paradigmshift

Social Innovation Network » The „Great Transformation“ to „Great Cooperation“. Commons, Market, Capital and the State

in his much cited article, Hardin did not treat commons, but open access-resources, whose use is not regulated at all. In doing this, he ignored – which is often referred to in the debate – that commons can never be treated in isolation from a specific community which is related to them. The use of commons is always regulated, members of corresponding communities never act according to the utility maximizing homo oeconomicus of neoclassical economic theory. // In fact, commons are in a contradictory relation to capital. While on the one hand, the enclosure of the commons, primarily of open fields, is a historical precondition of the capital relation, i.e. wage labor (Marx, „Capital“, Vol. 1), capital on the other hand equally depends on the reproduction of the resources on which its production is based in the form of commons and forms of commoning that do not function according to the logic of capital and its valorisation.

See original: Del.icio.us Social Innovation Network » The „Great Transformation“ to „Great Cooperation“. Commons, Market, Capital and the State

The Collapse of Complex Business Models « Clay Shirky

The ‘and them some’ is what causes the trouble. Complex societies collapse because, when some stress comes, those societies have become too inflexible to respond. In retrospect, this can seem mystifying. Why didn’t these societies just re-tool in less complex ways? The answer Tainter gives is the simplest one: When societies fail to respond to reduced circumstances through orderly downsizing, it isn’t because they don’t want to, it’s because they can’t.<br />
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In such systems, there is no way to make things a little bit simpler – the whole edifice becomes a huge, interlocking system not readily amenable to change. Tainter doesn’t regard the sudden decoherence of these societies as either a tragedy or a mistake—”[U]nder a situation of declining marginal returns collapse may be the most appropriate response”, to use his pitiless phrase. Furthermore, even when moderate adjustments could be made, they tend to be resisted, because any simplification discomfits elites.

See original: Del.icio.us The Collapse of Complex Business Models « Clay Shirky

COMMUNITY VOICE: Breaking Free of the Industrial Economic Paradigm - International Museum of Women

Our collective liberation awaits our collective literacy of economics and newfound perception of currency. This is all possible without violence or force, but through knowledge and the right understanding of the nature and function of economies. I feel that the best way to attain this knowledge is to engage women, citizens, activists, social entrepreneurs and humanitarians everywhere is to simply begin discussions on the topics that shape our financial world.

See original: Del.icio.us COMMUNITY VOICE: Breaking Free of the Industrial Economic Paradigm - International Museum of Women