Materials for Two Theories: TIMN and STA:C

Notes for a quadriformist manifesto — #3: TIMN’s advantages over three parallel theories (Raworth, Bauwens, Karatani) David Ronfeldt: How and why four cardinal forms of organization — tribes, hierarchical institutions, markets, and networks (TIMN) — explain social evolution. How and why space-time-action cognitions (STA:C) explain people’s mindsets. For a theoretical framework to be worthy of… Continue reading

OPEN 2018: What is a Co-op? Sion Whellens

Siôn Whellens, Co-Founder of the Worker Co-op Solidarity Fund provides a brilliant explanation of cooperatives (from Youtube). Siôn Whellens, Co-Founder of the Worker Co-op Solidarity Fund, Dave Boyle, Founder of The Community Shares Company, and Alex Bird, Chair of Co-operatives and Mutuals Wales, leading a practical session on How to start a co-op, covering legal entities,… Continue reading

Schönau im Schwarzwald, Germany: ‘Electricity rebels’ foster energy transition

After the Chernobyl disaster, a citizen’s initiative in the small town of Schönau, Germany set out to produce clean electricity. When the grid operator obstructed them, the citizens decided to acquire the power grid for themselves. Today they sell clean electricity to over 170,000 German households. When the German electricity market was deregulated in 1998,… Continue reading

Essay of the Day: Disrupting Together: Challenges and opportunities for Platform Coops

The following text was written by Duncan McCann and originally published in the New Economics Foundation’s Website. Duncan McCann:  Platforms – like Uber, Deliveroo, or TaskRabbit – connect services and products with consumers. With both sides theoretically having control over the interaction, and investing in the platform to reap the rewards, the rapid spread of platforms… Continue reading

TESA Collective creates custom board games for social change

Cross-posted from Shareable. Aaron Fernando: Education can take many forms, including the form of play itself. The TESA Collective is a co-op that creates games for various social justice organizations. It has worked directly with number groups, including unions and nonprofits, and its games now facilitate workshops and trainings that result in real-world social change — in addition… Continue reading

A Scuttlebutt Love Story

Scuttlebutt aims to harmonize four perspectives of life: Environment reflecting Technology reflecting Community reflecting Society. We acknowledge the natural, the virtual, and the social environments. Our responsibility is to recognize which resources are abundant, which are sufficient, and adapt accordingly through efficiency. Technology is simply the means by which we communicate. We use local-first publishing… Continue reading

Essay of the Day: Unboxing the Sharing Economy

The Sociological Review is thrilled to be launching the first of their 2018 monographs, , edited by Davide Arcidiacono (Universita Cattolica, Milan), Alessandro Gandini (King’s College, London) and Ivana Pais (Universita Cattolica, Milan). For over fifty years, the Sociological Review monograph series has showcased the best and most innovative sociologically informed work, producing intellectually stimulating… Continue reading

How can Blockchain enable Elinor Ostrom’s 8 commons principles?

Samer Hassan, researcher at Harvard University’s Berkman Center and UCM in Madrid, who recently received a 1.5M€ grant to build blockchain-based democratic and sustainable organizations for the collaborative economy (p2pmodels.eu), leads a working session exploring how blockchain technologies, can be utilized to create new ways to cooperate: building new commons-oriented, blockchain-driven initiatives which incorporate Elinor Ostrom’s 8… Continue reading

Elena Martinez and Silvia Díaz of P2P Models on Blockchain, Feminism and Affective P2P

Silvia Díaz Molina is an anthropologist specialized in Gender Studies and a social researcher seeking to ground her work in more humane and sustainable organisations. She has experience in development cooperation and has been involved in different NGO projects giving awareness-raising workshops. Elena Martínez Vicente is a product designer, specialized in designing better processes and… Continue reading

CrowdLaw as a tool for open governance

On March 13–17, 2018 The GovLab brought together two dozen crowdlaw experts from around the world to collaborate on developing new ways to include more and more diverse opinions and expertise at every stage of the law- and policy-making process. The convening was held at the Rockefeller Foundation’s famed Bellagio Center in Bellagio, Italy. This… Continue reading

Cooperation Jackson’s Kali Akuno: ‘We’re trying to build vehicles of social transformation’

Cross-posted from Shareable. Robert Raymond: We are witnessing the rise of a solidarity economy movement, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, including organizations like Cooperation Worcester in Massachusetts, Cooperation Humboldt and Cooperation Richmond in California, and Cooperation Jackson in Mississippi, among others. One of the leaders of this movement is Kali Akuno, co-founder and co-director… Continue reading