Michel Bauwens: Basic income has been very much in the news in the last decade, with an increasing number of reports and policy experimentations. Even though it has conquered the support of the majority of progressive voters in Europe, there are voices that see in the basic income a ‘neoliberal plot’, citing the support of… Continue reading
Julia Keutgen: 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,… Continue reading
If a city manages to provide all its residents with fresh, local, and healthy food, then that city has leapfrogged toward an inclusive and equitable society: such is the level of importance of food in a city. Food not only forms an integral part of human activity, but also of the economy. What is the… Continue reading
The growth-driven economic model we have adopted is killing our planet. Jason Hickel: The crowds of protesters that confronted US President Donald Trump during his visit to London last week have channelled the world’s outrage at all that he represents. But despite this opposition, Trump’s base is expanding. Even those who baulk at his regressive positions… Continue reading
By Oliver Sylvester-Bradley This article is the second part of our interview with Matthew Schutte, Communications Director at Holochain, which covers their plans to build a “Commons engine” to help provide co-ops with the tools they need to communicate, coordinate and cooperate at scale. In part two Matthew explains how Holochain enables “protocol” rather than… Continue reading
SolidFund is a (relatively) new initiative designed to support the creation and sustainability of worker cooperatives. Members pay at least £1.00 per week and the resulting funds go into a common pool – a solidarity fund – which is used to support cooperatives around the UK. The fund currently has over £74,000 at its disposal…. Continue reading
By Oliver Sylvester-Bradley Holochain is a new technology project with huge potential for the cooperative economy. Members of The Open Co-op have been promoting the idea that new software could, potentially, revolutionise both our failing democracies and our predatory capitalist economies, since 2004. Back then we weren’t quite so clear on exactly how the required… Continue reading
Following up from this post last year, I recently noticed that Richard and Nati from Loomio have now published a distillation of their course about decentralised organising in the form of a PDF booklet, described as follows: “Practical guidance for teams to thrive without a management hierarchy. This PDF booklet is a collection of design… Continue reading
Saki Bailey: In 2009, political economist Elinor Ostrom won the Nobel Prize in economics for her work demonstrating that “the commons” are not simply unregulated spaces of ruin, but instead places where the law operates invisibly, according to community norms and values in ways that lead to their sustainable use over many generations. What Ostrom’s… Continue reading
Stevphen Shukaitis. “Space is the (non)place: Martians, Marxists, and the outer space of the radical imagination” Sociological Review 57 Suppl (2009). In this article, Shukaitis surveys “the particular role outer space and extraterrestrial voyage play within the radical imagination.” In particular, he sees , and a way to construct utopian worlds that give meaning to our struggles… Continue reading
“Re-imagining the left through an ecology of the commons: towards a post-capitalist commons transition” (Michel Bauwens and Jose Ramos) was recently published by the journal Global Discourse (Routledge, Taylor and Francis) as an exploratory proposal for a comprehensive commons transition movement and strategy that twines an ontology of human evolutionary forms with strategies for commoning…. Continue reading
Pani Haq Samti’s ‘People’s Campaign’ had the dual aim of mobilizing public opinion to oppose the privatisation of water supplies in the Indian state of Maharashtra, and securing the distribution and re-establishment of water as a right. In Mumbai, the right to water in people’s settlements (known as slums) was revoked in 1996 when the… Continue reading
The P2P Lab is happy to announce the launch of “The cultiMake project: Crowdsourcing open source agricultural solutions”, celebrating the gathering of designers, makers and farmers who are adapting to the digitised world. Where: Habibi.Works, Ioannina (Greece) When: From Monday, July 30th to Friday, August 3rd. Currently, the P2P Lab aims to create awareness and… Continue reading
If we don’t quickly create a new economy that isn’t based on constant expansion, we’re going to run out of planet. Martin Kirk: When Donald Trump says “Make America Great Again,” he’s alluding, at least in part, to the promise of economic growth. Just as when Bill Clinton said, “it’s the economy, stupid,” he was… Continue reading
Playing for Team Human today, recorded live on the floor at the Personal Democracy Forum 2018, are Moira Weigel and Ben Tarnoff. Moira and Ben will be showing us how the tech industry’s promise to build less harmful products and programs is just capitalism’s way of proving that love means never having to… Continue reading
Nithin Coca: Egushi Shintaro is a researcher, author, and organizer, focusing on urban policy, rural revitalization, and civic economy projects. Originally from Fukuoka prefecture in the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, Shintaro is now based in Tokyo. He is a regular contributor to Forbes Japan and has published four books, the most recent of which… Continue reading