[p2p-research] thinking about leapfrogging

[Kevin Carson]

On 10/2/08, Josef Davies-Coates <josef at uniteddiversity.com> wrote:

> "Building Blocks", Chapter 5 of Natural Capitalism by Lovins et al, was one
> of the first books that got me thinking and excited ecovillages. It told the
> story of Village Homes in Davis California:
>
> http://www.villagehomesdavis.org/

I'd read Natural Capitalism a couple years ago, and absorbed mostly
the stuff on energy conservation.  But this year I read a book on lean
production, with an introduction by a lean expert who saw networked
local production on the Emilia-Romagna model (rather than in a giant
corporation like Toyota) as the optimal application of lean
principles.  And when I contacted him privately, he recommended the
lean chapter in Natural Capitalism, which had gone right over my head
when I first read it because I was going through a rather intense
anti-Tom Peters backlash at the time.

He also recommended Shuman's The Small-mart Revolution, btw.

> (as well as ING Baring doing some sensible stuff in Holland)
>
> I also learnt recently that Kim Stanley Robinson (author of the classic
> Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy which totally inspired loads of my friends)
> lives at Village Homes :)
>
> I've heard his latest trilogy is all about permaculture essentially.

I've never read Robinson, but now I'll definitely have to.  I love sci
fi that attempts to depict decentralist economic ideas in practice.
Right now I'm rereading Callenbach's Ecotopia, and wondering how much
of it inspired Vinay's vision in "The Unplugged" (particularly the
prefab houses).

> > >  There's a book, "The Second Industrial Divide" which Marcin and Smari
> say
> > > makes about the same case for light manufacturing, and that was written
> in
> > > the 1980s.

> > Is it by Piore and Sable?  I'll have to get a copy, and soon.

> I believe that is the one. Hope so, because I just ordered it :)

Me, too.  The good thing about Amazon is that the bookstores give away
used stuff almost free if it's to a marginal enough market niche--this
was priced at $1.25, I think.


-- 
Kevin Carson
Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
http://mutualist.blogspot.com
Studies in Mutualist Political Economy
http://www.mutualist.org/id47.html
Anarchist Organization Theory Project
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html