[P2P-F] [commoning] The Co-operative University

Sun Dec 15 17:03:16 CET 2013

On Sun, Dec 15, 2013 at 10:51 AM, Anna Harris <anna at shsh.co.uk> wrote:
> I think Sam you are underestimating 'where people are at now'. It doesn't
> take much for people to see through the professional accreditation system,
> witness all the alternative knowledge systems that are burgeoning on the
> web. Support people in discovering what they already know, and their concept
> of themselves as failures as defined by mainstream culture, will dissipate.
> Apathy is taught in our culture from the nursery when children are
> discouraged from following their own interests, in favour of a curriculum.
> Changing the curriculum, ie still needing to learn what someone else thinks
> is important, does not get to the core of the distortion, if at every level
> we are taught that what we want is inappropriate and unavailable.
>

All that I can tell you is this: my biggest successes in bringing
commons based approaches into reality here in the Industrial Midwest
of the US have happened where they were "hybridized" combinations of
existing paradigms, and commons-based approaches. And, even those were
difficult and often short-lived.

If people have really good examples of "non-co-opted" approaches that
meet your criteria for "de-institutionalization :
non monetized, self organized ( and open sourced ), non
credentialized." I am ready to understand and learn from them

At least with "open sourced" I've had experience and can point
examples where institutions and professional networks of people have
and can co-exist.

I'd love to see commoning work outside of long standing institutions.
However, my experience is that more success can be had by working with
the existing system, and changing it where it is genuinely ready for
change. If there is a different way, please shine a light upon it for
the rest of us.