[p2p-research] alternative economy approach

[Alex Rollin]

It is true that this is neat, clean idea, that of trading money for
certificates for redemption of value.

This is pretty simple, though.

I have seen some of the SEN style in action in Germany.  One thing to
note is that there are a number of organizations that help peer groups
organize to purchase communal assets together.

These kinds of services are the same 'type' as the 5 or 6 service
organizations inside Mondragon that help worker/owners figure out how
to do what is next or split a division to keep things workable.

The SEN assumptions are a bit different than the current 'market'
mentality that is present in the US.  The assumption of 'peer'
'solidarity' is useful in more ways than most folks realize.

I've been exploring how this works in the attempt to assemble the same
functions as business we are familiar with nowadays, but through a P2P
Network approach which is very similar to an SEN approach, for more
than the most part.

Say you have an SEN service that helps peers form groups to purchase
communal housing.  An SEN approach would attempt to fit the peers as
peers, without ownership issues getting in the way.

In the US you have co-housing which is always trying to preserve
individual ownership, and you get housing with no community.

It's a lame bastardized simplistic example, but it's used only to
illustrate the differences between the (hypothetical) approaches
(which are not limited to any country, but more likely to occur in
some versus others).

In an SEN or P2P approach one peer network doesn't have to be the same
or have the same interests as another.  However, both approaches could
be used to keep a 'service' like 'communal housing support' alive
because of the nature of the approach, even though not every peer
group is the same.  Solidarity amongst members, then the world, I
suppose.

Alex

On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 10:50 PM, Kevin Carson
<free.market.anticapitalist at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 7/14/10, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> hi kevin,
>>
>> sepp will be discussing this, but I wonder if you can add an extra
>> perspective ...
>>
>> it seems to me these people are getting a number of things right, at least
>> based on the literature: see
>> http://www.thealternativeeconomy.org/faq.htm
>
> They do seem to be getting some things right, but the problem IMO is
> that they're reinventing the wheel.  We've got an endless supply of
> attempts at creating a single, overarching umbrella/network
> organization for the alternative economy, and it would be far better
> to pick a single one -- whatever it is -- and stick with it.   And the
> one to pick should be chosen based on network effects -- the number of
> prominent alt economy organizations affiliated with it.
>
> Global Villages and Transition Towns are two of the most promising
> organizations, and IMO the Solidarity Economy Network is the single
> most promising clearinghouse for coordinating such movements.  If you
> look for a single nucleus where the most prominent alt economy
> organizations are already affiliated, SEN is it.  It's comparable to
> the creation of the I.W.W. as an umbrella organization in 1905, with
> all the "big dawgs" in it:  Haywood from the Western Federation of
> Miners, Debs from the ARA and Socialist Party, DeLeon from the SLP,
> Mary "Mother" Jones, etc.
>
> --
> Kevin Carson
> Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
> Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
> http://mutualist.blogspot.com
> The Homebrew Industrial Revolution:  A Low-Overhead Manifesto
> http://homebrewindustrialrevolution.wordpress.com
> Organization Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective
> http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html
>
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