a participatory economics
on Parecon (Participatory Economics – Life after Capitalism), by Michael Albert A lucid attempt to outline the key principles, characteristics, and potential workings of an economic system based on collaborative, bottom-up planning of both production and consumption by self-managed and networked organisations – layered networks of worker and consumer councils managing a process whereby essentially [...]
The two good reasons for doing anything at all
There are, I suggest, only two good reasons for doing anything. The first is that it is something that enough people need or want doing, such that a group of equals would self-organise to share the work and get it done. The second is that it is some goal, product, aim, service or hobby that [...]
Reflections on a more social world
I’ve set myself the daunting task of writing this in one go – its close to midnight and I’m finding it too easy to half-write drafts that never get further than that. So. I went to Really Free School this evening to @dougald’s talk on ‘Third places, Web 2.0 and first life’, which masterfully spun a [...]
A centre for reclaimed work
A friend told me yesterday: if you want to find something, it probably exists. If it doesn’t, you can start it. Well, this is something that I would dearly love to exist. So I guess I’ll find it or start it..? A centre for reclaimed work It’s a space for anyone who has ever thought, [...]
A simple manifesto for work
We shall have a look around and we would see what we lack, and what the world lacks, and what we can contribute. We shall spend our time – and gather others to spend their time with us – contributing to its supply, its creation.
Grassroots work
I want to take the chance to zoom in on on angle of that last, winding, post… This is about one shift in perspective, one question: What if the work (briefly explored earlier) imposed upon us by the collective dealings and aspirations of a commercially successful group of individuals, were instead created in a grassroots [...]
present and future work
I went to a lecture about Marx and work, and it turned out to be mostly about Hegel and work. They talked a little about alienation, and Hegel, and work as our inserting our likenesses and order onto it in order to understand it and create ourselves. Or something. To be honest, it had validity, [...]