With the birth of the internet and advance of digital networks, we’ve been promised everything from creative cooperation and digital democracy, to the end of work and a new abundance of leisure time. It’s a promise of a techno-utopia that persists today. Playing for team human today, Dr. Richard Barbrook challenges this imaginary future by unearthing the… Continue reading
Cross-posted from Shareable. Wolfgang Hoeschele: The establishment of a carbon-neutral energy system requires massive investments in infrastructure such as wind turbines. Because distributed energy systems do not fit the business models of the old energy utilities, they continue to invest far too little in this sector. Meanwhile, many individual electric power consumers are interested in investing… Continue reading
David Suzuki , in this excerpt from the 2011 documentary “Surviving Progress.”, stresses the dangers of any thinking and practice based on the abstraction of money, which leads to ignoring the hard material realities of the environment and the planet. He explains how conventional economics is delusional (like a form of brain damage) by systematically… Continue reading
A new report explains how the rules governing the US economy are tipped in favour of asset owners over wage earners, and offers solutions to transform our system. Authored by Chuck Collins and published by the Institute of Policy Studies and the Next System Project. Introduction The US economy’s deep systemic inequalities of income, wealth, power, and… Continue reading
https://assets.pippa.io/shows/58ad887a1608b1752663b04a/1501645692610-f25d67b83dd30978c72717e122fc4a9c.mp3 Playing for Team Human is systems thinker, currency designer, and social hacker Arthur Brock. Art joins Douglas to talk about how currency is less a thing you own and more a way of sharing. It’s a conversation that poses a crucial question of both money and cryptocurrencies alike–how might we design new exchanges that… Continue reading
Deliveroo, Foodora, Giovo. The success of these companies depends on the exploitation of an invisible precariat. Now, against all expectations these workers are mobilizing across borders to claim their rights. Callum Cant, writing for politicalcritique.org, examines recent development in worker-led action in gig economy settings. A strike by Deliveroo workers London in the summer of 2016 was… Continue reading
Janelle Orsi: A little-known fact about Sustainable Economies Law Center: We have a project focused on Community Compost Law & Policy. Like many of our projects, it developed in direct response to a need that surfaced repeatedly for our clients and collaborators. Making soil is a legally complex matter, and community-based compost organizations and urban farms have… Continue reading
Daniel Pinchbeck writes about our current predicament – and his vision for emergent solutions. Originally published on Medium. Daniel Pinchbeck: A few weeks ago, New York Magazine published a devastatingly apocalyptic overview of climate predictions. We are on target for a 4 to 8 degrees Celsius warmer climate by 2100, at current rates of CO2 emissions. We know from… Continue reading
A must watch 1.30 minute intro explaining the “hierarchy” of steps towards true regenerative design by our contributor Daniel Christian Wahl. Photo by gufm
Cameron Neylon: In the 1990s, Nobel Laureate Harold Varmus, a genetic researcher, and California scientists Patrick Brown and Michael Eisen were increasingly frustrated by the many constraints on sharing scientific research. Even though academic researchers were the ones performing difficult, costly scientific research and peer reviews of it – much of it financed by taxpayers –… Continue reading
Our Planet is in Ecological Overshoot Earth is exceeding its ability to replenish its own resources. Each year, human beings consume our natural stocks at about 160% of their sustainable yield. Obviously, we cannot continue to use resources faster than the planet can replenish them without serious ecological and socioeconomic consequences. Economic Democracy Advocates recognizes… Continue reading
The following infographic and texts are republished from Platform.coop’s “About” page. About Platform Coops The Internet is slipping out of ordinary users’ control. Internet technologies are transforming our workplaces, relationships, and societies. Companies like Uber, Amazon, and Facebook are capturing vital sectors of the economy such as transportation and phenomena like search and social networking…. Continue reading
Cross-posted from Shareable. Kevin Stark: It’s easy to group all enterprises that promote “sharing” into a single category. New technology has made it much easier for people to share almost everything — cars, houses, work spaces, just to name a few. There’s really no shortage of ways that people can pool resources. But there’s a huge difference in… Continue reading
Reposted from Defend the Sacred. Não ao Furo! Sim ao Futuro – No to oil drilling in Portugal! Nearly 1000 people from 40 countries form a large-scale human message on Odeceixe beach to stop plans for off-shore oil drilling in Portugal. The event was part of “Defend the Sacred: Envision a Global Alternative” hosted by… Continue reading
There is no doubt that humanity could use universal ledgers like the blockchain, to manage more efficiently its agreements and transactions. But just as bitcoin is misconceived as a currency that is extractive to both humans and natural commons, so there are serious issues with how the blockchain is currently conceived. This very clearly explained,… Continue reading
Impressions from an imaginary walk across the streets of Alphabet City, resonant with the architectural echoes of an optimistic modernism, its socio-technological design rooted in a widely shared belief in the governability of urban ecologies. An essay by Soenke Zehle, originally published in Fibre Culture Journal 29: Computing the City. Much more than an exercise… Continue reading