Ten Years after the Crash, Civil Society has Come a Long Way. But Much More Remains to Be Done
Here are ten things that have changed over the past ten years, including some huge achievements, that should be cause for hope and celebration.
new economy
Defending Degrowth at Ecomodernism’s Home
In this context, degrowth is the proposal to intentionally shrink the physical size of wealthy economies, whereas decoupling is the hope that growing economies will at last break free from growing resource use and environmental damage.
Community Development and the Commons
What if community development was actually shaped by all members of the community, not just the most privileged and most likely to profit?
How the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative is Pioneering a Model for Equitable Housing
The East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative is an impressive burgeoning commons legal institution that’s aimed at the decommodification of housing.
Move Over, Bitcoin Bros: A Green Cryptocurrency is Here
To borrow a boxing analogy, if Bitcoin is an unceasing, ever-escalating zero-sum brawl, Bitcoin Green is a group of people with a common purpose standing in a circle and holding hands. Bitcoin Green participants are rewarded just for entering the ring — no fighting required.
The Commons, Short and Sweet
I am always trying to figure out how to explain the idea of the commons to newcomers who find it hard to grasp. Here is a fairly short overview, which I think gets to the nub of things.
Owning the Future: Strategies for a Democratic Economy
Ownership matters. Who owns and controls the productive wealth of nations and communities is fundamental to how an economic system operates and in whose interests.
Where Next for the New Economy Movement?
The question we explored was simple: “how do we get to a new economy?” How exactly do we move forward with sophistication and seriousness to build the power necessary to take on the existing system? As Makani Themba, one of the conference’s plenary speakers put it, “It’s not just about how we build a new, parallel economy—it’s also about how we starve the beast which is the current one.”
Omnia Sunt Communia: Review
Hence the commons, by growth, can reduce its need for interaction with the circuit of capital via the cash nexus, and incorporate more and more basic functions of life into itself. The commons are constrained by the fact that they coexist with capital and the state.
By Rewriting our Past, We can Rewrite our Future
Our history would be simple if we could classify it neatly into dominating alpha-males versus cooperative hunter-gatherers, but the experience of agency gives us not one but two fundamental impulses. As well as the desire not to be dominated it gives us the impulse to explore our individuality
Five Ways to Curb the Power of Corporations and Billionaires
Transnational corporations have become the dominant force directing our world. Humanity is accelerating toward a precipice of overconsumption, and the large transnationals are the primary agents driving us there.
Imagining an Economy That Serves the 99%
Those who benefit most from the status quo spend a lot of money to persuade the rest of us that this – an economy that serves the top 1% — is good for us and, in fact, the best we can do.
