeting with Cosma Orsi who is associated with the University of Roskilde.
I had discovered a remarkable document, the Political Economy of Solidarity, which you can find here at
http://ruc.dk/federico/publications/Research_report_5_2005_Cosma_Orsi.pdf/
It is is in many ways one of the still missing links in P2P Theory. The essay is a critique of what he calls the Political Economy of Freedom, which is at the basis of our current system. This vision considers, erroneously of course, that humans are atomized individuals, solely in the game for their utilitarian benefit, making choices as if they were not a part of various concrete communities and societies. The dominant market form, based on impersonal relations, is based on a implicit contract of reciprocal indifference.
Hence what we need, if we want to develop more humane economies and societies, which do not further disintegrate our natural habitat and human civilization, is a recognition of our connectedness. This will lead to a Political Economy of Solidarity, based on a new implicit Contract of Reciprocal Solidarity, and to a conception of society which does not only recognized the separate individual with his negative rights not be interfered with, but also take into account positive human rights but also the social right for the Common Good. The essay then investigates the results of such a new view.
One of the congruences with my own views, is that Cosma similarly recognizes the triarchy of markets, governments and civil society, the latter being the combined sphere of intimacy, voluntary association, and pubic communication, and that it must become the central sphere. The state itself, has to move from being a regulator of the market, and from monetizing only the ill effects of the markets, i.e. the Welfare State model, which it is no longer doing very well, to a new model of the Partner State. This is an important concept which I already implicitely used but not explicitely named, and is certainly going to be a key part of our new conceptions concerning needed new public policies. Thanks to Cosma Orsi for these inspiring insights.
For those who want to know even more, they can order the fascinating book, which I’m currently reading:
ORSI, Cosma (2006), The Value of Reciprocity. Arguing for a Plural Political Economy, Roskilde (DK): Federico Caffè Centre Publisher & University of Roskilde.
The author can be reached at cosma at ruc.dk