Peer2Politics

* Report: Fair Share. Reclaiming power in the sharing economy. By Brhmie Balaram. RSA, 2016 Excerpted from the recommended RSA report, by Brhmie Balaram: “While self-regulation is remedying some issues in the sharing economy, we theorise we would see better results from widening participation. The concept of self- regulation should be pushed further than government …

Regarding the book: * Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work. by Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams. Verso, 2015 I must confess, I have not read the book yet, but I am familiar with the ‘accelerationist’ manifesto, with various reviews and discussions on the book, etc .. There is probably not a single …

The paper will offer a more progressive vision to the smart city vision to legitimate city as commons ideas within the domain of civic public policy

“Relying on green capitalism to implement a prevention program using the usual market-driven mechanisms is a recipe for disaster. Global carbon emissions continue to climb while market-led renewable energy growth is much too slow to replace fossil fuels in such a short window.” This is an excerpt from an interview of biochemist David Schwartzman by …

As the sharing economy explodes in growth, with new startups emerging regularly, many city officials are left scratching their heads wondering how to deal with this industry. From Uber and Airbnb, which have become what Shareable co-founder Neal Gorenflo describes as “death star platforms," to local sharing projects, much of the sharing economy remains in grey areas.

This manifesto is supported by a string of personalities from the business side of the new economy as well: “Common ground for independent workers: Principles for delivering a stable and flexible safety net for all types of work “New technologies and business models are fundamentally changing the economic landscape across the country, adding value to …

Are there also ‘commons’ choices for climate change ? James Quilligan says yes! * Interest Rates and Climate Change: Realigning our Incentives through the Power of the Commons. By James Bernard Quilligan. Kosmos Journal, FALL | WINTER 2010 Excerpted from James Quilligan: “During the past several decades, humanity has emerged as a perilous force of …

Great presentation by the former Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, on the democracy deficit in EU institutions. Watch the video here:

“Not hat long ago, I had a conversation with Ioannis Margaris, the CEO of the Greek state energy producer, a technician and economic theorist who is investing a lot of his own energy in transforming Greek electricity production into peer-to-peer production. Before he joined the energy firm’s senior executive team Margaris was a researcher at …

P2P Plazas: one year of research looking for interesting, challenging and inspiring autonomous experiences in Southern Europe

“”What an amazing day on Sunday at Mindful Uprising: a pop-up People’s Summit in Melbourne. Thanks Michel Bauwens for presenting your inspirational vision for a p2p commons-based society; Richard and Laurent from Centre for the Future for co-sponsoring and hosting the event with Melbourne Polytechnic; Daryl for bringing the Summit into being; Jose for co-facilitating the Open Space session with me & our Connectors Michelle, Julian, Aidan & Mike. At the end of the day we were proud to announce the formation of the Commons Transition Coalition and now invite our friends in Adelaide (Sharon), Sydney (Declan), Brisbane (Michelle), Canberra (David), NZ (Sam) and others to work with us to develop a charter and plan for 2016.”

Why is this distinction important ? Sheila Foster explains: “The idea that like natural resources/commons the city can not just be over-consumed but also unjustly consumed. The commons is a way to call attention to this and to describe not just a practice of commoning (cooperatives, co-managed space and collaborative produced goods, etc) but also …

“Data on patterns and infrastructure must be a collective property, managed by the government. Each new player on the market must have a chance to become at least as large as other providers. A decentralized market benefits the user and provides tax revenues that could be collected locally. We look forward to the introduction of …

A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of democracy. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: The state-sponsored bankers and the Eurogroup, the Troika and Dr Schäuble, Spain’s heirs of Franco’s political legacy and the SPD’s Berlin leadership, Baltic governments that subjected their populations to terrible, unnecessary recession and Greece’s resurgent oligarchy.