[p2p-research] the culture of the audit and the prefigurative politics of the local food movement

[Michel Bauwens]

Hi Kevin,

I think that picture is too rosy ... Peak Oil will also mean roving bands,
gangsters, and the like, though I have no doubt that many positive
relocalizations will be part of the picture; but yes, I think that to the
degree civil society processes strengthen themselves,  AND acquires
political strenght, the need for heavy-handed state regulation will diminish
...

As the article implicitely suggests, bottom up prefigurative politics and
more direct instrumental politics against bad policies and legistation, go
hand in hand ... though I presume one preceeds the other ... It's difficult
to imagine the social movements gaining strenght in any other way ...

Michel

On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 2:51 AM, Kevin Carson <
free.market.anticapitalist at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 7/28/09, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I must admit that I'm partly on the progressive side here.
> >
> > A minimal amount of regulation, that takes into account the issue of
> cost,
> > is in my view necessary.
> >
> > For example, in the no-trust country where I live, you cannot rely on
> > self-declared organic nor on self-regulation of financially interested
> > parties; only a form of regulation that involves different stakeholders,
> and
> > perhaps checked by some public authority, would do the trick ...
> >
> > Unless you live in a village where you know everyone, and you fully trust
> > the word of your supplier, could you rely on absolutely non-regulated
> > production, in my view,
>
> There are certainly complex, interacting factors involved.   But I
> could envision a phased process, in which the state's subsidies to
> agribusiness, long-distance shipping, etc., were first removed, and
> food safety and other laws removed later after the marketplace
> relocalized.  it seems likely to me that the effect of Peak Oil and
> increased transportation cost will be not only relocalized production,
> but more demographically stable local communities in which established
> trust networks play a larger role.  As states become increasingly
> hollow and cease to provide certification and trust on a centralized
> basis, as a matter of fact, local social networks will probably turn
> increasingly to informal trust mechanisms out of necessity (i.e. trade
> within fraternal lodge networks, 'friend of a friend" stuff, etc.).
>
> --
> Kevin Carson
> Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
> Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
> http://mutualist.blogspot.com
> Studies in Mutualist Political Economy
> http://www.mutualist.org/id47.html
> Organization Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective
> http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html
>
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