[p2p-research] Fwd: australian thesis about commons

[Michel Bauwens]

via the author jose ramos:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: jose ramos <jose at actionforesight.net>
Date: Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 8:00 PM
Subject: about commons
To: Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>


Hi Michel

So lovely talking to you today.

Here is some info on my thesis work, in particular respect to commons.

They can also see my list of publications here:
http://actionforesight.net/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=34&Itemid=53

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I have spent the last decade exploring how communities can respond to
the planetary challenges they face. I have been a lead organiser for
the Melbourne Social Forum, networker for the LA Social Forum, and G20
protest organiser, and have helped establish a community media
collective called Plug in TV http://www.plugintv.net/, as well as
supported the development of community education initiatives such as
Oases http://www.oases.edu.au/.

My work in the alter-globalisation movement has led to deep
exploration of the nature of what people describe as the commons. In
my recently submitted phd thesis, entitled  "Alternative Futures of
Globalisation"   I  argue that the movement of movements is
fundamentally about the democratic control of the commons. I identify
various movements toward this.

I drawn from Wallerstein’s normative direction to understand how
activity in the movement fits within a broader and emerging strategic
landscape. The analytic thread that brings together the diverse work
and  futures trajectory of the movement is the exploration,
articulation and creation of the commons. ‘The commons’ is a complex
and contested term, and therefore, I rely on a plural and open
conception of it, which includes: 1) The meta-formation of new
common-ness through opening debates, 2) the short term defence of
contextually specific commons, 3) the short to middle range extension
of the legal and moral commons through the enfranchisment of the
marginalised, 4) a more middle range building of the commons through
de-commodifying social alternatives, and  5) utopian articulations of
possible futures – dialogic weaving of foundational discourses,
emerging issues and imaginaries that inspire transformational change
toward ‘Another Possible World’.

I argue that, to make the above movements possible and efficacious, we
need organisational differentiations  of new structures - platforms
that allow diverse actors to build and develop projects for change.
The new strategic orientation will require linking some Old Left
thinking, New Left thinking, with some peer to peer strategies. The
shift will be culturally, strategically and practically challenging.
Building diverse commons will require new ways of weaving a social
ecology of alternatives on a planetary scale.

Jose Ramos



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