[p2p-research] Is peer production a real mode of production?

[Kevin Carson]

On 7/18/10, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> In the foundational essay on peer to peer, I call peer to peer a third mode of production (as well as a third mode of property and governance).
>
> The question is: is this correct?
>
> A mode of production classically is viewed as a combination of forces of production, how we extract value from nature (i.e. how exactly we produce what we need to live by transforming nature into human-usable products), and relations of production (how humans are organized in the sense of how is the surplus labour produced and distributed).
>
> How does ‘peer production’ stack up in this sense, especially in the context that it is not a dominant mode, but rather a seed form within the dominant capitalist mode?
>

> So, in peer production, how is value extracted from nature? The answer must be, it is not yet. At this stage, it is a process to create immaterial use value, where there is a self-aggregation of individuals around the creation of a common object or project.
>

So are you arguing that to qualify as a mode of production peer
production must generate value, in the sense of exchange value or
purchasing power?  This seems to tie in with your ideas on Kondratiev
long waves and social structures of accumulation.  The thing is, I
don't think there will *be* another Kondratiev long wave, in the sense
of a new basic infrastructure which absorbs large amounts of
investment capital and becomes the engine for generating monetized
incomes for lots of people.  The main effect of the current wave of
technological innovation is to destroy monetary value and to reduce
the capital outlays required for production.  So whatever mode of
production emerges on the other side, it will be one with much less
monetized labor time and a lot more free stuff.

-- 
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