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Commoning



Is technology the problem?

Is technology the problem? Conversation with Dave King of Breaking the Frame and the New Lucas Plan

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This is a conversation between Dave Darby of NonCorporate.org and Dave King of Breaking the Frame and the New Lucas Plan. Dave (K) is opposed to the ‘technocracy’ that he describes as the root cause of environmental destruction and lack of democracy.

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Oli Rodker: working to make a positive difference to land ownership

The future of land ownership: interview with Oli Rodker of the Ecological Land Co-op and the Landworkers’ Alliance

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This week we’re talking with Oli Rodker, founder director of the Ecological Land Co-operative and the Landworkers’ Alliance, about his work, and how we might change the nature of land ownership in the UK, where 0.06% of the population own 50% of rural land in England and Wales, according to the Country Land & Business

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The debate on capitalism in full swing with Transition Town Tooting

Public debate featuring yours truly: is capitalism the best system for a sustainable future?

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If you’re in London on April 18th, there’s a public debate you might be interested in, upstairs in a pub in Tooting. I’ve been asked to put the case against capitalism. There will be initial presentations, rebuttals, questions from the audience, and then a summing up.

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Interview with Matthew Slater: what’s mutual credit, how can it boost the Solidarity Economy, and what can we do to help? (plus webinar)

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See yesterday’s blog post for an introduction to this article. This is an interview with Matthew Slater, who co-authored the Money & Society MOOC, a free masters level multidisciplinary online course. He co-drafted the Credit Commons white paper, a proposal for a global solidarity economy money system

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The next great transition will be to the Solidarity Economy with a mutual credit exchange system

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I’ve been working in the environmental field for over 20 years, and I believe, like the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, that we’re headed for ‘biological annihilation’, and like the good folk at the Dark Mountain Project, that a crash is coming that we may or may not recover from

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Why much criticism of the Fair Trade movement is invalid – designed to disguise corporate exploitation of small farmers

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The Fair Trade movement was set up to secure better prices for struggling small farmers and craft producers in poor countries, and to provide funds for various improvements in their communities. It has, however, come in for some criticism for various reasons.

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£30, credit-card-sized, non-corporate, low-energy computers set up to run Linux; any boxes not ticked there?

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These are cheap (£30) mini computers that run Linux and will make a good second computer for children (for example), a media player in another room, or a data server. It might save people buying another laptop and it means you can reuse the peripherals of older PCs (screen, mouse etc).

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A Freifunk WiFi-node is installed as part of a low-tech internet network in Berlin, Germany - via Wikipedia Commons.

Resilient networks: building a low-tech internet

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A solution to the absence of high-speed wireless networks across some developing countries and increasingly appearing in the form of WiFi based community networks in numerous countries in Europe, building a low-tech internet could have benefits for all. With excerpts from an original Low-tech Magazine article by Kris De Decker, we explore how a less resource-intensive and more energy-efficient

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