[p2p-research] so is there a new class?

Sat Jan 5 15:50:13 CET 2008

"Class" is a framing that comes from mass culture/large
corporate-industry-oriented views of the world.

By framing all emerging new behavior as a the "rise of a new class", this
puts the new behavior in a context that it can be potentially studied, and
ultimately co-opted and/or controlled to benefit systems and beneficiaries
of (what I calling) mass culture.

Think about how "class" is usually employed as a descriptor: "The working
class, the management class" etc

It's my opinion that one of the key, vital components of social systems that
afford healthy peer to peer activity is the widespread rejection of
"class"-systems of people, among people. A shift in the focus of fundamental
motivators, from a motivation in control of the perceivable world towards
materialistic gain, to a way of solving problems that is motivated by a
newfound realization of the nature and value of humans, living systems,
resources is free and un-controlled things, who must be listened to, to be
understood, and who are not just another "resource", but are actual people.

This is what David Korten is talking about with his idea of a "Great
Turning" from "Empire" to "Earth Community". It's what Clare W. Graves
talked about in explaining his research of human value systems, and the
pattern of fundamental assumptions of humans that he recognized being
centered around individual materialistic gain, and the subsequent
fundamental assumption that emerged that found people instead focusing on
person-to-person sharing, and commons-based economies. Graves observed that
the latter did not go about thinking about people in terms of "classes" so
much, and instead radically insisted that all people are "equal". Graves
then observed that a new type of individual emerged from *these* groups (at
least in the western world), who rejected the totally "equal" notion, and
did see differences in people, but the differences were in *thinking
systems*, the way that people solved problems, and not in people themselves.

This is a recognition that people's total "world" view is a combination of
internal dynamic neuronal systems, *and* external life conditions.  There is
(at least) a biological "scale", and a psycho-social "scale",and an
environment "scale" to be observed in total system of a human and it's
environment.

I think the usual notion of "class" strips away much of the complexity of
the human condition, and re-inforces the illusion in people's minds that
human conditions are highly "fixed". I'm interested in "p2p" ideas, because
I think they leverage the potentials that were already there in the total
human system (internal bio systems, and external environment) to explode
"classes" from within.

It's interesting to me that the building blocks now exist that allow many,
many people to defy being classified, and to avoid having to settle into a
socio-cultural "role"/strata. Yet, I observe that many people do it anyway.
Even people as young as 20 years old. Of course, it's due to the legacy of
mass culture, and it's design to reinforce those roles. But, if you talk to
many of those people, they will readily admit that they do not desire their
pre-assigned "role", but they accept or adopt it, because it is perceived as
being "needed" to survive in existing culture. So, not wanting to be part of
a "class" is one potential that I see, along with the conditions that make
it possible for a person to live in such a way as to defy easy
classification within existing systems. People who can now produce their own
mass media, people who can now collectively create and grow and fund the
collection of knowledge. People who can design and release technology as
part of a commons that they co-maintain. Those collections of people are
usually made up of people from many different traditional economic
"classes".

On Jan 5, 2008 1:01 AM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:

> fascinating article ... insightful ...
>
> but I think that 'conservative' is not the right word .. there is no
> relationship with the christian right or neoconservatives ..
>
> I think that for Gen Y, distinctions like working inside or outside the
> system no longer make sense, they simply use what is there, pragmatically,
> and create the new stuff that they need to realize themselves ... And
> similarly for the conservative/progressive divide, they pick and choose
> pragmatically
>
> whether there is a new class is a complex issue
>
> 1) I think that a section of the owner class is reconfiguring to
> participation-enablers
>
> 2) I think that a section of the 'producing' class is increasingly
> involved in peer production and peer-informed practices and are structurally
> different from industrial workers
>
> 3) that young people most clearly exemplify that trend
>
> 4) that p2p is a new life practice for everybody, to different degrees ...
>
> There are now 800,000 free agents in the netherlands ... a very sizeable
> number ....
>
> I created an overview page here ...
> http://www.p2pfoundation.net/P2P_Class_Theories
>
> Michel
>
>
>
> Michel
>
>
> On Jan 5, 2008 5:35 AM, Paul B. Hartzog <paulbhartzog at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2008/01/04/obama%e2%80%99s-victory-in-iowa-sheds-light-on-todays-workplace/
> >
> >
> > the emergence of a p2p class?
> > or not?
> >
> > -p
> >
> > --------------------------------------------------------
> > http://www.PaulBHartzog.org
> > http://www.panarchy.com
> > PaulBHartzog at PaulBHartzog.org
> > PaulBHartzog at panarchy.com
> > PHartzog at umich.edu
> > --------------------------------------------------------
> > The Universe is made up of stories, not atoms.
> >                 --Muriel Rukeyser
> >
> > See differently, then you will act differently.
> >                 --Paul B. Hartzog
> > --------------------------------------------------------
> >
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> >
>
>
>
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>
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