Reinventing Commons Governance in Modern Times
I believe commoning remains one of the more promising avenues that we have for addressing the profound structural challenges of contemporary politics, economics, and culture.
commoning
Open Source Seeds and Commoning Mushrooms: The Iriaiken Philosophy
The appropriation of seeds raises a profound challenge to farmers and, really, everyone, because we all have to eat.
Beating the Bounds: Inside the Struggle to Make Open Source Seed
Commoners in medieval Europe variously employed boundary beating as physical mapping of space, territorial defense, and performative acts of community, collective memory, and shared responsibility.
Hacking the Law to Open Up Zones of Commoning
Can commoning be affirmatively protected via conventional state law while respecting the integrity of commoning as a post-capitalist social form?
The Art of the Legal Hack, as Pioneered by Janelle Orsi
SELC has advised over 1,500 grassroots groups, and when necessary, initiated policy initiatives to try to change laws and regulations that otherwise impede collective ownership and commoning.
Now Published: ‘The Great Awakening: New Modes of Life Amidst Capitalist Ruins’
I am happy to announce the publication of a new anthology that I co-edited with Professor Anna Grear, Professor of Law and Theory at Cardiff University in the UK. The book is entitled The Great Awakening: New Modes of Life Amidst Capitalist Ruins, released by punctum books last week.
Caring and Thriving: The Social Security Engendered by Commoning
So there is a direct link between economic crises and the crisis of our social security system. This should scare us all. We know there will be another crisis.
Nathan Schneider’s Bounty of Fresh Ideas for Cooperatives
How can cooperatives serve as vehicles for social change, especially in online spaces? What practical interventions could check the anti-social behaviors of Big Tech? These are two questions that I explored recently with Nathan Schneider…
Ontology as a Hidden Driver of Politics
Today’s mainstream political and economic discourses are increasingly sterile and unfit in large part because they are based on incorrect assumptions about the nature of being.
Medialab Prado: Applying the Open Source Ethic to Civic Innovation
Medialab Prado is helping citizens and society evolve together in more thoughtful ways. “A big question we should always be asking ourselves,” said García, “is how we want to be living together.
The Pandemic as a Catalyst for Institutional Innovation (Part II)
Our years of leisurely critique of neoliberal capitalism are over. Now we need to take action to escape from its pathologies and develop new types of governance, provisioning, and social forms.
Provisioning Through Commons
Trained to see the dismemberment of complex production processes as efficient and natural, and its segregation from consumption as a core premise of “the economy,” economists tend to overlook a more elegant, practical approach to provisioning — commoning.