E71 | The Commons Series: Toward a Higher Logic of Markets & the State, w/ Michel Bauwens & Tim Adalin

Welcome to the first in a series of conversations about the Commons, the meaning of which will be explored in this conversation as a forgotten societal institution which ought be considered in the same breath alongside concepts like the market and the state.

 
  • Many people sense that the structures of modern society aren’t up to the task of carrying forward a viable, non-dystopic global civilization. But how can we begin to think about alternatives?

    Michel Bauwens is a theorist of civilizational transition, exploring a higher logic of societal structure that seeks to incorporate the positive functions of markets and states, without vesting the future in traditional systems like capitalism or communism.

    • Brief overview of traditional economics & political economy

    • The Commons: a forgotten institution of society

    • Cosmo-localism

    • Commons economics & planetary boundaries

    • The forced choice of deglobalisation

    • Understanding Degrowth

    • Commons as a regenerative, preservative institution

    • A higher logic of market, states and commons

    • “What pricing is to the market, and planning is to the state, stigmergy is to the commons”

    • Holoptism — seeing the whole from a peer to peer point of view

    • Market as a scarcity management system, capitalism as a scarcity engineering system

    • What is the common good?

    • Osho as the founding of neo-liberal man

    • Spirituality, Osho, Masons, Somewheres, Anywheres & Identity

    • Peer to Peer and Commoning as key to the transition today

    • Recapping the arguments so far

    • “What is the universal church today?”

    • What Michel learned from the Masons, Rosicrucians, and Templars

    • The priority for Commons activity today

  • As of 2007, Michel Bauwens is the founder of the Foundation for Peer-to-Peer Alternatives and works in collaboration with a global group of researchers in the exploration of peer production, governance, and property. He also co-founded the the Commons Strategies Group ( http://p2pfoundation.net/Berlin_Commons_Conference ). He is listed at #82, on the Post-Carbon Institute (En)Rich list, http://enrichlist.org/the-list/) for his contributions to positive social change.

    Michel has taught on technology and related topics at St. Louis, Brussels, Payap University, Chiang Mai, and Dhurakit Pandit University, Bangkok; he has been Primavera Research Fellow at the University of Amsterdam; and external expert at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (2008, 2012). Michel Bauwens has advised the Board of the Union of International Associations (Brussels), Shareable magazine (San Francisco), the Zumbara Time Bank (Istanbul) and ShareLex (France); the “Association Les Rencontres du Mont-Blanc, Forum International des Dirigeants de l’Economie Sociale et Solidaire” (2013-). He was nominated as the Chair of the Technology/ICT working group, Hangwa Forum (Beijing, Sichuan), in charge of distributed manufacturing. He has been editor in chief of the magazine Wave, has written editorials for Al Jazeera English, articles for Shareable, along with peer-reviewed articles for scientific journals. He has co-produced the 3-hour TV documentary Technocalyps, with Frank Theys. Michel has written several books in Dutch, French, and English, such as Peer to Peer, the Commons Manifesto.

    In the 1990s, after a first nine year stint as analyst for USIA, Michel worked as strategic knowledge manager for British Petroleum, editor in chief for riverland Publications, eBusiness Strategy director for Belgacom, and he created two internet start-ups, eCom (intranet/extranet) and KyberCo (interactive marketing) which were sold to Alcatel and Virtuaholdings respectively..”

  • Voicecraft conversations expand how the world is known.

    We create media that seeks to add value to the commons, with interests in the fundamental dynamics of psyche, culture, and nature.

    Voicecraft is comprised of a media & events platform, academy, and participatory membership network: cultivating culture in participation with open hearts and dedicated minds.

 
 

 

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E67 | The Masculine & Feminine Series  (Approaching The Mystery) w/ Adriana Forte, Guy Sengstock, Tim Adalin