The visioning process is an articulation of “what you really want, not what you think you can get,” says Meadows, who notes that the end of apartheid South Africa was unimaginable until it happened. Space travel was the same. Excerpted from a 1994 talk by Donnella Meadows: “I think that we are all born with… Continue reading
Book of the Day: Rebel Cities
Book: Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution. By David Harvey. Verso, 2012 Manifesto on the Urban Commons: “Long before the Occupy movement, modern cities had already become the central sites of revolutionary politics, where the deeper currents of social and political change rise to the surface. Consequently, cities have… Continue reading
Ask Michel Bauwens Anything…
… about the Synthetic Overview of the Collaborative Economy report. This month we will be serialising the report “Synthetic overview of the collaborative economy”, coproduced by Orange Labs and the P2P Foundation. Today we announce an “Ask Me Anything” session. (Of course if you can’t wait you can download the full report here). All posts… Continue reading
In the Fuhrerbunker, Hitler Confronts the Post-Scarcity Economy
An old Downfall parody by Paul Fernhout, in which Hitler reacts to news of a post-scarcity economy. Any similarities to the current policies of the United States government are purely coincidental, of course. “It looks like there are now local digital fabrication facilities here, here, and here.” “But we still have the rockets we need… Continue reading
Synthetic Overview of the Collaborative Economy Table of Contents
This month we will be serialising the report “Synthetic overview of the collaborative economy”, coproduced by Orange Labs and the P2P Foundation. Today we post the Table of Contents and the breakdown of the chapters. (Of course if you can’t wait you can download the full report here). All posts on the report can be… Continue reading
Eight Principles for a Sustainability Rights Framework
You can find the eight proposed principles here. Here is the background to the proposals: By the Civil Society Reflection Group on Global Development: “We are facing societal and ecological disaster. The State can respond quickly to this, if based on democratic legitimacy and accountability. In times of growing global interrelationship between societies, economies and… Continue reading
Essay of the Day: Toward a Global Social Contract
* Essay: The Commons and World Governance. Toward a Global Social Contract. By Arnaud Blin, Gustavo Marin. Summary “It is only by moving from the idea of individual protection to the idea of protection of all that we can start to envisage the possibility of a global social contract. In other words, it is our… Continue reading
The libertarian background to the deflationary design of Bitcoin
Some may not like it, but bitcoin is a Mengerian-, Misean-, Rothbardian-, Austrian-currency in its purest form. Still actively debated within the Austrian economics community. – Jon Matonis Excerpted from Phillip Pilkington: “The most popular aspect of the libertarian doctrine today is probably the idea that deflation is not such a bad thing – indeed,… Continue reading
Open Garden – linking up cell phones across carriers
In May this year, techcrunch reported on a new app that lets your mobile phone share its connectivity with others and find others who in turn share theirs, a step which should increase the efficiency and speed with which you can connect. Open Garden Lets You Crowdsource Your Mobile Connectivity is the title of that… Continue reading
On the Need to Scale Up Anti-Poverty Strategies
The most successful countries to grapple with poverty have ‘scaled up,’ not down; Big, not Small, is Beautiful. The statistical evidence for a large number of developing countries strongly supports the hypothesis of a trickle down effect, not a bottom up effect as the best way to beat poverty. Counter-intuitive arguments directed towards of us… Continue reading