[P2P-F] Fwd: Translation: Postface by Holemans

Sun Apr 12 13:45:35 CEST 2015

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From: Sam Kinsley <sam at samkinsley.com>
Date: Fri, Apr 10, 2015 at 4:32 PM
Subject: Translation: Postface by Holemans
To: michelsub2004 at gmail.com

*Changing the world together*

Dirk Holemans — Coordinator of the independent think tank Oikos

Society faces an unprecedented challenge: the 20th century model of
production and consumption has been utterly spent. It is no longer
possible, on our vulnerable planet, to continue to commercialise and market
everything, and, in the process, to exhaust our energy supplies and primary
resources. Furthermore, the fact that the global economy is controlled by
150 multinational corporations, which have no care for social equality,
runs counter to the ideal of a highly-skilled society where citizens wish
to collectively take control of the future.

In this sense we urgently need formidable thinkers who are able to both
keenly analyse the current state of affairs and to develop concepts and
resources that facilitate the collective construction of a different world.
In this book Michel Bauwens vigorously fulfils this task. In the context of
the contemporary system of capitalism, which is set within a longer
historical evolution, he describes the enormous possibilities of the new
peer to peer system. His argument, which is, in turn, provocative and
stimulating, is that the way people relate to one another in horizontal
networks facilitates a form of self-organisation, without authority, in the
creation of common value that is more productive than can be achieved by
private companies or official organisations. A good example is Wikipedia,
the product of the efforts of millions of citizens across the world that
has rendered privately edited encyclopedias redundant.

Michel Bauwens sees a great potential for emancipation in civil society.
Indeed, opportunities for collaboration in horizontal networks are more
important than ever before thanks to new information and communication
technologies.  Nevertheless, this cyber-philosopher is not naive: the
future will emerge from social struggle and social power relations.
Accordingly, Facebook allows people to communicate but also appropriates
the use value they create as users, thereby capturing exchange value—in
other words: profit. Bauwens poses questions that thus will remain
relevant: "Why not create, as a society, a digital cooperative to develop
an alternative to Facebook?", or: "Why not consider social media a form of
public service?" He does not share the postmodern vision of knowledge
workers guaranteeing themselves a career by virtue of their talent and
their laptops. Even if a flexible career is aligned with peer production,
such a society can only be stable with a guaranteed basic income.

Bauwens challenges the reader by asserting that peer-to-peer is not simply
a new mode of production but in fact heralds a revolution in productivity
that will change society at every level. This new model of value through
cooperative individualism is focused on openness, sharing and
collaboration. This vision of a post-capitalist future enables the prospect
of a movement away from a model where the market price dominates, as is the
case today, towards a model where sharing in-common has more weight. While
we are currently working in organisations that operate in a system based on
competition, this is a vision of a system in which collaboration is the
dominant logic and where, in this context, competition is based on merit.

Bauwens offers us a provocative conceptual framework that outlines the
process of transformation towards a post-capitalist system of values and
practices, and ultimately to a new socio-economic system. This designates a
key role for "social associations for solidarity" which develop and manage
the *commons*, common goods, and which work with existing cooperatives.
Such value systems do not simply fall from the sky, rather they emerge from
new, concrete, practices. In effect, the internet renders our world open
and horizontal, and allows users to autonomously organise themselves.
Non-hierarchical collaboration, which was only previously possible at a
small scale, can now extend to a global scale through networks and this has
many ramifications. Thus, building a *commons* amongst P2P networks creates
a form of socialisation via positive experiences that influence how we
think and feel. This can lead to self-perpetuating beneficial cycles: by
sharing more and more things (such as carpools) and buying, and therefore
owning, fewer products, such activities will become increasingly normal, we
will do it more regularly and we will enjoy it.

In short, for Bauwens, the concept of peer-to-peer encompasses much more
than technologies and the opportunities they create. In his eyes, it is
infused with political substance: we can use it as lever for human
emancipation by developing and testing new practices, such as forms of
public-*commons* partnerships to replace current public-private
partnerships. This opens up unprecedented possibilities for citizens to
variously and collectively participate in projects in which they can
individually work towards a sustainable future. However, we must seize the
opportunities that now present themselves. A clear understanding of what is
at stake presents a straightforward choice: Either we resign ourselves to
the appropriation of peer-to-peer networks by the dominant capitalist
system (as the total control of everything we do through our digital selves
[*ombre numérique*]), or we seize control of the direction of these
networks for ourselves.

-- 
Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org

P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net

<http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates:
http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

#82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/
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