Around the world, we are seeing the emergence of creative alternatives to destructive economic paradigms. The good news is what is healthy for an ecosystem is also good for people: key ingredients are localization and regionalism. The best economic and environmentally sound solutions are place-based, diverse according to region, and are responsive to local communities… Continue reading
Will Bitcoin change the money landscape?
In a recent email, a friend of mine who is into currency speculation, especially the Iraki Dinar, made little of Bitcoin and said the current money system is just fine. I had tried to make him aware of the existence of this new kind of currency by sending him links to articles. Now I am… Continue reading
Removing regulation, not governance!
If we want the city to produce a different outcome, it will take a different kind of organisation running it, responsible for it. The very idea of the city as a public good fundamentally rests on this. And the very idea of the sustainable city relies on understanding that the city is a public good…. Continue reading
Bauwens, Kleiner, Restakis on Cooperative, Commons-based venture funding
A must-listen trialogue between Michel Bauwens, Dmytri Kleiner and John Restakis sketching out proposals for radical new economic models that draw on the best from the Co-op, commons and P2P and Venture Communism movements. This conversation was originally recorded by KMO of the C-Realm Podcast. Excerpted from the podcast: “KMO remote-hosts a trialogue between Michel Bauwens, Dmytri… Continue reading
The funding problem of progressive movements today
Excerpted from Michael Lind of the New America Foundation; “…in the mid-twentieth-century glory days of American progressive-liberalism, upscale progressive “traitors to their class” were only part of a coalition that included populist farmers and militant industrial workers. The farmer-labor coalition had its own sources of funding—they didn’t depend on grants from philanthropic progressive foundations or… Continue reading
The Emerging Cooperative Economy – Interview with Michel Bauwens
Earlier this month Michel Bauwens took part in the Meridian University online summit The Spirit of Enterprise: Business Approaches to Regenerating the Commons. “For four days, over 30 leaders and pioneers of generative and creative enterprise came together to explore The Spirit of Enterprise: Business Approaches to Regenerating the Commons. Speakers Included: Chana Anderson, Dean… Continue reading
Project of the Day: Casserole
Casserole helps people share extra portions of home cooked food with others in their area who are not always able to cook for themselves. From the FAQ: “Casserole is a project that connects people who like to cook and are happy to share an extra portion of a delicious home cooked meal, with older neighbours… Continue reading
Why everybody should own their home as non-speculative property
Excerpted from Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language (1977). (From Pattern #79, Your Own Home) “People cannot be genuinely comfortable and healthy in a house which is not theirs. All forms of rental — whether from private landlords or public housing agencies — work against the natural processes which allow people to form stable, self-healing communities…. Continue reading
Book of the Day: Moral Origins
Christopher Boehm in Moral Origins concludes, after intensive analysis of 50 representative hunter-gatherer cultures, that our ancestors likely experienced a “radical political change,” evolving from a hierarchic “apelike ‘might is right’…social order,” to become more egalitarian. * Book: Moral Origins. By Christopher Boehm. Excerpted from a review by Jag Bhalla: “Social contracts are written into… Continue reading
Video: E.F. Schumacher and the Reinvention of the Local Economy
This is one of the best documentaries about Community Supported Agriculture, Community Land Trusts and Community Currencies! Watch the video here: Details: COMING HOME: E.F. Schumacher & the Reinvention of the Local Economy from Christopher B. Bedford on Vimeo. “COMING HOME: E.F. Schumacher and the Reinvention of the Local Economy, is a new 37 minute… Continue reading
Smart citizens (3): crowdfunding platforms and the year of collaborative city-making
Excerpted from Dan Hill: “Numerous cities have witnessed an explosion in crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding platforms throughout 2012. Following in the wake of the increasingly high-profile crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, and almost popping up at the rate of one every couple of weeks over the year, these include Neighborland, In Our Backyard (IOBY), YIMBY, SpaceHive, Brickstarter, Neighbor.ly,… Continue reading
Podcast of the Day: Mark Fisher on Capitalist Realism
Podcast via Resonance Fm. Listen to the original here. Mark Fisher is the author of ‘Capitalist Realism, is there no alternative?’ From the shownotes: “On this week’s show Aaron Peters is joined by Mark Fisher author of ‘Capitalist Realism’ as they discuss some of the topics in his book and their relation to the Great… Continue reading
Movement of the Day: A History of Tech-Roots Organizing
While it’s tempting to get excited about the potential of global connectivity — tech-enabled pan-studentism! Millennials of the world unite! — it’s important to remember the barriers to a universal identity. The Internet diminishes the importance of geographic proximity and increases the importance of affinity, but the global student identity still raises big questions about… Continue reading
“The Times Are Urgent; Let’s Slow Down” an Open Letter
“The system is not the cause of our problems, it is a consequence of our separation from each other, a consequence of our complicity with our own destruction. In other worlds, we are the system we fight against” …..and later…..”If we beat the system at it’s own game, we’ve lost” “Civic society from all over… Continue reading
Video of the Day: Stephen Collis on the Metabolic Commons
“What if we imagined an economic totality that begins and ends with the commons?” Watch the video here: Details by Stephen Collis: “What if we imagined an economic totality that begins and ends with the commons — a new version of the C-M-C equation for a thoroughly globalized system, an economy pushing against its ecological… Continue reading
Book of the Day: What Then Must We Do
“argues that a new system, one that is not corporate capitalism and not state socialism but something new entirely, could “democratize the ownership of wealth, strengthen communities in diverse ways, and be governed by policies and institutions sophisticated enough to manage a large-scale, powerful economy.” * Book: What Then Must We Do? Gar Alperovitz. Gar… Continue reading