Dear all,
just a short note:

Once the new university-like "institution" I was talking about is running ("classes" start by early January 2014, and I hope official recognition is underway) I'll post some more information via this list.

There is a huge need to show that also our educational systems can be remodeled as commons; and the good thing is, this is nothing new at all, we can learn from practices worldwide.

May be at some point we should think about putting all this experience together and discussing it in depth!
For me -for instance - the zapatistas approach is extremely inspiring (but different from what we also need to do here in Germany); or the campesino a campesino programms all over the world - so how to get this into higher education in countries like mine?
Perhaps sbd want's to start collecting these experiences (EDUCATION AS COMMONING) on the P2P website?

Very best
Silke


Am 18.12.2013 06:54, schrieb davste@spektral.at:

Hi

I just get home from big student protests after the new austrian
government abrogated the 'ministry of science and research". It's now
part of the 'ministry for economy'.

I am also quite interested in the free university projects going on. My
overall interest is in co-operative learning not only within the
academic sphere but outside of the university, also
academic-and-non-academic learning together.

Since we are trying out a kind of 'free and open university' project in
Graz I am facing many questions.
There're concerning:
* learning from (urban) commons projects.
* How can we use the city as resource? How can we participate in urban
development to create a city for our needs? (Since german commons
summerschool with silke I am thinking of how to 'activate' people in
participating in urban development. This can also be seen as a kind of
strategy against enclosure of urban commons)
* the integration of people of different social groups (e.g. academic
and non-academic, from different cultures/countries) and of different
age for learning practices, also research and working on solutions in
one's everyday life.

Our project in Graz is (right now) in the very beginning and we are
still searching for people who have knowledge and experience about
education. So far we are trying out different things: skill sharing,
using online courses, reading circles and practical stuff. Our first
trial is concerning gardening. Ecology and biology is too theoretical,
so we wanna use the community gardens in Graz. We are trying to include
very different groups and people of different age (starting with
kindergarden, also people in retirement).

Best
David

Dante-Gabryell Monson <dante.monson@gmail.com> wrote:

    Interesting Silke.

    Feels already closer to a "Cooperative of Learners" :)

    Is it a face to face real world living space you imagine ?

    I am interested in projects that could happen in Germany.

    How big would you imagine to start off ?

    Can it build on something existing ?
    Some existing faculties ? Possibly a continuation of a program, to
    start with ?
    If so, which ones would be interested , as to help learned to bring
    research and projects further into life, beyond conventional Phd's ?
      And feeding a commons ?

    Could it be in collaboration with existing "Open Universities", or
    platforms such as Gaia University ? http://www.gaiauniversity.org/

    Somehow, what you suggest, with support to the learners / students
    costs, reminds me also of the Steiner backed Youth Initiative
    Program http://yip.se/
    ( if not already in touch, I ll gladly support with networking )

    I somehow imagine it like small co-living / co-learning spaces,
    which could be networked within one same area.

    I also remember vaguely ( do not remember the references )
    some project in Berlin which focused on networking various places (
    including work spaces ? ) open to sharing learning ?

    ///

    Is there any convergence space online where it is already possible
    to stay updated in relation to the vision you express ?
    If not in the short term, for whenever there is a more specific
    definition of such vision ?

    Just stumbled on this mail and links , which are likely common
    knowledge to most people on this list ? :

    https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/op-n-m/NaFQsXmBU4k

    Note : or instead of an opposition between a limited capitalist
    market Vs commons,
    are we rather talking about *non-monopolistic commons based markets *?

    *Markets in the form of available information with a variety of
    criteria* - not only based on price in terms of monopolist tokens ?

http://p2pfoundation.net/Logic_of_the_Market_versus_the_Logic_of_the_Commons

http://commonsblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/the-commons-year-one-of-the-global-commons-movement/

    also reminds me of Festivalism
    http://p2pfoundation.net/Festivalism
http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/papers/Festivalism_at_Work.html

    also see Kevin Carson's :
http://homebrewindustrialrevolution.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/contents/


      The Table


        The Logic of the Market versus the Logic of the Commons

        *Market*    *Commons*
    *Focus*

    What can I sell?Exchange value



    What do we need?Use value

    *Core beliefs*    Scarcity    Plenty
        Homo oeconomicus    Homo cooperans
        It's about resources (allocation)/./    It's about us.
    *Governance*    Market-State    Polycentric / Peer-to-Peer Governance
    Decision making    hierarchical    horizontal
    Command (Power, Law, Violence)    Consensus, Free Cooperation,
    self-organization
    *Social relationships*    Centralization of power (monopoly)

    Decentralization of power(autonomy)

        Property    Possession
    Access to rival resources    Limited by boundaries & rules defined by
    owner    Limited by boundaries & rules defined by usergroups
    Access to nonrival resources    Made scarce (to ensure profitability)
    Open access (to ensure social equity)
    Use rights    Granted by owner    Co-decided by user groups
    *Dominant strategy*    Out-compete    Out-cooperate
    *Results*
    For the resources

    ErosionEnclosure



    Conservation Reproduction & Multiplication

    For the people    Exlusion & Participation    Inclusion & Emancipation

      * Source: The Commons: Year One of the Global Commons Movement by
        Silke Helfrich (29. Januar 2011)
<http://commonsblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/the-commons-year-one-of-the-global-commons-movement/>


http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/papers/Festivalism_at_Work.html

    **

    *Table One: Spectacle and Festival*

    *Spectacle*

        **

    *Festival*

     1. Work
     2. Work or play time
     3. Imposed patterns of behavior
     4. Dead time
     5. Religions of consumption
     6. Pseudo desires
     7. Pseudo needs
     8. Loss of Self
     9. Colonized spaces
    10. Spectator
    11. Functionary
    12. Survival of the Fittest/Richest



     1. Play
     2. Work and play
     3. Freely constructed behavior
     4. Live time
     5. Self
     6. Transparent desires
     7. Transparent needs
     8. Self-Management
     9. Free spaces
    10. Participant/Co-designer
    11. Self-Managed
    12. Coevolution and Co-survival






    http://p2pfoundation.net/Category:Business_Models

http://p2pfoundation.net/Category:Economics#Towards_an_Ethical_Economy:


            Towards an Ethical Economy
            <http://p2pfoundation.net/Ethical_Economy>:

      * *The Ethical Economy <http://p2pfoundation.net/Ethical_Economy>.
        Rebuilding Value After the Crisis. By Adam Arvidsson
        <http://p2pfoundation.net/Adam_Arvidsson> and Nicolai Peitersen.
        Columbia University Press, 2013*

     1. Reciprocity. An Economics of Social Relations
<http://p2pfoundation.net/Economics_of_Social_Relations>.
        Serge-Christophe Kolm. Cambridge University Press, 2008*[24]
<http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/item1174852/?site_locale=en_GB>*
     2. Macrojustice. The Political Economy of Fairness
<http://p2pfoundation.net/Political_Economy_of_Fairness>. By
        Serge-Christophe Kolm. Cambridge University Press, 2005 [25]
<http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/item1171540/?site_locale=en_GB>
     3. Herman Daly. For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward
        Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?link_code=ur2&tag=p2pfoundation-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fproduct%2F0807047058%2Fref%3Dpd_sim_b_2%3F%255Fencoding%3DUTF8%26v%3Dglance%26n%3D283155>.
        Beacon Press, 1994
     4. Natural Capitalism
        <http://p2pfoundation.net/Natural_Capitalism>: Creating the Next
        Industrial Revolution – Paul Hawken


            On Monetary Economics and Transformation:

     1. *The Future of Money <http://p2pfoundation.net/Future_of_Money>.
        Creating New Wealth, Work, and a Wiser World. Bernard Lietaer
<http://p2pfoundation.net/Category:Economics?title=Bernard_Lietaer&action=edit&redlink=1>.
        Random House* free pdf
<http://www.techrules.com/clients/aeatonline/docs/Bernard%20Lietaer%20-%20The%20future%20of%20money.pdf>
     2. Local Money <http://p2pfoundation.net/Local_Money>: How To Make
        It Happen In Your Community – Peter North




    On Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 7:58 PM, Silke Helfrich
    <silke.helfrich@gmx.de <mailto:silke.helfrich@gmx.de>> wrote:

        Dear John

        I very much agree with you and am therefor happy to participate
        in a new attempt to open a University in Germany which is based
        on exactly the ideas you mention:

        Students won't only pay (hopefully money the get as a gift from
        somewhere/ that is what we try to organize - there has to be
        gift-money in education), they also will receive the money, that
        is they will - as a students organization - manage the fees  by
        themselves which to some extend will be the most important
        infrastructure of the University. (I say "to some extend"
        because there are still some rules to fit into the current
        system to get the title of a University) .

        The concept is so consequent to say: "and if the students don't
        need the University anymore, the University should close". As
        you said: education is relational.

        Very best
        Silke


        Am 16.12.2013 15:22, schrieb John:

            Dear Folks,

            There is nothing inherently wrong with paying someone for a
            service they
            provide to you. Indeed, one of the absurdities of the present
            educational set up is precisely that students have so little
            say in the
            educational services they pay for. There was a time when some
            universities were operated as student-run educational
            co-operatives in
            which students subjected the professors that they were going
            to hire to
            scrupulous cross examination before approving their positions as
            educational service providers to the student body. This was
            the case at
            the University of Bologna until quite recently.

            So, one angle of approach is for students to have far more
            control over
            the selection of faculty, over the design and evaluation of
            courses, and
            of the running of the university itself – in partnership
            with the
            teachers themselves and other community stakeholders.

            Education is a classic /relational good/, that is, a good
            that is

            co-produced by the provider and the recipient of the service
            /together/.  Education doesn't happen unless /both/ parties
            are fully

            engaged in the exchange of knowledge relations, and it is
            optimally
            produced when the educational relationship is one of
            reciprocity and
            equality. This is the reason why authentic education is not
            a commodity
            – it is an exchange of human relations and revolves around
            the question
            of the nature of knowledge production.

            The creation of equality, of reciprocal educational
            relationships, and
            the provision of control rights to students is the heart of how
            educational institutions need to be reformed. Unless this
            happens,
            everything else is a sideshow and a distraction.

            John

            On 13-12-16 4:49 AM, Joss Winn wrote:

                On 16/12/2013 09:13, "mp"<mp@aktivix.org
                <mailto:mp@aktivix.org>>  wrote:

                    On 15/12/13 19:03,anna@shsh.co.uk
                    <mailto:anna@shsh.co.uk>  wrote:

                        I certainly don't want to criticise the idea of
                        a cooperative
                        university and all the work you are doing at the
                        SSC. However the
                        fundamental distinction between students and
                        teachers is that the
                        former have to pay and the latter get paid.

                    Is that what they call capitalism? Social relations
                    revolving around a
                    commodity form, in this case "education" as the
                    commodity? Giving
                    structure to a hierarchy, where there are experts
                    (controlling the means
                    of (knowledge) production) and followers (consuming
                    the produced
                    knowledge commodities, if they can afford it)?

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