[p2p-research] Building Alliances

Fri Nov 6 17:54:00 CET 2009

Hi!!

'Presenting a Case for Guaranteed Income and its Advantages'

Lynn Chancer has asked the question--one that has been on people's minds not
least since the Speenhamland Law: why guarantee income? 'Are the benefits of
this notion only that it is redolent of a broader concept of entitlement, or
are there reasons to advocate this particular policy over full employment or
other strategies focussed on jobs'?

The case for a guaranteed income falls into four categories of advantage:
practical
moral/ethical
political
psychic/libidinal

Cosma Orsi presents his ideas on the Partner State and basic income (not
only here but this is one paper):

http://www.ruc.dk/upload/application/pdf/f51d6748/Research%20report%204_2005%20Cosma%20Orsi.pdf

Also see Robert Theobald, The Guaranteed Income (Doubleday & Co. 1966)
including Erich Fromm's 'The Psychological Aspects of the Guaranteed Income'
in this text; Stanley Aronowitz and Jonathan Cutler, Post-Work (Routledge
1998)...

In terms of cultural spaces and social improvement, see Joshua Cohen and
Joel Rogers, What's Wrong with a Free Lunch? (Beacon Press, 2001) and Steve
Shafarman, Healing Politics: Citizen Policies and the Pursuit of
Happiness (Xlibris,
2000).
...

Yours, Phoebe

2009/11/6 Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>

> HI Kevin,
>
> I absolutely agree that you have the right intuition here, and that this is
> a very fruitful way to argue for partner state models regarding 'free
> cultural spaces'.
>
> Perhaps phoebe has encountered such arguments in her labour research?
>
> Michel
>
> On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 6:28 PM, Kevin Flanagan <kev.flanagan at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Hey Paul,
>>
>> State support for the arts is common in europe.
>> Im most familiar with the Irish and UK Arts Councils.
>> Im not advocating further state support for 'artists'.
>> Im interested in putting together an strong argument for state support
>> for free culture and hacker spaces.
>> Using already in place institutions and infrastructure such as arts
>> councils.
>> I support the idea of a basic income for all.
>> But Im suggesting what I see as a practical and achievable short term
>> goal.
>> If we could specifically get these institutions to recognise the
>> social value and put in policy the importance of commons oriented
>> production for free culture and hacker spaces then maybe in time we
>> can get the state to recognize the value and importance of commons
>> based production on a broader scale.
>> Lets get these arts councils to expand their remit to support
>> specifically free culture and hacker spaces.
>> Surely we can show how the skills developed in hack labs are useful
>> and transferable and worth state economic investment. Hacker spaces in
>> in disadvantaged communities could be a great outlet for young people.
>> I dont have time to look up a good links at the moment because I have to
>> go now.
>> For example it would be nice to see some research on how Brazil has
>> got on with its effort in supporting acces to digital technology.
>> Brazilian minister for digital culture Gilberto Gill supporting the
>> creation of 650 cultural spaces giving citizens access to computers
>> cameras to share music and culture.
>> http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9786370-7.html
>>
>> Ok Im off for now.
>>
>> Kevin F
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 6:07 PM, Paul D. Fernhout
>> <pdfernhout at kurtz-fernhout.com> wrote:
>>  > Kevin-
>> >
>> > As I see it, more support for the arts is a good idea, but a
>> half-measure.
>> > As you say at the end, we could look at expanding it to all sorts of
>> commons
>> > production, but it is hard to judge what is "worthy". A "basic income"
>> for
>> > all is probably a better general solution than trying to decide what
>> > projects a person wants to do are worthy of support. References:
>> >  http://www.basicincome.org/bien/aboutbasicincome.html
>> >  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income
>> >  http://www.usbig.net/whatisbig.html
>> >
>> > A basic income just for "artists" is possible:
>> >  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income_in_the_Netherlands
>> > but in the end, is a mother or father any less an artist for helping
>> sculpt
>> > a young life than someone who works in clay and sculpts statues? And, it
>> is
>> > hard to judge a person's worth or a project's worth at the time. It may
>> only
>> > become clear 1000 years later if something is "worthwhile". And besides,
>> > worthwhile to whom? Maybe it is enough that an individual's life is
>> > worthwhile to themselves?
>> >
>> > For me, a big changeover point is if everyone could get laws about a
>> basic
>> > income passed everywhere. So, rather than have artists fighting against
>> > mothers and fathers and mimes and songwriters and so on over who should
>> get
>> > the most subsidies, we have both working together, as an alliance, to
>> have a
>> > basic income for artists, mothers, fathers, writers, journalists, mimes,
>> and
>> > everyone else, even rich CEOs.
>> >
>> > It's been said:
>> >  http://quotationsbook.com/quote/31495/
>> > "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the
>> poor, to
>> > sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets and to steal bread. "
>> >
>> > Well, a basic income, in its majestic equality, allows both the rich as
>> well
>> > as the poor to paint local bridges, to mime in the streets, and to give
>> away
>> > home-baked bread. :-) Maybe financially obese people won't want to do
>> those
>> > things compared to poor people who know how important those things are,
>> but
>> > with a basic income, rich people could. :-)
>> >
>> > See also:
>> > "[p2p-research] Basic income from a millionaire's perspective?"
>> >
>> http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2009-August/003949.html
>> >
>> > Is it possible you could make some freely licensed art about that issue?
>> :-)
>> >
>> > --Paul Fernhout
>> > http://www.pdfernhout.net/
>> >
>> > Kevin Flanagan wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Hello,
>> >>
>> >> It was great to finally get to meet some of you in person at media
>> >> ecologies.
>> >> I have some suggestions and questions regarding building alliances
>> >> that Id be interested in thrashing out here on the list.
>> >> My question here is how can we incentivize government to support the
>> >> building and protection of the commons?
>> >> My suggestion is this -
>> >> As an artist Ive been involved in and worked with several artist led
>> >> organisations. Most of these organisations could not survive without
>> >> government subsidy through bodies such as arts councils. Naturally
>> >> there is pressure from government on arts councils and hence on
>> >> artists and arts organisations to be accountable for this investment.
>> >> In order to receive financial support artists and arts organisations
>> >> are required to fulfill certain criteria to prove the social value of
>> >> their work. So the better an organisation is at proving the social
>> >> value of their work the more likely it is that they will receive
>> >> support. This means that lots of artists end up working to governments
>> >> agenda through Public Art and Community Arts projects. Maybe this
>> >> sounds a bit harsh but sometimes I think of community arts as a kind
>> >> of goverment funded social band aid for disadvantaged communities. The
>> >> criteria for funding are usually that such projects support , social
>> >> inclusion, multiculturalism, intercultural relations. Often what is
>> >> produced in the creative process if immaterial affect so its not
>> >> always easy to show how these arts projects fulfill these criteria.
>> >> What Im wondering is can free culture centers, hack\fab labs, maker
>> >> clubs, do this better. I think so. The added advantage of such centres
>> >> is eductaion in transferable skills. Goverment likes transferable
>> >> skills that help peoples job prospects. Whether in electronics,
>> >> programming, media. Some research into how the EU and UNESCO promote
>> >> social inclusion through culture would be useful. Are these policies
>> >> IP biased? Can we as advocates of free culture and the commons propose
>> >> ammendments or new policies that incentivize governments to provide
>> >> financial support for free culture spaces, hack labs and to recognize
>> >> the intercultural importance of the shared commons oriented production
>> >> of these spaces? Any ideas who might already be working on this?
>> >> Existing models perhaps that can be used as examples?
>> >> How might dialogue about the commons interface with current thinking
>> >> on multiculturalism? Does breaking down financial barriers to entry
>> >> promote social inclusion locally, nationally, internationally? Of
>> >> course but how do we measure this?
>> >> I dont know how this sounds or even if its interesting but I thought
>> >> Id just put it out there.
>> >> Maybe the the current system of support for the arts is one to look at
>> >> expanding for supporting the commons based production? Maybe alliances
>> >> can be built with existing cultural organisations?
>> >>
>> >> Best
>> >>
>> >> Kevin F
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> p2presearch mailing list
>> >> p2presearch at listcultures.org
>> >> http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > p2presearch mailing list
>> > p2presearch at listcultures.org
>> > http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org
>> >
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> p2presearch mailing list
>> p2presearch at listcultures.org
>> http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhurakij_Pundit_University - Research:
> http://www.dpu.ac.th/dpuic/info/Research.html - Think thank:
> http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
>
> P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
>
> Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
> http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org
>
> Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens;
> http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
>
>
>
>
>

-- 
Employment profile: http://www.espach.salford.ac.uk/page/Phoebe_Moore

JCEPS--my recent article: UK Education, Employability and Everyday Life
http://www.jceps.com/index.php?pageID=article&articleID=151

Media Ecologies workshop, Nov 2009, Manchester
http://www.espach.salford.ac.uk/sssi/p2p/index.html

Manchester Film Cooperative: http://www.manchesterfilm.coop/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/attachments/20091106/5f8be182/attachment.html>