In late June 2018 I spent a week in the City of Mexico (CDMX), to support the municipal government with a variety of foresight related challenges, through its Laboratorio Para La Ciudad (City Lab). The Lab was founded and is led by Gabriella Gómez-Mont, as the experimental arm / creative think tank of the Mexico City government,… Continue reading
FEARLESS CITIES North America Regional Municipalist Summit New York City July 27-29, 2018 A growing movement across the globe is seeking to democratize and feminize political institutions at the level closest to our day-to-day lives: the municipal level. Weaving together social movements, participatory tools, solidarity economy, concrete wins, and the confluence of diverse political forces… Continue reading
What would it take to build an American economy grounded in employee ownership? Millions of Americans already have an ownership stake in their workplace. More than 7,000 U.S. companies are owned wholly or in part by their employees—the people who work there every day. And between 1,600 and 4,400 of these companies are majority employee-owned. These employee-owned businesses… Continue reading
I’ll be attending this event Saturday 20 July, see you there! The School for Civic Action in collaboration with Commons Rising are inviting commons initiatives and commoners to come together to initiate a UK wide Commons Assembly. This is an open platform to meet others, exchange knowledge and to see if there is an appetite… Continue reading
Joyful Militancy by carla bergman and Nick Montgomery foregrounds forms of life in the cracks of Empire, revealing the ways that fierceness, tenderness, curiosity, and commitment can be intertwined. This is part of a series of about the project. See all interviews here. This interview was completed in early 2016 as part of the research… Continue reading
Massimo De Angelis. Omnia Sunt Communia: On the Commons and the Transformation to Postcapitalism (London: Zed Books, 2017). Massimo De Angelis is a thinker very much in the autonomist tradition; he mentions being a student of Harry Cleaver. This comes through loud and clear in his focus on the self-activity of ordinary people, and on the centrality… Continue reading
Fire Appeal: Donate to Stir To Action! Donate! On July 7th, an accidental fire in a neighbouring studio wiped out Stir to Action’s office – we lost everything. We estimate we’ve lost around £15,000 in magazine stock and archive, new office furniture, office computer, and paperwork. And, of course, the office! This loss has disrupted… Continue reading
Reposted from Motherboard/ YouTube When it comes to repair, farmers have always been self reliant. But the modernization of tractors and other farm equipment over the past few decades has left most farmers in the dust thanks to diagnostic software that large manufacturers hold a monopoly over. In this episode of State of Repair, Motherboard… Continue reading
A 17-year struggle by Mumbai’s textile millworkers against powerful mill-land owners, for land and housing as compensation for job losses, resulted in a historic gain of workers’ rights over a part of urban industrial land. Mill workers of Mumbai have a 150-year tradition of struggle. When the mills went into decline in the 1980s and… Continue reading
Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams. Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work (London and New York: Verso, 2015, 2016). I approached this book with considerable eagerness and predisposed to like it. It belongs to a broad milieu of -isms for which I have strong sympathies (postcapitalism, autonomism, left-accelerationism, “fully automated luxury communism,” etc.). So I… Continue reading
Open spaces are key to the health and vitality of cities. Walkable, safe, green spaces increase the possibilities for people to meet and nurture relationships beyond family, friends, and colleagues. But a discussion about Sharing Cities can’t focus on open spaces alone. Gentrification should be a part of that discussion. If we, promoters of Sharing… Continue reading
In this paper, we explore novel ways for decentralized economies to protect themselves from, and coexist with, competitive markets at a global scale utilizing decentralized technologies such as Blockchain. Article: The Wolf and the Caribou: Coexistence of Decentralized Economies and Competitive Markets. By Andreas Freund and Danielle Stanko. J. Risk Financial Manag. 2018, 11(2), 26… Continue reading
Rosa Jijón /Francesco Martone: Arts for the Commons (A4C) is a collective exercise meant to provide a platform for artists and activists exploring the connections and synergies between visual production and efforts to reclaim the commons, address outstanding issues related to human migration, borders, social and environmental justice, liquid citizenship. By creating opportunities for exchange,… Continue reading
Rob Hopkins: Last week, close to my home, was the Transition Design Symposium. It brought together people from around the world interested in what design can bring to the need for an urgent societal Transition, and for 2 days its attendees basked in glorious sunshine and fascinating interactions. I managed to catch up with Michel… Continue reading
Republished from Rethink.earth Frederik Moberg: Around the world, innovative agroecological farmers increasingly challenge the dominant industrial way of farming. Combining local and scientific knowledge, they put resilience thinking into practice to feed growing populations and cope with climate change, water scarcity, market volatility, and more. Twelve years ago, in 2006, Haregu Gobezay was unemployed and… Continue reading
Joyful Militancy by carla bergman and Nick Montgomery foregrounds forms of life in the cracks of Empire, revealing the ways that fierceness, tenderness, curiosity, and commitment can be intertwined. This is part of a series of about the project. See all interviews here. This interview with Silvia Federici was conducted in early 2016 by carla… Continue reading