Peer2Politics

Current economic practices have led to widespread deprivation, argues economist Juliet Schor. (Huffington Post)

Ben Bernanke examines the reasons behind Germany's trade surplus and suggests several policy tools to reduce its surplus.

Greece is permanently in the spotlight at the moment and the hashtag #greferendum is trending. We will go deeper into the issue with Marianella Kloka, member of the organisation World without Wars and Violence.

Near Me, which enables anyone to create their own sharing platform, is also a valuable resource hub with a blogand podcast about the collaborative economy. The popular Near Me podcast, hosted by Near Me's Kevin Cohen, features thought leaders, pioneers, and movers and shakers of the collaborative movement. Here are their top 10 podcasts, including one with Shareable's co-founder Neal Gorenflo.

While attention on the Euro crisis has been focusing primarily on Greece and Cyprus, it is no mystery that Italy, alongside with Spain, constitutes the real challenge for the future of the common currency, in any direction events will be unfolding.  In the relative silence of the international press, Italy’s macroeconomic situation has been showing no sign of improvement, and indeed numerous indicators portray a national economy which finds itself in a depression, rather than in a however severe recession. It is no overstatement that the Italian economy is currently collapsing.

In a just published study, researchers investigated the motivations driving users to peer-to-peer services like timebanks. (10,000 People Blog)

This new phenomenon represents an opportunity to revolutionize the current state of play of the society, economy, institutions and law. This new social, economic, institutional and legal paradigm is going to characterize the 21st century as the “CO-century,” the century of COmmons, COllaboration, COoperation, COmmunity, COmmunication, CO-design, CO-production, CO-management, COexistence, CO-living. For all these reasons, it is urgent to design the rules and institutions of this new century. LabGov.it is working on this frontier and is doing it together with experts, organizations, and individuals that represent what we think is a newly rising social class, a class of economic and institutional innovators.

To gain ground against scarcity, build abundance and therefore continuously enlarge the material base of personal decision-space is the objective of the economic activity of an egalitarian community that works.

If confronted with the current state of the global system that we call human civilization we cannot hide from the harsh truth: the system we have built – across ages and several Techno-Economic Paradigm Shifts[1] – now looks in a particularly complex situation.

Have you started a summer reading list? For those of us interested in the sharing economy, there is no shortage of great reads. Whether your interests lie in collaboration, sustainable cities, community-building, simplicity, or work in the new economy, there is something for everyone. We’ve rounded up the top 21 books for summer to inspire, empower, and inform.

The third annual OuiShare Fest, hosted with the theme “Lost in Transition” in Paris’ charming Cabaret Sauvage, concluded last Friday. This unique gathering of sharing economy leaders from around the world found itself in at least two ways with their latest edition.

Here is an inspiring five-minute video about the quest for a new post-growth economic system. Better, Not More was produced by Kontent Films for the Edge Funders Alliance, and was released recently at a conference in Baltimore. The video is a beautiful set of statements from activists around the world describing what they aspire to achieve, especially by way of commons.

The proliferation of activist initiatives calling for systemic change around the world has never been more impressive. Yet collaborations among like-minded organizations, projects and movements have been disappointingly modest. As neoliberal economics and policies tighten their grip on American society—notwithstanding the dismal misbehavior of financial institutions, corporations and the two political parties—can leading alt-economic and social movements find ways to work more closely together?

Rainbow over Brattleboro, Vermont. Photo credit: Professor Bop / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND. Article cross-posted from Yes! Magazine. Written by Alexis Goldstein.

Photo credit: The Co-operative / Foter / CC BY. Article cross-posted from Bollier.org. Is it possible to imagine a new sort of synthesis or synergy between the emerging peer production and commons movement on the one hand, and growing, innovative elements of the co-operative and solidarity economy movements on the other?