[p2p-research] investment, productivity and ownership

[Michel Bauwens]

Hi Brian, thanks for this, our blog is at http://blog.p2pfoundation.net

The way I see it, you see the overshoot, and the necessary contraction as
primary, and you want to warn humanity about the necesary adaptation to an
age of scarcity,

On my side, I believe that an overdue stress on the negative, is politically
counterproductive and drives people to political forces who still give them
hope,

therefore, a narrative which acknowledges sufficiency and contraction, but
stresses the abundance and happiness that comes both from physical social
cooperation (relocalizing production), within a framework of global digital
cooperation (immaterial abundance), is more politically fruitful. (in
addition, I'm convinced that we need that collective intelligence to adapt
to coming emergencies in the first place)

I could be wrong, but I think this is the most important point and the key
difference,

Michel




On Sat, Nov 20, 2010 at 5:54 PM, Brian Davey <briadavey at googlemail.com>wrote:

> I'm not quite sure where to find your blog on the p2p site!
>
> I was at the steady state conference where the presentation by Tim
> Jackson was shown. It was part of a much larger day with a huge amount
> of material being discussed. I've also met and discussed some of the
> issues with him personally. So I have much sympathy with what he says
> - although I tend to feel that steady state economy theorists give an
> impression that we have choices about managing a steady state economy
> when maybe we have already overshoot the earth's carrying capacity so
> that the task first is to manage a rocky process of transformation
> which will, at first, include at least some economic contraction, at
> least in the so called "developed economies".
>
> For all that his description of an engine of growth partly based on
> the production of novel consumer goods, that we do not really need, to
> impress people that we do not really care about and who don't really
> care about us...is well made.
>
> Some of us have recently had a discussion about "immaterial abundance"
> - but the problem is that when what impresses people is what we have
> (rather than what we are and what we do) then it is necessary that
> people can see our flashy motor car, our fashionable clothes, our big
> house, our jewellry - it is neccessary to social psychological reward
> structures that goods take a material form and the symbolic value
> (look at me, look at me...the narcissism observable in the "How to
> Spend it" supplements  of the Financial Times) have to be embedded in
> products that involve a throughput of energy and materials.
>
> It is in that context that I'm very uneasy about a narrative that
> appears to promise abundance - rather than a narrative based on a
> better balance - eg based on downshifting with less money income and
> material goods but more time spent on satisfying activities with
> others, more time with and for otherrs, and simply more time to unwind
> from the stress of an otherwise unabalanced lifestyle....and at the
> same time giving the planet a break by calling on it less for needs
> which are really about showing off....
>
> Finally, to return to the conference for which this video of Tim
> Jackson was made, and at which it was shown...during the last few
> months the organisers of the conference have been working very hard to
> produce a comprehensive conference report of very many threads of
> thinking.
>
> It can be downloaded here
>
> http://steadystate.org/enough-is-enough/
>
> As I attended this conference I recommend reading it and seeing if we
> can start to draw the narratives of the commons movement and those of
> p2p more into alignment or at least into a complementary form with
> these steady state ways of thinking so that we can work together to
> create the collective changes in ways of thinking that are currently
> so desperately needed.
>
> Brian Davey
>
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 19, 2010 at 10:09 AM, Michel Bauwens
> <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Dear Paul and friends,
> >
> > see http://vimeo.com/15970791
> >
> > I wonder if you could have a look at this video, pen some comments, and
> post
> > it to our blog?
> >
> > the context is a steady state economics conference and the speaker talks
> > about the system dynamics of the growth economy,
> >
> > Michel
> >
> > --
> > P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  -
> http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
> >
> > Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
> > http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org
> >
> > Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens;
> > http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
> >
> > Think tank: http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>



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