see http://www.generation-online.org/c/fc_rent14.htm quotes via Carlo Vercellone <https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carlo-Vercellone/102563563135748?fref=mentions&hc_location=group> "To the temptations of a naturalist approach it is necessary to oppose the theoretical and political need for a materialist approach to the Common, as it alone can, in our view, comprehend the reasons for its current popularity and organise its potential. According to this approach, the Common is always a social and political construct, whether it refers to a mode of organising or a set of criteria to ascribe the status of common goods to a set of resources, goods or services. The ontological foundation, determined historically, of the current position of the Common, cannot be ascribed to the intrinsic nature of goods, but to the ability of labour to self-organise, an ability that in contemporary capitalism relies on the potential autonomy of the cooperation of cognitive labour. For those who approach the Common in the singular, the Common is neither a predetermined set of goods, nor a third intruder between State and the market, but a general principle of organisation for society. As Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri claim (2012), the “common” is not an object, a substance that precedes and transcends human existence; the “common” is a socially and historically determinate activity that continuously produces new institutions, and these are at the same time the conditions and the product of the “common” itself. Compared to economic theories of common goods, this results in a double reversal in theoretical and methodological terms." "It is therefore the very approach of the theory of public and common goods that must be overturned. We must not start from an abstract typology of goods, but from the concrete, historic forms of work that produce the goods themselves. In short, it is the ability of work to cooperate and organise itself differently compared to the logic of private and public that ultimately determines the propensity of a series of goods or resources to be managed according to the principles of the Common. Now, in post-Fordist societies, this growing ability of labour to self-organise depends on the development of a diffused intellectuality and forms of cognitive organisation of labour that break away from the logic of the division of labour typical of industrial capitalism. The social diffusion of knowledge and the re-composition of the work of design and execution form the necessary preconditions for a powerful return of the Common and its ontological foundation on the scene of contemporary capitalism." Manage <https://www.facebook.com/groups/p2p.open/#> Like <https://www.facebook.com/groups/p2p.open/#> · Reply <https://www.facebook.com/groups/p2p.open/#> · 2m <https://www.facebook.com/groups/p2p.open/permalink/1936071643103672/?comment_id=1936073239770179&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R%22%7D> [image: Michel Bauwens] <https://www.facebook.com/mbauwens?fref=gc&dti=145538675490320> Michel Bauwens*You and 7 others manage the membership, moderators, settings, and posts for P2P.* <https://www.facebook.com/mbauwens?fref=gc&dti=145538675490320> "In contrast to both the capitalist system and real socialism, therefore, ideally, the Common as a mode of production, makes democracy re-descend into the same sphere as the economy and the strategic decisions regarding questions concerning: how to produce, what to produce, for who and to satisfy which needs. More precisely, extending the apt definition that Benkler uses for common information goods to all goods, we can assert that production is based on the common when "no one uses exclusive rights to organise effort or capture its value, and when cooperation is achieved through social mechanisms other than price signals or managerial directions" (Benkler 2004, 1110). " -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens