Commons as an Alternative

Commons as an Alternative

Jukka PeltokoskiKSL Civic Association for Adult Learning

[email protected]://slideshare.net/jukpelto

What kind of Alternative?

● Commons = shared resources● Commoners = producing and sharing res.● Cooperation, co-creation● Community vs. private and public● Close to social economy● Power of networks, wisdom of crowds● Open source, Wikipedia, Linux,

crowdsourcing, time banking, couchsurfing, cooperatives, urban space, everyman's right, biodiversity...

Themes of the lecture

● Precariat as a new subjectivity● Commons

■ Concept■ Types■ P2P■ Solidarity economy■ Peer to peer state■ Theoreticians

● Vision: Coalition of constructive powers● Commons.fi

What is precariat?

● Latin "precarius"● Italian (precario), French (précaire),

Spanish (precario)● Uncertainty, being at the mercy of● Compare "pray"● Crisis of welfare state● Flexibility of labor markets

What is precariat?

● Studied from the 1970's● Politicized in the 2000's● EuroMayDay process 2003-2010● Temp workers, part time workers, self

employed, entrepreneurs, unemployed, immigrants, students, media and social movement activists, radical unionists, greens, leftists, etc.

● Demand for social Europe and basic income

From Precarity to Commons

● Common resources reduce uncertainty● Creative work is based on commoning● New possibilities to create alternative

■ Subjective■ Technological■ Permanent state of crisis

● New necessities really to do it!■ Ecological catastrophe■ Neo-fascist comeback■ Debt economy

What are the Commons?

"General term for shared resources in which each stakeholder has an equal interest. Goods which are jointly developed and maintained by a community and shared according to community-defined rules."- P2P Foundation

What are Commons?

http://youtu.be/k0ZWFPVBTws

What are the Commons?

"The salient characteristic of commons, as opposed to property, is that no single person has exclusive control over the use and disposition of any particular resource in the commons. Instead, resources governed by commons may be used or disposed of by anyone among some (more or less well-defined) number of persons, under rules that may range from 'anything goes' to quite crisply articulated formal rules that are effectively enforced."- Yohai Benkler

What are the Commons?

The commons “refers to that vast range of resources that people collectively own, but which are rapidly being enclosed: privatized, traded in the market, and abused.” - David Bollier

See: https://vimeo.com/album/245612/video/17781175

What are the Commons?

"Every commons has four characteristics: a resource; the people who share it; the value created through its production or preservation; and the rules that govern it."- Silke Helfrich

What are the Commons?

"The word 'common' is the best starting point for the analysis. The common thing within a commons are the resources, which are used and cared for, are the goods resulting from joint activities, and are the social relationships emerging from acting together. These three aspects are so different for all commons, that no one could describe them in a reasonably complete manner."- Stefan Meretz

Distinctions

● Private / public / common● Commons / common pool res. / public goods● Natural / social / informational commons● Scarce / abundant● Conservation / creation

● Can commons be made by private or public actors?

Etymology

● Latin 'communis' = shared, public, common● 'Co' = together● 'Munus' = gift, duty● 'Immunis' = free from duties● 'Communitas' = political association● 'Res Communes' = third property form● 'Common land' = land system in Medieval

England and Wales■ Large enclosures in the end of the 18th century

Tragedy of the Commons

● Garrett Hardin 1968■ Overconsumption of the common land■ Individual rationality causes social damage■ Claims for social restrictions and privatisation

● Elinor Ostrom (Nobel 2009)■ Tragedy of the unrestricted commons■ Human history proves about sustainable

commons■ Commons vs. common pool resources

● Michael Heller: Tragedy of the anticommons, 1998

Other Commoners

Yohai Benkler, Chris Andersson, David Bollier, Michel Bauwens, Peter Linebaugh, Lawrence Lessig, Richard Stallman, Eben Moglen, Rick Falkvinge, Michael Heller, Elinor Ostrom, Silke Helfrich, Christian Siefkes, Antonio Negri, Michael Hardt, Nick Dyer-Witheford, George Caffentzis, John Holloway, David Harvey

Stephan Meretz's Taxonomy of Goods

http://www.slideshare.net/StefanMz/understanding-commons-and-peer-production

Commons Based Peer Production

● Yochai Benkler: The Wealth of Network, 2006● Network model of production● Mass participation without trad. hierarchy● Emphasis on intrinsic motivation, open

participation and shared information● Microtask, crowdsourcing, open innovation...

P2P as Hyper-productivity (Bauwens)

● Internet enabling the self-organizing of the value production on global scale

● Open innovation communities, ethical entrepreneurship

● Challenge to apply the experience of free and open software to 'hardware'

● Struggle between 'netarchy' and cognitariat ● Partner state needed to enable commoning

and fair trade

Becoming of the Commons Coalition

http://youtu.be/-tj72CWhK-k

Commons.fi | What is to be Co-done?

● New publication and research project● Commons, solidarity economy, social

movements● Open network of interested people● Common pool resource

http://commons.fi

Commons.fi Group in FB:https://www.facebook.com/groups/303831303047659

Commons● https://vimeo.com/album/245612/video/17781175 (Bollier on commons)● http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwaNZgY9PCQ (Tragedy of the

commons)● http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0ZWFPVBTws (What are commons)● http://www.slideshare.net/StefanMz/understanding-commons-and-

peer-production (Meretz’s presentation)● http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons● http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_anticommons

P2P● http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tj72CWhK-k (Bauwens: Grand

Coalition)● http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/03/20123111423139193.

html (Bauwens: Partner State)● http://www.tni.org/article/unleashing-creativity-labour (Stuttgart model)● http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/summary-theses-on-the-emergence-of-the-

peer-to-peer-civilization-and-a-new-political-economy/2010/02/28 (Bauwens: Thesis Summary)

Solidarity economy● http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarity_economy● http://turbulence.org.uk/turbulence-1/solidarity-economics/

Commons.fi● http://commons.fi

Thank you!

Jukka PeltokoskiKSL ry | http://[email protected]

http://slideshare.net/jukpelto