<div dir="ltr">ah send me a bit of info, as that would justify even more my choice of an 'older' book!<div><br></div><div>thanks for spreading that article when it comes out, and please keep me updated on the greek situation ... I am waiting for your invitation for a flok process over there <g></div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Jan 25, 2015 at 4:40 PM, John <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:restakis@gmail.com" target="_blank">restakis@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div>Michel, this is a great privilege.
Thanks to you and to the P2P Foundation for all the wonderful work
to date and the even greater work to come.<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
<br>
John<br>
</font></span><br>
PS By the way... Humanizing the Economy is just going into its
second printing!<div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
On 15-01-25 11:28 AM, Michel Bauwens wrote:<br>
</div></div></div><div><div class="h5">
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr"><a href="https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/top-p2p-books-you-should-have-read-in-2014-1-the-return-of-the-cooperative-commonwealth/2015/01/25" target="_blank">https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/top-p2p-books-you-should-have-read-in-2014-1-the-return-of-the-cooperative-commonwealth/2015/01/25</a>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The Top P2P Books of the Year will be serialized this year.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>people in cc, you will find your books in this list,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Item is available as of tonight or next morning:</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>would be great if anyone has the time to give it a better
lay-out and look:</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<p><em>Our
book of the year is Humanizing the Economy by John
Restakis. See why below.</em></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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:</p>
<p><strong>*
0. “<a href="http://www.boell.de/sites/default/files/open_co-operativism_report_january_2015.pdf" style="color:rgb(184,91,90);font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">TOWARD
AN OPEN CO-OPERATIVISM</a>. 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.</strong></p>
<p>We
strongly urge everyone to read this.</p>
<p><strong>Our
top book about the cooperative commonwealth tradition is
paradoxically a book that appeared in 2010, but that
strongly deserves a second life.</strong> 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: <em>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?</em></p>
<p><strong>1. <a href="http://www.newsociety.com/Books/H/Humanizing-the-Economy" style="color:rgb(184,91,90);font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Humanizing
the Economy</a>. Co-operatives in the Age of Capital. by
John Restakis. New Society Publishers, 2010</strong></p>
<p><strong>1.
1. b eBook: <a href="http://commonstransition.org/commons-transition-the-book/" style="color:rgb(184,91,90);font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">COMMONS
TRANSITION: POLICY PROPOSALS FOR AN OPEN KNOWLEDGE
SOCIETY</a>. By Michel Bauwens and John Restakis. P2P
Foundation, 2014</strong></p>
<p><strong>*
1.1.c. <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net/Network_Society_and_Future_Scenarios_for_a_Collaborative_Economy" style="color:rgb(184,91,90);font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Network
Society and Future Scenarios for a Collaborative Economy</a>.
By Vasilis Kostakis and Michel Bauwens. Palgrave
Macmillan, 2014</strong></p>
<p>The second
trend, the revival of the commons, produced two very
important book this year, by David Bollier and Jeremy
Rifkin.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><strong>*
2. <a href="http://www.newsociety.com/Books/T/Think-Like-a-Commoner" style="color:rgb(184,91,90);font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Think
Like a Commoner</a>. A Short Introduction to the Life of
the Commons. by David Bollier. New Society, 2014</strong></p>
<p><strong>*
2.1. <a href="http://www.thezeromarginalcostsociety.com/" style="color:rgb(184,91,90);font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">The
Zero Marginal Cost Society</a>: The Internet of Things,
the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism.
by Jeremy Rifkin. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014</strong></p>
<p><strong>More
good books on the Revival of Cooperativism:</strong></p>
<p><strong>*
3. <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=688814" style="color:rgb(184,91,90);font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Capital
and the Debt Trap</a>. Learning from Cooperatives in the
Global Crisis. By Claudia Sanchez Bajo and Bruno Roelants.
Palgrave MacMillan (2013)</strong></p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p><strong>*
3.1 e-Book: <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/211019686/Democratic-Wealth" style="color:rgb(184,91,90);font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Democratic
Wealth</a>: Building a Citizens’ Economy. Ed. by Stuart
White, and Niki Sethi-Smith. openDemocracy and Politics in
Spires, 2014</strong></p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p><strong>*
3.2 eBook: <a href="http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/alternatives_to_capitalism_proposals_for_a_democratic_economy" style="color:rgb(184,91,90);font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Alternatives
To Capitalism: Proposals For A Democratic Economy</a>.
by Robin Hahnel, Erik Olin Wright. New Left Project, 2014</strong></p>
<p>“New Left
Project’s new e-book, Alternatives to Capitalism: Proposals
for a Democratic Economy, is now available for download.<br>
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.”</p>
<p><strong>*
3.3 Gary Alexander. <a href="http://earthconnected.net/egaia-2nd-edition/" style="color:rgb(184,91,90);font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">eGaia
Growing a peaceful, sustainable Earth through
Communications</a>. Published by Lighthouse Books, ISBN
0907637248 (2nd ed. 2014)</strong></p>
<p>A updated
second edition. See <a href="http://sustainability.open.ac.uk/gary/blog/?page_id=34" style="color:rgb(184,91,90);text-decoration:none" target="_blank">here</a> for
reviews.</p>
<p><strong>*
3.4 <a href="http://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/cooperatives_in_a_postgrowth_era" style="color:rgb(184,91,90);font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Co-operatives
in a Post-growth Era</a>. Creating Co-operative
Economics. Edited by Sonja Novkovic and Tom Webb. Fernwood
Pubn. (with Zed Books), 2014</strong></p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p><strong>*
3.5 Robert Costanza and Ida Kubiszewski. <a href="http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/8922" style="color:rgb(184,91,90);font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Creating
a Sustainable and Desirable Future</a>: Insights from 45
Global Thought Leaders. World Scientific, 2014</strong></p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<div><br>
</div>
-- <br>
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div>Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: <a href="http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan" target="_blank">http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan</a> </div>
<div><br>
</div>
P2P Foundation: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.net</a>
- <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net</a>
<br>
<br>
Updates: <a href="http://twitter.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/mbauwens</a>;
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens</a><br>
<br>
#82 on the (En)Rich list: <a href="http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/" target="_blank">http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/</a>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
</div></div></div>
</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: <a href="http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan" target="_blank">http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan</a> </div><div><br></div>P2P Foundation: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.net</a> - <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net</a> <br><br><a href="http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation" target="_blank"></a>Updates: <a href="http://twitter.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens</a><br><br>#82 on the (En)Rich list: <a href="http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/" target="_blank">http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/</a> <br></div></div>
</div>