[p2p-research] Progressing on the p2p political front

[Richard Poynder]

In the context of what Michel says below I would be interested in people's
views on the Big Society initiative launched this week by UK Prime Minister
David Cameron (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10680062). Is it just another
example of the "hollowing out" of states (in this case to cut costs)? Even
if it is, could it have a potential for good (regardless of the motives of
the Coalition Government)?

 

Richard Poynder

 

 

 

From: p2presearch-bounces at listcultures.org
[mailto:p2presearch-bounces at listcultures.org] On Behalf Of Michel Bauwens
Sent: 23 July 2010 13:20
To: Peer-To-Peer Research List
Cc: George Papanikolaou; Dafermos, George
Subject: [p2p-research] Progressing on the p2p political front

 

I would like to offer the following update on how I see the transformation
towards a more p2p-oriented world occurring.

A first way of looking at it, is looking at alliances, and I have covered
this here, in a previous article on "Towards a Grand Alliance of the Commons
<http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/the-grand-alliance-for-the-commons-the-task-o
f-21-cy-politics/2010/04/02> ".

Here, I want to offer a different perspective, focused on "what should we do
when". Are there phases in the potential process of transformation?

I believe the first and foremost priority is to work constructively on the
new future, and this means building open infrastructures and commons
wherever we can, to make these practices sustainable over time, and to do
this in such a way that the autonomy and peer to peer dynamics in our open
infrastructures and commons are maintained in a maximal way.

I have mapped the progress and evolution of open infrastructures, in every
domain of social life, here in this mindmap
<http://www.mindmeister.com/28717702/everything-open-and-free> .

It must be clear however that the building of such a counter-economy will
take time, will have to make substantial compromises with the existing
dominant logics, and may only fully explode rapidly in times of social and
economic dislocation.

Here's where the second step comes in, which I discussed in the alliance of
the commons article, cited above. The constructive P2P forces must find
connection with mobilized social movements. These movements presently have a
weakness, because most of the old alternatives, i.e. a orientation towards
the role of state, has become problematic, for different reasons that we
won't go into here. In other words, many progressive social forces can be
mobilized to protect past gains against the frontal assault to dismantle the
social aspects of the state, but they have a much harder time formulating
integrated policy alternatives. In my opinion both the industrial era right,
but also the industrial era left, are in crisis, and lack an appropriate
vision and politics for our times.

This is what the p2p vision can offer to social movements, a set of
believable practices and visions, and concrete possibilities to construct
sustainable alternatives, in the here and now but also as a programmatic
vision of the proposed future.

For this, it is not sufficient to point to local initiatives, which at this
stage are only seed forms, but we must be able to formulate concrete policy
proposals, that can be offered to the world of policy and politics and can
be adopted and promoted by existing institutions as well as new institutions
as yet to be created. This is why I am working, with David Bollier
<chrome://skype_ff_toolbar_win/content/icons/icon_offline.png> , Silke
Helfrich  <chrome://skype_ff_toolbar_win/content/icons/icon_offline.png> ,
and others, on a important Berlin Commons Conference, where we will bring
representatives of social movements and policy makers togethers, to start
constructing a Commons-oriented Policy Framework. (November 1-2 , 2010)


We will achieve this by internetworking people active in existing social
movements, sympathetic policy makers, and bring them into contact with p2p
and commons pioneers, so as to learn from each other, but also propose and
infuse the experience of already existing p2p-oriented social alternatives,
and how they can be helped and sustained through policy, funding, etc ..

Once this infusion of the commons and peer to peer into social movements and
amongst sympathetic policy makers is a reality, and this may of course take
a few years to mature, we may see the adoption of policies at various levels
of the state and government. Think of the city of Linz declaring itself a
Open Commons region, as an example of this trend (though at this stage, I
have no details on that particular initiative yet).

Beyond punctual adoption of pro-commons policies what we want to achieve in
a next phase is a "reform" of the state, towards more of a Partner State
model, whereby public authorities empower and enable the social production
of value by civil society, and in this way sustains a wide variety of
commons-oriented institutions and practices. This transitional form could be
seen in the same way as the experience of the post-WWII welfare state, a
historical compromise based on the strength of the social movement, but
within the existing dynamics of a capitalist world-economy.

Obviously, my own point of view is that such an achievement would not be
enough, and not sustainable in the long run, so that effectively, what we
want to reach ultimately is a transformation of the state, as guarantor of a
commons-based civilization. The state remains the guarantor of an existing
mode of production and distribution of social value, and for a thorough
commons transformation to occur, we will need fundamentally different state
formations.

But we can't jump the gun, both the constructive movement, the mobilized
social movements, and the policy network need to be developed and
strengthened for this to happen. The whole process will take several
decades, but the success of our call for the Berlin Commons conference shows
how mature the time is already and how many people are already grasping and
grappling with commons-oriented practices and policy formulations.

Since 2008, the p2p transformation of our world, and of associated human
mentalities, is occurring at a much faster pace than anticipated. We have to
be ready to grasp these opportunities as and when they occur, while not
loosing track of the larger time frame of change.

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