Promise of the commons
p2pnet.net News:- A new online journal, Re-public, has just published the first part of its special issue The promise of the commons.
The issue explores the openings the concept of the ‘commons’ presents for democratic theory and practice, says Digital Copyright Canada’s Russell McOrmond.
Here’s the intro:
The dichotomy between the private and the public forms the basis of theories of democracy. In recent years, this distinction has been challenged: examples include the erosion of the public sphere by private interests and the increasing control of the private domain by state authorities. New concepts and practices that move beyond this primary dichotomy are needed in order to face the contemporary crisis of democratic societies. Signifying a new social and economic space beyond government regulation and market control, the commons has been proposed as a feasible institutional alternative to both private and public arrangements. This special issue explores the openings that the concept of the ‘commons’ presents for democratic theory and practice.
Contributing are: Richard Stallman, The free software movement; Douglas Rushkoff, Commons: Creating an alternative value system; Michel Bauwens, Peer production, peer governance, peer property; Christopher May, Openness, the knowledge commons and the critique of intellectual property; Christos Bouras and Vagelis Kapoulas, Digital commons; Dionysia Kallinikou, The future of intellectual property; Joep van Delft, Encapsulating the common: Tactical retreat as productive strategy?; and, Leslie Lopez, Recapturing the promise of alternative radio: Serving by letting others speak.
Stay tuned.
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
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