That's a good overview IMO. "Abolishing markets" for me is a phrase that conjures up images of imposing a uniform, monolithic organizational template on society. What you describe, OTOH, is a good example of an organic, emergent transition process. The former approach is great for writing fictional utopias with meticulously designed bike sheds -- but something no real-world transition process will ever bear the slightest resemblance to.
On Wed, Jan 18, 2017 at 10:56 PM, Michel Bauwens <[email protected]> wrote: > Answered this in an email to someone who believes markets themselves are the > key issue, and therefore need to be abolished completely: > > "First of all, we distinguish markets from capitalism, and we see markets as > having both disadvantages and advantages, as have the 3 other main modes of > allocation, for example as described in the Structure of World History by > Kojin Karatani, and Alan Page Fiske's 'Structure of Social Life'. > > We see that different historical periods have different configurations and > 'dominations' of one mode above the others .... Capitalism, because of its > extractivism and externalities is now hugely problematic, but it is hard to > see how to eliminate markets completely without totalitarian coercion. > > Thus it makes more sense in our view to focus on 2 interlocking strategies > > 1) the first is to re-embed markets in reciprocity mechanisms and as > supporting the commons, and in fact we see this emerging and discuss this in > our manuscript; we believe change does not descend ex nihilo from people who > look at the system from outside and describe how they believe the world > should work, but from actual praxis, and it is this praxis we examine. And > what we see is commons-based productive communities aiming to re-discpline > markets to their needs > > 2) second, we believe the role of the market will likely drastically > diminish, on the condition we can export the current coordination mechanisms > for immaterial work, which can already largely operate outside the market > (free software , open design), to actual physical production, which will > require both the development of open and contributory accounting, of other > stigmergic mechanisms, but also shared and open supply chains; this will > give the material basis of gradually increasing the mutual coordination of > production outside of market mechanisms. > > While the first is well underway, the second has hardly started, and so, in > this transition period, the focus will be in our opinion on expanding the > commons, and re-embedding markets under reciprocity mechanims, ie. > de-capitalizing the markets if you like, but while this proceeds, the > conditions for the second strategy gradually improves." > > -- > Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org > > P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net > > Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens > > #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/ > > _______________________________________________ > P2P Foundation - Mailing list > > Blog - http://www.blog.p2pfoundation.net > Wiki - http://www.p2pfoundation.net > > Show some love and help us maintain and update our knowledge commons by > making a donation. Thank you for your support. > https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/donation > > https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation > -- Kevin Carson Senior Fellow, Karl Hess Scholar in Social Theory Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org "You have no authority that we are bound to respect" -- John Perry Barlow "We are legion. We never forgive. We never forget. Expect us" -- Anonymous Homebrew Industrial Revolution: A Low-Overhead Manifesto http://homebrewindustrialrevolution.wordpress.com Desktop Regulatory State http://desktopregulatorystate.wordpress.com _______________________________________________ P2P Foundation - Mailing list Blog - http://www.blog.p2pfoundation.net Wiki - http://www.p2pfoundation.net Show some love and help us maintain and update our knowledge commons by making a donation. Thank you for your support. https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/donation https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation
