[p2p-research] The three exodus and the transition towards the p2p society

[Michel Bauwens]

http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/book-of-the-week-escape-routes-control-and-subversion-in-the-21st-century/2010/04/26

Dear friends, on may 2, I publishing the following, which I think is quite
important as a hypothesis,

(the above link is to a related approach on escape routes: dimitri, I
published it earlier than planned because of a mistake in post-dating)



Three Times  Exodus, Three Phase Transitions



In my lectures, based on my reading of history books during 2003-2004, I use
a genealogy of social change and phase transitions from one system to
another, that starts with the crisis of a dominant system, creating an
exodus, which in turns leads to a mutual reconfiguration of both managerial
and producing classes.



Here is the story, and I’m interested in your thoughts, and challenges,
especially based on the historical record.

The narrative is of course simplified, but the aim is to get the main points
of the process, and my hypothesis, across.



The first transition: Rome to feudalism



At some point in  its evolution (3rd century onwards?), the Roman empire
ceases to expand (the cost of of maintaining empire and expansion exceeds
its benefits). No conquests means a drying up of the most important raw
material of a slave economy, i.e. the slaves, which therefore become more
‘expensive’. At the same time, the tax base dries up, making it more and
more difficult to maintain both internal coercion and external defenses. It
is in this context that Perry Anderson mentions for example that when
Germanic tribes were about to lay siege to a Roman city, they would offer to
free the slaves, leading to an exodus of the city population. This exodus
and the set of difficulties just described, set of a reorientation of some
slave owners, who shift to the system of coloni, i.e. serfs. I.e. slaves are
partially freed, can have families, can produce from themselves and have
villages, giving the surplus to the new domain holders.

Hence, the phase transition goes something like this: 1) systemic crisis ;
2) exodus 3) mutual reconfiguration of the classes.

This whole process would of course take five centuries. In the First
European Revolution, historian xxx claims that the feudal system would only
consolidate around 975, the date of the political revolution confirming the
previous phase transition, and setting up a consolidated growth phase for
the new system (doubling of the population between 10 and 13th century).





The second transition: feudalism to capitalism



Something very similar starts occurring as of the 16th century. The feudal
system enters in crisis, and serfs start fleeing the countryside, installing
themselves in the cities, where they are rejected by the feudal guild
system, but embraced by a new type of proto-capitalist entrepreneurs. In
other words, a section of the feudal class (as well as some upstarts from
the lower classes) re-orient themselves by investing in the new mode of
production (and those that don’t gradually impoverish themselves), while
serfs become workers.

In short,  we have the same scheme:

1)      Systemic crisis

2)      Exodus

3)      Mutual reconfiguration of classes

4)      After a long period of re-orientation and phase transitions: the
political revolutions that configure the new capitalist system as dominant

Again, the process of reconfiguration takes several centuries, and the
political revolutions come at the end of it.



Hypothesis of a third transition: capitalism to peer to peer

Again, we have a system faced with a crisis of extensive globalization,
where nature itself has become the ultimate limit. It’s way out, cognitive
capitalism, shows itself to be a mirage.

What we have then is an exodus, which takes multiple forms: precarity and
flight from the salaried conditions; disenchantement with the salaried
condition and turn towards passionate production. The formation of
communities and commons are shared knowledge, code and design which show
themselves to be a superior mode of social and economic organization.

The exodus into peer production creates a mutual reconfiguration of the
classes. A section of capital becomes netarchical and ‘empowers and enables
peer production’, while attempting to extract value from it, but thereby
also building the new infrastructures of cooperation.

This process will take time but there is one crucial difference: the
biosphere will not allow centuries of transition. So the maturation of the
new configuration will have to consolidate faster and the political
revolutions come earlier.


-- 
Work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhurakij_Pundit_University - Think thank:
http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI

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