Peer2Politics

The following book review describes the shift from traditional tribal societies, which was based on the trust of knowing each other personally in small communities, to the shift towards big centralized empires, which required a common fear of God to create trust amongst strangers. Contining with such a evolutonary perspectve we could posit the phase …

This is excerpted from a book originally published 30 years ago, by Dieter Duhm, initiator of the Tamera community in Portugal. This is the final excerpt in this serialization of Dieter Duhm: “Building a humane community usually means confronting difficulties that are deeply rooted in the character structures of modern man and especially in the …

Excerpted from Jathan Sadowski and Frank Pasquale: At one end of the spectrum of control are the technologies that enact their power in subtle ways. They are increasingly ubiquitous and become subsumed into the background of everyday life due to their ‘invisibility’ (Star, 1999). That is, they can be functionally invisible because people no longer …

What would individualism and collectivity look like outside the logic of equivalence, i.e. comparing individuals based on external criteria, which was introduced in western modernity ? This book looks at the working of individuality and collectivity amongst Amazonian natives. * Book: Under a Watchful Eye: Self, Power, and Intimacy in Amazonia By Harry Walker. University …

The kibbutzim inspired by Gordon understood through practice that every community is the result of the development of interpersonal links between its members. Structural and hierarchy, they said, is nothing but a “mechanical” impression, with its own logic, which is apparently rational, but really alien.

Excerpted from LISA DEPIANO: “I came to permaculture via community organizing in the global justice movement and drew many connections between what I had learned about being a good organizer and the permaculture principles. The following is a list of 10 permaculture principles with an example of social permaculture in action. This was developed in …

* Essay: Par Cum Pari. Notes on the Horizontality of Peer to Peer Relationships in the Context of the Verticality of a Hierarchy of Values. Michel Bauwens. In: Pursuing the Common Good: How Solidarity and Subsidiarity Can Work Together. Fourteenth Plenary Session, 1-6 May 2008. Acta 14, eds Margaret S. Archer and Pierpaolo Donati. Vatican …

* Article: The Blind Spot: Uncovering the Grammar of the Social Field. Otto Scharmer. From the abstract: “Today, in most social systems, we collectively produce results that no one wants. These results show up in the form of environmental, social, and cultural destruction. The ecological divide (which disconnects self from nature), the social divide (which …

Better late than ever, but the atmospherics of this video are an interesting reflection on peer production cultures amongst farmers. Watch the video here:

A new society could arise on the same technological base that is now still predominantly destroying the social bonds. The digital networks might be the prime catalysts in the transformation from today’s consumer society into what he calls a ‘society of contribution’. This is a strongly recommended interview to get to know the otherwise difficult …

By Eric Hunting: “What is the future of social interaction and organization on the Internet? What comes after Facebook and Twitter? One possibility is the Social-Semantic Network as explored in projects like Netention. A Social-Semantic Network is the application of Semantic Web technology to the coordination of human connections, exchanges, and communication through the automated …

“The current crisis is accelerating the oligarchical counter-revolution that began in the 1970s. On the other, the crisis of salaried work is not limited to one possible outcome. It contains different possibilities, some of which favor well-being and social or individual autonomy.” * Book: La Fábrica del Emprendedor: Trabajo y política en la empresa-mundo (The …

In-depth conversation about the role of love in the engaged life, a conversation with David Kim for the Manhattan Neighborhood Network. Watch the video here:

* The Book of Abundance. Reflections on abundance, economics, and community by the las Indias collective. Translated by Level Translation. Grassroots Economic Organizing, 2015. This excerpt was chosen by translator Steve Herrick: “Abundance exists when it becomes unnecessary to work out what is produced and what not, and above all, how much access to a …