[p2p-research] Progressing on the p2p political front

Sat Jul 24 08:18:33 CEST 2010

I have no doubt that some social conservatives are sincere in their
preference for a strong civil society, against both the central state and
the private market, and that concrete p2p and commons projects may be
benefit from such a commonality of views ..

however, I have no doublt that at the same time, the political
conservatives, who are mainstream supporters of the present financialized
market form, are using this as a ideological prop to hollow out the
redistributive provisions of the state,

I think both statements can be true,

Richard, regarding another private question you asked me separately, I have
written a little piece slated for the 31st on our blog:

Does human nature need to change for a p2p transformation to occur?

Someone asked me recently, if it was not naïve to expect such a major
change, as human nature does not change, and so we will have capitalism for
another 50 generations.

A good question, which generates a number of responses from my side.

First of all, human nature has not, and will never be, a static given, it is
rather a biological and social construct which is differentiated over time
and space, and slowly evolves over time.

Certainly, human nature is not, and will never be, that construct of
ideological capitalism which presumes a rational actor that is only acting
out of self-interest. 30 years of social studies, have profoundly challenged
any such claims. (see the cooperation commons of Howard Rheingold and
friends, as one of the projects monitoring this shift)

The human being has always been paradoxical, and a combination of
contradictory traits.

Human nature is furthermore strongly conditioned by social structures, and
of course, this is the basis of the truthiness of the rational actor
ideology, we now do have a society which is geared on promoting and
developing a particular combination of traits, at the expense of others.

But there are several reasons to be hopeful.

The first is that, if “being determines consciousness”, then indeed, the
proliferation of open infrastructures and practices based on sharing and
collaboration, does affect human attitudes, both in the virtual and physical
worlds (which in any case, cannot in practice be usually separated).

The second is that the mainstream system has reached the limits of its
long-term survival, it is now actively destroying the biosphere we all
depend on. So expecting 50 generations of this system is sheer lunacy.

Third, there is evidence that human attitudes are changing. I’m thinking of
the human development studies of people like Susan-Cook Greuter, and the
world values surveys by people like Ronald Inglehart. Most striking was a
2008 (or 2007), Edelman Trust Barometer report, which showed that in a mere
four years, a majority of people had shifted their allegiances from
instutitions to peers.

All the evidence that we are collecting via the P2P Foundation, and other
initiatives such as Shareable, suggest that sharing and peer to peer
practices, and the social demand for openness, transparency, and a
commons-orientation, while still minoritarian, are proliferating and
growing.

In conclusion, I would say that an active minority is constructing a new
type of social infrastructure, which however causes changes in a much larger
group of users, and that this combined effect is instrumental in creating
deeper social shifts.

Undoubtedly, there are counter-trends, and in no way should we predict
change on the basis of knowing how human nature is evolving, but nothing
says we cannot be active actors ourselves, and be an active minority with
real world influence. I remember reading that only a few thousand people
were involved with the Renaissance, and yet it changed the whole course of
European civilization.

So, even though ‘human nature’ evolves slowly and as a result of complex
factors, nevertheless, the particular p2p sensibility is growing and
important enough to cause a mid and long-term re-orientation of social
values.

On Sat, Jul 24, 2010 at 1:28 AM, Richard Poynder <
richard.poynder at btinternet.com> wrote:

>  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-of-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, Silke
> Helfrich, 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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>
>

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