The future of the internet is in peril, thanks to surveillance, net neutrality and other assaults. But there are communities that are building their own. Like many Americans, I don’t have a choice about my internet service provider. I live in a subsidized housing development where there’s only one option, and it happens to be,… Continue reading
By Franziska Sperfeld, Kai Niebert, Theresa Klostermeyer and Hauke Ebert. Originally posted on Degrowth.de Degrowth in Movements: Environmental movement About the authors and their positions The authors are either voluntary or full time active in the environmental movement. Franziska Sperfeld leads projects at the Unabhängigen Institut für Umweltfragen e. V. (UfU) [Independent Institute for Environmental Issues],… Continue reading
#OOS BORDEAUX: Ecological Transition “We wanted Darwin to be about inventing new ways of working, new ways of doing business, new ways of enjoying life. It was about reinventing the city. From the outset, our ambitions came up against the limits imposed by environmental concerns, at a time of major upheaval, resource shortages, and, whatever… Continue reading
In a world that is falling apart (no further elaboration needed), how shall we understand the dynamics of survival and collaboration? How does life persist and flourish in a world that is hellbent on commodifying and privatizing every aspect of human relations and the natural world? For anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, the answer is to… Continue reading
Design Global, Manufacture Local (also known as Cosmo-Localisation) projects are blooming everwhere. Audacities promotes Design Global, Manufacture Local in Australia. Efforts are underway to connect with implementers globally and to educate stakeholders about policies that support Design Global, Manufacture Local. Extracted from: http://www.audacities.co/#about-audacities Productive Cities are Prosperous Cities Cities are where the battle for a sustainable, equitable world… Continue reading
Cross-posted from Shareable. Adrien Labaeye: You may have heard of smart cities that use data to improve urban networks like public transportation systems. In the shadow of this well-marketed story is another narrative around data in the city; a story where the right to the city extends to the digital realm. Here are two initiatives where reclaiming… Continue reading
During the 1930s there were hundreds of experiments in the USA and many significant experiments in Europe to deal with the drying up of money. The same problem happened for several years in Argentina between 2000-2003. The LETs monies in Argentina were subject to massive inflation and lost trust and essentially went bust because of… Continue reading
Astrid Lorenzen: The Fab Lab Fabulous St. Pauli, founded in 2011 by an interdisciplinary, tech-savvy group, is located right in the middle of one of Hamburg’s liveliest neighborhoods. It’s one of roughly thirty Fab Labs in German-speaking countries. An open workshop, it offers anyone interested access to the usual wood- and metalworking tools (milling machine, punching… Continue reading
Originally published here on Six Wayfinder. Francesca Bria: Until today digital social innovation (DSI) has been mainly driven by grassroots social movements, hackers, geeks and civil society groups. Huge sums of public money have supported digital innovation in business, as well as in fields ranging from the military to espionage. But there has been very little systematic support… Continue reading
Neal Stephenson. The Diamond Age: or, a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer (1995). In Four Futures Peter Frase poses, as a thought experiment, an “anti-Star Trek”: a world that shares the same technologies as Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s post-scarcity communist society, but in which those technologies of abundance are enclosed with “intellectual property” barriers so that capitalists can continue to… Continue reading
A report authored by Nicola Mullenger that captures what a small gathering of city makers talked about in March in Madrid, adjunct to the Idea Camp that ECF organized. Introduction “This report highlights the conversations that took place during the Innovative City Development meeting, which was held in Madrid in March 2017. The meeting brought together… Continue reading
After exploring some of the exciting initiatives developed by Frome’s radical town council in last week’s episode, this second episode of Upstream’s documentary series investigates the themes of economic inequality, gentrification, and poverty within the town of Frome and also at a national and global level. In the 1970s and 80s, a series of economic… Continue reading
This is a really crucial policy paper, because it shows the inter-relationship between 2 , or even 3 crucial factors in the success of the energy transition in Germany: First of all came the voluntary, politically and ecologically motivated pioneers, who made it politically viable to introduce the second factor, without which it would have… Continue reading
We need a new paradigm, informed by the past, which can address most of the problems that capitalism has been creating, for the benefit of the many and of the environment. Four years ago, Thomas Piketty published his best-seller that tried to provide a working model for capital in the twenty-first century. The reasons why Piketty failed… Continue reading
Neil Thapar: The first part of this blog introduced the most recent iteration of domestic land grabs, by way of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). These investment schemes threaten an equitable and sustainable future for farmland ownership and stewardship by prioritizing profits, commodifying land as a financial asset, and consolidating ownership with absentee-landlords. As the… Continue reading
Guy Standing. The Corruption of Capitalism: Why Rentiers Thrive and Work Does Not Pay (London: Biteback Press, 2016). I looked forward to reading this book based on previous readings of Guy Standing’s work, based on his status as both a labor organizer and a theorist of the precariat’s role in the economy. I wasn’t disappointed. At the… Continue reading