[p2p-research] alternative economy approach

[Kevin Carson]

On 7/16/10, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I get your point about network effects, but as far as I know networks like
> SEN have conferences and meetups, but no collective tools that can make that
> economy an integrated reality, and this is where platforms like localmart
> come in ... do you know of any other ones getting traction?
>
> I haven't been able to find any ..

I don't know of any, and there may be some value in it.  But when it
comes to that sort of thing, I expect that most alt exchange systems
will develop locally in a very ad hoc fashion, with little regard to
such attempts to create an overarching template. My guess is that
people will shift to the purchase of locally produced goods, not
through a deliberate choice to participate in such an over-arching
network, but in the face of economic necessity as Peak Oil shortens
supply and distribution chains and micromanufacturing supplants
large-scale mass production.  It's just my opinion, but Local Mart
strikes me as an attempt to supply a standard model for something that
doesn't need one.

-- 
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