The post New Videos Explore the Political Potential of the Commons appeared first on P2P Foundation.
]]>A big thanks to Remix the Commons and Commons Spaces – two groups in Montreal, and to Alain Ambrosi, Frédéric Sultan and Stépanie Lessard-Bérubé — for pulling together this wonderful snapshot of the commons world. The overview video is no introduction to the commons, but a wonderfully insightful set of advanced commentaries about the political and strategic promise of the commons paradigm today.
The overview video (“Les communs dans l’espace politique,” with English subtitles as needed) is striking in its focus on frontier developments: the emerging political alliances of commoners with conventional movements, ideas about how commons should interact with state power, and ways in which commons thinking is entering policy debate and the general culture.
The video features commentary by people like Frédéric Sultan, Gaelle Krikorian, Alain Ambrosi, Ianik Marcil, Matthew Rhéaume, Silke Helfrich, Chantal Delmas, Pablo Solon, Christian Iaione, and Jason Nardi, among others.
The individual interviews with each of these people are quite absorbing. (See the full listing of videos here.) Six of these interviews are in English, nine are in French, and three are in Spanish. They range in length from ten minutes to twenty-seven minutes.
To give you a sense of the interviews, here is a sampling:
Christian Iaione, an Italian law scholar and commoner, heads the Laboratory for the Governance of the Commons in Italy. The project, established five years ago, is attempting to change the governance of commons in Italian cities such as Rome, Bologna, Milan and Messina. More recently, it began a collaboration with Fordham University headed by Professor Sheila Foster, and experiments in Amsterdam and New York City.
In his interview, “Urban Commons Charters in Italy,” Iaione warns that the Bologna Charter for the Care and Regeneration of Urban commons is not a cut-and-paste tool for bringing about commons; it requires diverse and localized experimentation. “There must be a project architecture working to change city governance and commons-enabling institutions,” said Iaione. “Regulation can’t be simply copied in south of Italy, such as Naples, because they don’t have the same civic institutions and public ethics as other parts of Italy….. You need different tools,” which must be co-designed by people in those cities, he said.
Jason Nardi, in his interview, “The Rise of the Commons in Italy” (27 minutes), credits the commons paradigm with providing “a renewed paradigm useful to unite and aggregate many different movements emerging today,” such as degrowth, cooperatives, the solidarity economy, ecologists, NGOs, development movements, and various rights movements. He credited the World Social Forum for helping to unite diverse factions to fight the privatization of everything by the big financial powers.
Charles Lenchner of Democrats.com spoke about “The Commons in the USA” (11 minutes), citing the important movement in NYC to converted community gardens into urban commons. He also cited the rise of participatory budgeting movement in New York City today, in which a majority of city council districts use that process. The City of New York is also encouraging greater investment in co-operatives, in part as a way to deal with precarity and income disparities.
Silke Helfrich, a German commons activist, discussed “Commons as a new political subject” (27 minutes). She said that “it’s impossible today to know what’s going on about the commons because so many things are popping up or converging that it’s hard to keep up with them all.” She said that there are three distinct ways of approaching the commons: the commons as pools of shared resources to be managed collectively; the commons as social processes that bring commoning into being; and the commons as an attitude and way of thinking about a broader paradigm shift going on.
Kevin Flanagan gave an interview, “Transition according to P2P” (19 minutes), in which he speaks of the “growing political maturity within the commons world, particularly within digital commons, peer production and collaborative economy.” Flanagan said that there has always been a politics to the commons, but that politics is moving from being a cultural politics towards a broader politics that is engaging hacker culture, maker spaces, and open design and hardware movements. Commoners are also beginning to work with more traditional political movements such as the cooperative and the Social and Solidarity Economy movements.
Lots of nutritious food for thought in this well-produced collection of videos!
The post New Videos Explore the Political Potential of the Commons appeared first on P2P Foundation.
]]>The post Synergia Summer Institute registration reduced appeared first on P2P Foundation.
]]>Around the world today, there is a universal sense that we are living through a unique moment in history. Rarely before has the need for systemic change been more obvious or more urgent.
The economic and social crisis that continues to unfold across the globe requires a new vision of political economy that can offer a truly progressive alternative to the neoliberal paradigm that is undermining the civil and democratic foundations of our societies and the economic and social well being of individuals and their communities.
For change makers the world over, the challenges to be faced are global – yet the solutions must be effective locally. The interface of global knowledge with local practice has thus become the nexus for transformative social change in our time.
Synergia is an international network of individuals and organizations that unites academics, social activists, practitioners and policy makers in a common effort to articulate, advocate, and implement models of economic and social practice that transition societies to a new model of political economy. One that is sustainable, democratic, socially just, and based on the principles of co-operation and the common good.
Located on Monte Ginezzo outside the Etruscan hill town of Cortona in Tuscany, the Synergia Summer Institute for Commonwealth Transition offers an intensive program of exploration, instruction, dialogue, and practical training on transition models for the realization of an ethical economy. The Synergia Summer Institute applies the knowledge and practice of co-operation, economic democracy, and the commons to address the central issues of sustainability and social wellbeing at local, regional and global levels.
The overarching focus of the Synergia program is to answer the question: What is the ethical economy and how does it work? The course will provide a critical overview of the contours of this new political economy and the mechanisms required for its realization.
Pedagogically, the Synergia program seeks to maximize collaboration among participants, to promote horizontal relationships of dialogue, debate, knowledge sharing and learning, and to offer the broadest possible access and sharing of knowledge and resources. Above all, the course is designed to facilitate the application of ideas and learning to practical use.
A key feature of the course is the blending of lectures and workshops with site visits to leading co-operatives and commons activities in Tuscany and Emilia Romagna – home to one of the most sophisticated co-operative economies in the world.
The course unites the global with the local through the diffusion of ideas, models, and practices that advance game-changing solutions in the following areas:
• Co-operative capital and social finance; Alternative currencies
• Co-op and commons-based housing and land tenure; Community Land Trusts
• Renewable energy; Community-owned energy systems
• Local & sustainable food systems; Community supported agriculture
• User-controlled health and social care; Social and community Service Co-ops
• Co-operative & commons-based governance
• Platform co-operatives, digital commons, and peer-to-peer production systems
• Convergence and the new political economy – principles, propositions, and practices
A key purpose of the course is to provide a global context for these issues and to link models, practices, expertise, and action horizontally across these fields. The creation of new networks, relationships, and action alliances among change makers and program participants is also a primary objective of this program.
In the spirit of co-operation, participants will be asked to share in the day-to-day activities of the summer institute by contributing to cleaning, cooking, gardening, and other tasks related the operation of the program and the development of the site.
The Synergia Summer Institute is very privileged to offer some of the very finest minds and practitioners in their respective fields of study and practice. Acknowledged internationally as leaders in their fields our confirmed instructors include the following individuals.
Michel Bauwens: Founder, P2P Foundation; Co Author, Network Society and Future Scenarios for a Collaborative Economy.
Pat Conaty: Fellow, New Economics Foundation; Research Associate, Cooperatives UK; Co Author, The Resilience Imperative.
Renate Goergen: President, Le Mat Europe; Board Member, European Social Franchise Network (ESFN).
Christian Iaione: Associate Professor of Public Law, Guglielmo Marconi University of Rome; Fellow, Urban Law Center at Fordham University; Director, LabGov – Laboratory for the Governance of the Commons.
Mike Lewis: Executive Director, Canadian Centre for Community Renewal; Co Author, The Resilience Imperative.
Julie MacArthur: Assistant Professor, Environmental Politics & Public Policy, University of Auckland; Author of Empowering Electricity: Sustainability Co-operatives and Power Sector Reform in Canada.
Jason Nardi: Co-ordinator, RIPESS Europe.
John Restakis: Executive Director, Community Evolution Foundation; Adjunct Professor, Simon Fraser University, Author – Humanizing the Economy – Co-operatives in the Age of Capital.
Marco Tulli, Emiliano Cecchino, Davide Bonsigniore: Off Grid Academy.
The Synergia Summer Institute is 2 weeks in duration. It will take place from September 11 – 23, 2016 at Monte Ginezzo in Tuscany. The course instruction will be in English.
The centre is located on Monte Ginezzo, and situated on a 300 hectare protected forest and bird sanctuary overlooking the Val di Chiana and Lake Trasimeno. It is approximately 17 km outside the Etruscan hill town of Cortona and is easily reachable by car. The Camucia-Cortona train station is on the main rail route connecting Rome to Florence. Cortona is 2.5 hours from Rome and only 45 minutes from Florence.
Monte Ginezzo provides shared accommodation to all program participants as part of your registration fee. Guests share comfortable rooms with up to two other guests, with no more than three guests to a room. Space is also available for those who wish to camp.
Monte Ginezzo will provide traditional home-cooked Italian meals as part of the registration cost.
Monte Ginezzo offers guests access to a swimming pool, numerous hiking and biking trails, horse back riding, and trail bikes for rent on site. Also available are guided tours to Cortona and other destination points in the region including world famous wine tours and archeological sites. On weekends, culinary courses are available. And near the Centre there are a number of excellent restaurants. As well, Cortona is approximately 15 minutes by car and offers visitors a rich variety of eateries, cafés, wine bars and shopping.
Visitors to Monte Ginezzo will arrive at Camucia-Cortona train station, which has regular service from both Rome and Florence throughout the day.
For train schedules: www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en
Car rentals are available in Camucia at: www.sixt.com/car-rental/italy/cortona
Travel AgencyTuscan Magic: www.tuscanmagic.net
Registration for the Synergia Summer Institute is 1,500 Euros, which includes accommodation, travel to site visits, and meals for the full 2 weeks (except weekends). We are also offering the option of a one-week program. Registration for the one-week program is 1,000 Euros.
Register by contacting John Restakis at [email protected].
Payment will be accepted via Paypal.
Note: A minimum of 12 registrants must be confirmed by August 5 for the course to proceed. Should this number not be registered at that time, the registration fee will be refunded to the applicants.
For additional information on the Synergia Institute please visit:
synergiainstitute.wordpress.com/synergia-summer-institute/
Follow us on Facebook for regular updates on the program:
www.facebook.com/synergiainstitute/
Any other questions, please contact John Restakis at: [email protected]
The post Synergia Summer Institute registration reduced appeared first on P2P Foundation.
]]>