<nettime> 12/12 Essex Seminar: Models for a Peer-to-Peer Society

[Stevphen Shukaitis <stevphen@autonomedia.org>]

Models for a Peer-to-Peer Society
A seminar with Michel Bauwens, P2P Foundation
Monday December 12th at 2pm in the Ivor Crewe Lecture Hall Seminar Room
Centre for Work, Organization and Society, University of Essex 
(http://www.essex.ac.uk/ebs/research/emc)

Many observers argue that the change induced with the internet is on a 
par with at least the effects of the printing press, which was 
instrumental in creating a cascade of changes such as the renaissance, 
the reformation and the Enlightenment, culminating in the replacement of 
feudalism with capitalism. It is therefore reasonable to posit a phase 
transition this time as well, but what kind of transition and on which 
timescale? This is the question we want to address. Our first answer is 
that the emergence of a new hyper-productive mode of value creation, 
i.e. commons-based peer production as, a new ‘mode of production,’ and 
its co-emerging institutional framework, illuminate us about the 
incipient ‘patterns’ of the emergent new social order.

The temporality of change is more complex as it involves the breakdown 
and end of a Kondratieff cycle (a seventy year cycle), then, on a deeper 
level, the exhaustion of the industrial model based on cheap fossil fuel 
(a 500 yr cycle), and on a even deeper level, the questioning of 
civilization itself, as a mode of exploiting nature (a 5,000 yr cycle). 
Given this deep change, what part of capitalism and the market can we 
expect to see surviving? What kind of ‘open business models’ and 
p2p-friendly market structures, may be expected to be part of the new 
mix? Though out, our talk will be based on extrapolating current and 
visible trends, not on ‘desires’ for a better society.

Bio: Michel Bauwens is Peer-to-Peer theorist and an active writer, 
researcher and conference speaker on the subject of technology, culture 
and business innovation. He is the founder of the Foundation for 
Peer-to-Peer Alternatives, based in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Foundation for P2P Alternatives: http://p2pfoundation.net/

Respondent for the session will be Chris Land

Michel will also be presenting at Tent City University, as part of 
Occupy London, on December 10th at 11:00am. More information about that 
can be found here: http://tentcityuniversity.occupylsx.org.


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