Capitalism, Post-Capitalism and Transition Strategies towards a Sustainable and Socially Just P2P Society
Michel Bauwens will be at the University of Wisconsin Madison for 2 weeks this month to discuss P2P Society with students, faculty and the general public. This is part of the Havens Center Spring 2015 Visiting Scholars Program.
Source:http://www.havenscenter.org/vsp/michel-bauwens
“Premises for a Peer-to-Peer Economy”
Tuesday, February 10, 4pm, 206 Ingraham
“Premises for a Peer-to-Peer Society”
Wednesday, February 11, 4pm, 8417 Social Science
Open Seminar for Students, Faculty & Public
Thursday, February 12, 12:20pm, 8108 Social Science
During the second week of his visit, Michel Bauwens has organized three seminars linked to Google-hangout discussions with experts on specific problems connected to understanding economic “value” in a commons based, collaborative, contributory economy. The fundamental issue to be explored is how to generate sustainable living for people who fully engage the emerging p2p economy. This is a central issue in a Real Utopias logic of social transformation: What are the effective strategies for building enclaves of alternative economic practices within capitalism that (a) embody emancipatory principles, (b) provide sustainable ways for people to gain their livelihoods through the alternative practices, and (c) have a dynamic capacity to expand the space for post-capitalist economic relations and thus erode the hegemony of capitalism itself?
Understanding ‘Value’ in a Contributory Economy: Beyond the Industrial Wage System in an Emerging Post-capitalist Economy
The wage system seems no longer appropriate in a contributory economy in which contributions create shared common pools of knowledge, which in turn stimulate economic streams. In this series of investigations, we will explore the problem of understanding value in a collaborative commons and how to generate livelihoods through contributions to the commons:
Session 1. Monday, February 16, 12:15-2:00pm, 206 Ingraham. Emerging Value Practices in Pioneering Peer Production Communities (Google Hang-out guests: Tiberius B. and Bog Haugen on open value accounting)
Session 2. Wednesday, February 18, 12:15-2:00pm, 8108 Social Science. The State of Research: Presentation by researchers in the EU funded P2P Value project which examined such communities in depth
Session 3. Thursday, February 19, 12:15-2:00pm, 8108 Social Science. The Theory: Google Hang-out guests: Adam Arvidsson, author of the Ethical Economy book which examines value in a contributive economy.
Students interested in participating in this second week should contact Patrick Barrett at: [email protected].
MICHEL BAUWENS is the founder of the Foundation for Peer-to-Peer Alternatives and works in collaboration with a global group of researchers in the exploration of peer production, governance, and property. He is currently Primavera Research Fellow at the University of Amsterdam and external expert at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. Bauwens has also served as research director of the transition project towards the social knowledge economy, an official project in Ecuador, and of the floksociety.org research group, which produced the first integrated Commons Transition Plan for the government of Ecuador aimed at creating a ‘social knowledge economy.’
READINGS: