In his recent speech at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, researcher, activist, and author David Bollier argued that urban enclosures, which he says is the “privatization of shared wealth,” create jam-packed cities by commodifying shared resources.

Bollier presented a new vision for cities — one driven by bottom-up engagement, citizen participation, and innovative ways of thinking about shared spaces and resources.

Bollier argued that to reclaim our cities as commons we need to treat our vital urban resources as shareable common wealth. Doing so creates more long-term value as people have the opportunity to be empowered and to do things themselves. He pointed to several examples supporting the urban commons, including:

• Creative Commons Licensing, which enables people to share and freely use creative works
• FabLabs and Makerspaces, which are new social forms for creating valuable stuff through a commons-based collaboration
• Platform Cooperatives, which create shared platforms “as an antidote to the so-called death stars” of the sharing economy
• Alternative Currencies as a way to retain some of the value created regionally as opposed to having it siphoned away
• Non-digital commons projects, including land trusts, urban agriculture and community gardens, and participatory budgeting projects which empower citizens to work with city leaders to create budget priorities

Bollier concluded by emphasizing that cities can be incubators for developing new solutions to systemic problems and that transnational partnerships between cities around the world will be an important element to further the movement of cities as a commons.

Video description: “A new type of citizen economy is emerging – the City as a Commons. This is not a tech platform or economic strategy as such, but a bold re-imagining of the city as a living social organism that invites everyone to co-create, open-source style. Through FabLabs, data sharing, platform co-operatives and many participatory systems, innovative urban commons are transforming city governance, commerce, design, social services, and everyday life.”

By Cat Johnson; cross-posted from Shareable

The post How Can We Redesign Cities as Shared Spaces? appeared first on P2P Foundation.

From the New Economy, to New Ways to Work

A two and a half hour discussion and workshop with Michel Bauwens, invited panelists and the public, to explore and discuss the emerging commons movement and peer to peer / solidarity economy, and its implications for new ways to work.

Fri, October 14, 2016 from 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM, in Melbourne, Australia

Michel Bauwens will provide an overview of the Commons Movement and worldwide initiatives transitioning from paid labour in the neoliberal capitalist system to regionally based collective economies, with a focus on new modes of work, platform co-operatives and how to make an ethical living in this new economy.

The workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to:

• learn basic information about the Commons Movement (and Michel’s work)
• get deeper into a discussion about how work is and will be structured within the emerging movement
• network with others and connect with the local Commons Transitions Coalition.

Find out more and register for the event here.

The post Michel Bauwens in Melbourne, Australia: From the New Economy, to New Ways to Work appeared first on P2P Foundation.