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Sun Jan 25 10:28:56 CET 2015

https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/top-p2p-books-you-should-have-read-in-2014-1-the-return-of-the-cooperative-commonwealth/2015/01/25

The Top P2P Books of the Year will be serialized this year.

people in cc, you will find your books in this list,

Item is available as of tonight or next morning:

would be great if anyone has the time to give it a better lay-out and look:

*Our book of the year is Humanizing the Economy by John Restakis. See why
below.*

2014 was definitely the year of the commons – cooperative convergence. Two
objective trends especially since the systemic economic crisis of 2008 are
the revival of the commons, mostly driven through peer production; AND a
revival of cooperatives and cooperativism, which had been subjected to a
certain decline and even a neoliberal degeneration in the period since the
1980’s. What was new in 2014 is that these two sectors started talking and
looking at each other. At the P2P Foundation, we call for a new synthesis
in the form of open cooperativism, i.e. cooperatives which consciously and
structurally co-produce commons, as pioneered by the Catalan Integral
Cooperative or the Allianza Solidaria in Quito.

The best record of this, which we don’t count as a book, is the following
report of a in-depth convergence conversation by leading commoners and
cooperativists:

** 0. “TOWARD AN OPEN CO-OPERATIVISM
<http://www.boell.de/sites/default/files/open_co-operativism_report_january_2015.pdf>.
A New Social Economy Based on Open Platforms, Co-operative Models and the
Commons. A Report on a Commons Strategies Group Workshop Berlin, Germany,
August 27-28, 2014. By Pat Conaty and David Bollier. CSG / Boll Foundation
/ Foundation pour le Progres de l’Homme, 2014.*

We strongly urge everyone to read this.

*Our top book about the cooperative commonwealth tradition is paradoxically
a book that appeared in 2010, but that strongly deserves a second life.* It
is the marvelously well written book by John Restakis, entitled “Humanizing
the Economy”, which places cooperativism in its historical tradition, and
presents innovations such as solidarity cooperatives. Learn there about the
cooperative tradition in Emilia-Romagna and the innovative Seikatsu
movement in Japan. Since, John Restakis has developed a much stronger
understanding of the commons and worked with the P2P Foundation and myself
on the commons-cooperative convergence. The evidence of this lies in our
P2P-Foundation published e-book on the Commons Transition, which has strong
chapters by John Restakis on the convergence of the commons economy, the
partner state approach, and the cooperative economy. Finally, our own book,
“Network Society and Future Scenarios for a Collaborative Economy”
co-authored by Vasilis Kostakis, gives a detailed vision of expectations
related to this cooperative commons economy: *will it fullfill its promise,
of fall victim to the forces which extract its value for purely private
benefit of large multinationals of netarchical capital?*

*1. Humanizing the Economy
<http://www.newsociety.com/Books/H/Humanizing-the-Economy>. Co-operatives
in the Age of Capital. by John Restakis. New Society Publishers, 2010*

*1. 1. b eBook: COMMONS TRANSITION: POLICY PROPOSALS FOR AN OPEN KNOWLEDGE
SOCIETY <http://commonstransition.org/commons-transition-the-book/>. By
Michel Bauwens and John Restakis. P2P Foundation, 2014*

** 1.1.c. Network Society and Future Scenarios for a Collaborative Economy
<http://p2pfoundation.net/Network_Society_and_Future_Scenarios_for_a_Collaborative_Economy>.
By Vasilis Kostakis and Michel Bauwens. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014*

The second trend, the revival of the commons, produced two very important
book this year, by David Bollier and Jeremy Rifkin.

David Bollier’s book is a very well written general introduction of what
‘commoning’ means for human life, comparable to these great classics like
The Gift by Lewis Hyde; Jeremy Rifkin’s book may not go deep enough in the
problematic transition, but gives a great historical introduction to
changes in the modes of production, and why the commons is now an economic
fact, destined to grow not just in the so-called ‘immaterial’ economy, but
also in the physical economy, through the ‘margical cost’ effects of
distributed energy and 3D printing.

** 2. Think Like a Commoner
<http://www.newsociety.com/Books/T/Think-Like-a-Commoner>. A Short
Introduction to the Life of the Commons. by David Bollier. New Society,
2014*

** 2.1. The Zero Marginal Cost Society
<http://www.thezeromarginalcostsociety.com/>: The Internet of Things, the
Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism. by Jeremy Rifkin.
Palgrave Macmillan, 2014*

*More good books on the Revival of Cooperativism:*

** 3. Capital and the Debt Trap
<http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=688814>. Learning from
Cooperatives in the Global Crisis. By Claudia Sanchez Bajo and Bruno
Roelants. Palgrave MacMillan (2013)*

“The recent financial crisis has had a devastating impact around the globe.
Thousands of businesses have closed down and millions of jobs have been
cut. Many people have lost their homes. Capital and the Debt Trap explains
how key economies have fallen into a ‘debt trap’, linking the financial
sphere to the real economy, and goes beyond, looking into alternatives to
the constant stream of financial bubbles and shocks. Overlooked by
many,cooperatives across the world have been relatively resilient
throughout the crisis. Through four case studies (the transformation of a
French industrial SME in crisis into a cooperative, a fishery cooperative
in Mexico, the Desjardins Cooperative Group in Quebec and the Mondragon
Group in the Basque country of Spain), the book explores their strategies
and type of control, providing an in-depth analysis within a broader debate
on wealth generation and a sustainable future.”

** 3.1 e-Book: Democratic Wealth
<http://www.scribd.com/doc/211019686/Democratic-Wealth>: Building a
Citizens’ Economy. Ed. by Stuart White, and Niki Sethi-Smith. openDemocracy
and Politics in Spires, 2014*

“Democratic Wealth’ is a collection of essays that challenges the poverty
of thinking around economic policy, particularly after the 2007 financial
crash. It explores the renewed interest in republicanism and suggests this
as a framework to shape an economy that serves the common good. It is a
selection of articles from a series published by openDemocracy and Politics
in Spires, a blog run by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

** 3.2 eBook: Alternatives To Capitalism: Proposals For A Democratic
Economy
<http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/alternatives_to_capitalism_proposals_for_a_democratic_economy>.
by Robin Hahnel, Erik Olin Wright. New Left Project, 2014*

“New Left Project’s new e-book, Alternatives to Capitalism: Proposals for a
Democratic Economy, is now available for download.
In it the leading radical thinkers Robin Hahnel and Erik Olin Wright take
on the crucial but all-too neglected question: what kind of society should
we be fighting for instead of capitalism? Hahnel favours ‘participatory
economics’. Wright advocates ‘real utopian socialism’. Alternatives to
Capitalism puts these practical proposals through their paces in an
in-depth, frank and extremely instructive debate about the central question
of our time.”

** 3.3 Gary Alexander. eGaia Growing a peaceful, sustainable Earth through
Communications <http://earthconnected.net/egaia-2nd-edition/>. Published by
Lighthouse Books, ISBN 0907637248 (2nd ed. 2014)*

A updated second edition. See here
<http://sustainability.open.ac.uk/gary/blog/?page_id=34> for reviews.

** 3.4 Co-operatives in a Post-growth Era
<http://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/cooperatives_in_a_postgrowth_era>.
Creating Co-operative Economics. Edited by Sonja Novkovic and Tom Webb.
Fernwood Pubn. (with Zed Books), 2014*

“Featuring a remarkable roster of internationally renowned critical
thinkers, this book presents a feasible alternative for a more
environmentally sustainable and equitable economic system. The time has
never been better for cooperatives everywhere to recognize their own
potential and ability to change the economic landscape.”

** 3.5 Robert Costanza and Ida Kubiszewski. Creating a Sustainable and
Desirable Future
<http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/8922>: Insights from
45 Global Thought Leaders. World Scientific, 2014*

“The book offers a broad, critical discussion of what a sustainable and
desirable future should or can be, with chapters written by some of the
world’s leading thinkers, including: Wendell Berry, Van Jones, Frances
Moore Lappe, Peggy Liu, Hunter Lovins, Gus Speth, Bill McKibben, and many
more.”

-- 
Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at:
http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan

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

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