[p2p-research] mass production and p2p production, was ecovillage and communities

[Franz Nahrada]

Nathan Cravens / globalvillages at yahoogroups.com schreibt:
>
>
>It might seem p2p rejects mass production outright the way I addressed
>it; that may not be the case so long as the mass production is fully
>automated so a 'worker class' is not required. That may be a matter of
>debate, but that approach I consider the most ethical way of having a
>mass production model if one is necessary.  
>

Nathan,

it might not really make sense to crosspost a whole discussion strand on
two lists, lists with very different culture, speak (terms), symbols,
frequence etc. like globalvillages and p2p. But at this point I want to
give an answer because it is also highly relevant to global villages.

I think its a no - go to negate the advantages of mass production in many
cases.  For me this means being as ideologically blindened to a complex
and divers reality as our our opponents of the industrialist faction. I
even had a discussion with Marcin Jakubowski on this issue, and we agreed
that to a certain point that villages will never ever be able to make
everything they need. You might know that Marcins ambition in this field
goes much higher than I think is reasonable as balance between village and
city, but even from his point of view (includig steel furnace per village)
cooperative factories are a reality that you cannot totally deny.

We must tackle with the problem of mass production already today if we are
to seriously to discuss a new reality. P2P society is imminent, global
villages are a very plausible prevailing lifestyle, and they are in need
of many special products and tools which can much better be brought about
in mass production. The "father" of the perception of this empowerment,
Alvin Toffler, has rightfully observed in his bool "The Third Wave", that
the whole notion of re-empowerment comes out of industrial products that
allowed us to liberate ourselves from a "worker" role and assume a
"producer" or rather "prosumer" role. While Toffler did not really foresee
that prosumers are not isolated entities but organize in new
agglomerations, from crowdsourced to active to self-determining
communities, he very well understood that there is an intrinsic relations
between tools and micro-markets, a new ongoing division of labor etc.

We have to start looking at mass production from a p2p point of view,
which would imply:

- combining p2p values with ethical production values and ecological
values. as prosumers we should be able to discuss and create standards of
the products we deal with in a much easier way than as consumers.
- looking at new, cooperative forms of mass production. In fact, the
linkage with the workers movement and the cooperative movement is based on
our own engagement as the initiators and supporters of production. Thomas
Dieners FairWork concept shows the way.


Villages depend on mothercities. Small production depends on the right
type of big production. Industry will survive but shrink as agriculture
survived but shrank.

Franz