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40 ways that corporate power trumps political power
Here are 40 ways that the corporate sector influences government and receives huge benefits in return, disadvantaging communities, individuals and small businesses. Giant corporations would not benefit from ‘economies of scale’ without government support.
Research for our publication: ‘Wind & Solar Electricity’
Here’s the research carried out by Andy Reynolds that provided the figures for our publication Wind & Solar Electricity. Over to Andy.
History of commoning
Most of people’s needs through (pre)history have probably been met through commons, and an estimated 2 billion people today depend for at least part of their livelihood on resources held in common.
Garrett Hardin vs Elinor Ostrom
Garret Hardin became infamous for promulgating his view of commons as ‘a tragedy’. Elinor Ostrom’s painstaking research shows him to be unhelpfully mistaken in his perception.
Recipe for natural, non-toxic paint from clay
Thanks to Sigi Koko of Build Naturally. The particles of clay are like mini suction cups, which makes clay a superb sticky binder! Sticky binder, means you have a great way to put pigment (paint) on a wall. And it’s completely natural & non-toxic.
Sigi Koko’s method of installing a base layer
Thanks to Sigi Koko of Build Naturally. I do a 2-layer adobe floor, mostly because this allows me to pour the thick base layer before the exterior walls are completely closed in. That extra air-flow speeds up drying time (and eliminates a highly humid interior later in construction).
Sigi Koko’s method of installing a leveling layer
Thanks to Sigi Koko of Build Naturally. There are a few approaches you can take for this layer. What I do is float this layer smoooooth and then polish it as it hardens.
Enclosure, and how to prevent it
Preventing and ending enclosure is a core commitment of commoning.
Co-ops and commons
A co-op is a commons of ownership and thus will by definition have some kind of democratic stewardship machinery. But formal ownership and the right to enjoy benefits of ownership are not the same as stewardship and curating: fundamental dimensions of commoning.
Natural commoning: land and ‘wild commons’
If there are people whose subsistence is threatened, support them – join Survival International.
Economic commons
Conventional banks have been given a state monopoly on the creation of money-as-debt, with compound interest attached. You couldn’t invent a system that concentrates wealth and damages nature more, if you tried.
Cultural commons
Exercise and cultivate the common capacities of people to know, to do and to organise, which have been enclosed by regimes of wage-work and professionalised authority.
Digital commons
Software code, algorithm-steered systems, digital media, etc constitute a prominent present-day still-emergent kind of material that can be commoned.
Internet / web commons
The world wide web could have been a commons, and lots of people who work in the software and web sphere remain committed to the principles of P2P-commons in software code, digital data and digital processing capacity.
Enclosing digital commons
Microsoft enclosed an emergent software code commons: GitHub.
Commoning social media, tools, platforms
Facebook is not commoning, and is not costless. It’s a way for a giant corporation to pump value out of your traffic and unselfconscious gossip, for profit, surveillance and Big Brother manipulation of your buying (or voting, or social ‘othering’) behaviour.
A brief history of philosophy, part 1: Thales to Socrates
Thales of Miletus The way that we think nowadays didn’t just fall from the sky – it’s not ‘common sense’ and it hasn’t always been the same. We’re not born with a worldview – it’s something that we develop from what’s gone before.
A brief history of philosophy, part 2: Socrates, Plato & Aristotle
Socrates After the natural philosophers, the main focus of philosophy was changed by Socrates – probably the most famous philosopher of them all. His position was that you begin to become a philosopher when you admit that you know nothing.
A brief history of philosophy, part 3: Augustine reconciles Christianity with Plato
St. Augustine Augustine (354-430) was a bridge between the classical world and the medieval, Christian world. He reconciled Christianity with Plato, and his immaterial world of forms – a much easier task than reconciling Aristotle, with his scientific outlook and emphasis on reason.
A brief history of philosophy, part 4: Aquinas reconciles Christianity with Aristotle
Thomas Aquinas Last week we saw how Augustine reconciled Plato with Christianity; but Aristotle, with his logic and his empiricism, was difficult to reconcile with a book that already claimed to have all the answers, and so that didn’t happen until 900 years later.