scholarly journals The Reformist Commons

2020 ◽  
pp. 69-136
Author(s):  
Vangelis Papadimitropoulos
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Model ◽  
Peer Production ◽  
Strategic Action ◽  
The People ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Green Governance ◽  
The Commons ◽  
Strategic Pluralism ◽  
Social Empowerment ◽  
Institutional Space

Within ‘The Reformist Commons’, the author establishes the views of a wide range of reformist theorists. This reformist approach to the commons combines liberal, social democratic, socialist and revolutionary elements in multiple variants. In the context of Benkler’s three basic future scenarios for the com­mons the author goes onto critically engage with the work of a number of thinkers who have further argued for the autonomisation of commons-based peer production in such models as the green governance (David Bollier and Silke Helfrich) and collaborative commons (Jeremy Rifkin) and platform cooperativism (Trebor Scholz) . Also discussed are Bauwens and Kostakis’s model of open cooperativism incorporating the ecological model of Design Global Manufacture, cosmolocalism and a partner state abetting commons-based peer production, Adam Arvidsson and Nicolai Peiterson’s ‘productive publics’ and digital distributism (Douglas Rushkoff). The author concludes with Erik Olin Wright’s arguments for how institutional space might be freed up for strategic action towards a commons-orientated transition. Wright’s perspective, the author argues offers the most holistic political alternative by integrating the self-instituting power of the people into a strategic pluralism based on multiple pathways of social empowerment, embodied in a variety of structural transformations. This may function as an institutional multi-format for the various reformist approaches advocated by the other thinkers.

scholarly journals THE PARODY OF THE COMMONS

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-51
Author(s):  
Vasilis Kostakis ◽  
Stelios Stavroulakis
Keyword(s):  
Peer Relations ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Peer To Peer ◽  
Dominant Mode ◽  
Peer Production ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
The People ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Commons

This essay builds on the idea that Commons-based peer production is a social advancement within capitalism but with various post-capitalistic aspects, in need of protection, enforcement, stimulation and connection with progressive social movements. We use theory and examples to claim that peer-to-peer economic relations can be undermined in the long run, distorted by the extraeconomic means of a political context designed to maintain profit-driven relations of production into power. This subversion can arguably become a state policy, and the subsequent outcome is the full absorption of the Commons as well as of the underpinning peer-to-peer relations into the dominant mode of production. To tackle this threat, we argue in favour of a certain working agenda for Commons based communities. Such an agenda should aim the enforcement of the circulation of the Commons. Therefore, any useful social transformation will be meaningful if the people themselves decide and apply policies for their own benefit, optimally with the support of a sovereign partner state. If peer production is to become dominant, it has to control capital accumulation with the aim to marginalise and eventually transcend capitalism.

The Parody of the Commons

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 412-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasilis Kostakis ◽  
Stelios Stavroulakis
Keyword(s):  
Peer Relations ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Peer To Peer ◽  
Dominant Mode ◽  
Peer Production ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
The People ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Commons

This essay builds on the idea that Commons-based peer production is a social advancement within capitalism but with various post-capitalistic aspects, in need of protection, enforcement, stimulation and connection with progressive social movements. We use theory and examples to claim that peer-to-peer economic relations can be undermined in the long run, distorted by the extra-economic means of a political context designed to maintain profit-driven relations of production into power. This subversion can arguably become a state policy, and the subsequent outcome is the full absorption of the Commons as well as of the underpinning peer-to-peer relations into the dominant mode of production. To tackle this threat, we argue in favour of a certain working agenda for Commons-based communities. Such an agenda should aim the enforcement of the circulation of the Commons. Therefore, any useful social transformation will be meaningful if the people themselves decide and apply policies for their own benefit, optimally with the support of a sovereign partner state. If peer production is to become dominant, it has to control capital accumulation with the aim to marginalise and eventually transcend capitalism.

scholarly journals The Parody of the Commons

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 412-424
Author(s):  
Vasilis Kostakis ◽  
Stelios Stavroulakis
Keyword(s):  
Peer Relations ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Peer To Peer ◽  
Dominant Mode ◽  
Peer Production ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
The People ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Commons

This essay builds on the idea that Commons-based peer production is a social advancement within capitalism but with various post-capitalistic aspects, in need of protection, enforcement, stimulation and connection with progressive social movements. We use theory and examples to claim that peer-to-peer economic relations can be undermined in the long run, distorted by the extra-economic means of a political context designed to maintain profit-driven relations of production into power. This subversion can arguably become a state policy, and the subsequent outcome is the full absorption of the Commons as well as of the underpinning peer-to-peer relations into the dominant mode of production. To tackle this threat, we argue in favour of a certain working agenda for Commons-based communities. Such an agenda should aim the enforcement of the circulation of the Commons. Therefore, any useful social transformation will be meaningful if the people themselves decide and apply policies for their own benefit, optimally with the support of a sovereign partner state. If peer production is to become dominant, it has to control capital accumulation with the aim to marginalise and eventually transcend capitalism.

Impact of Environmental Degradation on Human Health

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
_______ Archana ◽  
Charu Datta ◽  
Pratibha Tiwari
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Population Increase ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The People ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Economic Institute ◽  
Day By Day

Degradation of environment is one of the most serious challenges before the mankind in today’s world. Mankind has been facing a wide range of problem arising out of the degradation of environment. Not only the areas under human inhabitation, but the areas of the planet without human population have also been suffering from these problems. As the population increase day by day, the amenities are not improved simultaneously. With the advancement of science and technologies the needs of human beings has been changing rapidly. As a result different types of environmental problems have been rising. Environmental degradation is a wide- reaching problem and it is likely to influence the health of human population is great. It may be defined the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water, and soil. The destruction of ecosystem and extinction of wildlife. Environmental degradation has occurred due to the recent activities in the field of socio-economic, institute and technology. Poverty still remains a problem as the root of several environmental problems to create awareness among the people about the ill effect of environmental pollution. In the whole research it is clear that all factors of environmental degradation may be reduced through- Framing the new laws on environmental degradation, Environment friend policy, Controlling all the ways and means of noise, air, soil and water pollution, Through growing more and more trees and by adapting the proper sanitation policy.  

Phytochemical evaluation of leaf extracts of Naringi crenulata (roxb.) Nicolson

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (11) ◽  
pp. 5110
Author(s):  
Sartaj Ahmad Allayie ◽  
Mushtaq Ahmed Parray* ◽  
Bilal Ahmad Bhat ◽  
S. Hemalatha
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Solvent System ◽  
Great Promise ◽  
Phytochemical Analysis ◽  
Bioactive Constituents ◽  
Leaf Extracts ◽  
Traditional Medicines ◽  
The People ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Rf Values

The use of traditional medicines holds a great promise as an easily available source as effective medicinal agents to cure a wide range of ailments among the people particularly in tropical developing countries like India. The present study investigates the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the major bioactive constituents of N. crenulata leaf extracts. The extractive values of aqueous, acetone and chloroform extracts were found to be 11.34, 4.24 and 6.06 respectively. Qualitative phytochemical analysis of these three solvent extracts confirm the presence of Alkaloids, Saponins, Flavonoids and Phenolic compounds in all the three extracts; however, these phytochemicals were more significant in aqueous extract. Quantitative analysis was carried out using TLC method by different solvent system. Amongst various solvent systems, Butanol: acetic acid: water (9: 0.9: 0.1 v/v/v) shows maximum resolution and number of spots produced at long UV (365 nm) and under iodine vapours. The TLC chromatograms constituted different coloured phytochemical compounds with different Rf values. It can be conveniently used to evaluate the quality of different area samples. This indicates that the leaves can be useful for treating different diseases because the therapeutic activity of a plant is due to the presence of particular class of compounds and thus can serve as potential sources of useful drugs in future.

The State versus the People

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Rendle
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
State Control ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
Soviet State ◽  
The People ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Complex Picture ◽  
The Military

This book provides the first detailed account of the role of revolutionary justice in the early Soviet state. Law has often been dismissed by historians as either unimportant after the October Revolution amid the violence and chaos of civil war or even, in the absence of written codes and independent judges, little more than another means of violence. This is particularly true of the most revolutionary aspect of the new justice system, revolutionary tribunals—courts inspired by the French Revolution and established to target counter-revolutionary enemies. This book paints a more complex picture. The Bolsheviks invested a great deal of effort and scarce resources into building an extensive system of tribunals that spread across the country, including into the military and the transport network. At their peak, hundreds of tribunals heard hundreds of thousands of cases every year. Not all ended in harsh sentences: some were dismissed through lack of evidence; others given a wide range of sentences; others still suspended sentences; and instances of early release and amnesty were common. This book, therefore, argues that law played a distinct and multifaceted role for the Bolsheviks. Tribunals stood at the intersection between law and violence, offering various advantages to the Bolsheviks, not least strengthening state control, providing a more effective means of educating the population on counter-revolution, and enabling a more flexible approach to the state’s enemies. All of this adds to our understanding of the early Soviet state and, ultimately, of how the Bolsheviks held on to power.

scholarly journals Killing a Constitution with a Thousand Cuts: Executive Aggrandizement and Party-state Fusion in India

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarunabh Khaitan
Keyword(s):  
Good Governance ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The People ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
General Elections ◽  
The Media ◽  
Democratic Norms

AbstractMany concerned citizens, including judges, bureaucrats, politicians, activists, journalists, and academics, have been claiming that Indian democracy has been imperilled under the premiership of Narendra Modi, which began in 2014. To examine this claim, the Article sets up an analytic framework for accountability mechanisms liberal democratic constitutions put in place to provide a check on the political executive. The assumption is that only if this framework is dismantled in a systemic manner can we claim that democracy itself is in peril. This framework helps distinguish between actions that one may disagree with ideologically but are nonetheless permitted by an elected government, from actions that strike at the heart of liberal democratic constitutionalism. Liberal democratic constitutions typically adopt three ways of making accountability demands on the political executive: vertically, by demanding electoral accountability to the people; horizontally, by subjecting it to accountability demands of other state institutions like the judiciary and fourth branch institutions; and diagonally, by requiring discursive accountability by the media, the academy, and civil society. This framework assures democracy over time – i.e. it guarantees democratic governance not only to the people today, but to all future peoples of India. Each elected government has the mandate to implement its policies over a wide range of matters. However, seeking to entrench the ruling party’s stranglehold on power in ways that are inimical to the continued operation of democracy cannot be one of them. The Article finds that the first Modi government in power between 2014 and 2019 did indeed seek to undermine each of these three strands of executive accountability. Unlike the assault on democratic norms during India Gandhi’s Emergency in the 1970s, there is little evidence of a direct or full-frontal attack during this period. The Bharatiya Janata Party government’s mode of operation was subtle, indirect, and incremental, but also systemic. Hence, the Article characterizes the phenomenon as “killing a constitution by a thousand cuts.” The incremental assaults on democratic governance were typically justified by a combination of a managerial rhetoric of efficiency and good governance (made plausible by the undeniable imperfection of our institutions) and a divisive rhetoric of hyper-nationalism (which brands political opponents of the party as traitors of the state). Since its resounding victory in the 2019 general elections, the Modi government appears to have moved into consolidation mode. No longer constrained by the demands of coalition partners, early signs suggest that it may abandon the incrementalist approach for a more direct assault on democratic constitutionalism.

scholarly journals Natural Hazards – Nonlinearities and Assessment

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
Gerassimos A. Papadopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Emergency Response ◽  
Rapid Assessment ◽  
Economic Loss ◽  
Loss Of Life ◽  
The People ◽  
Reliable Assessment ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
And Control

Geosciences are developing and applying a wide range of methodologies to assess natural hazards. Significant advances in the site characterization and models development have been achieved in the last decade, but many challenges still remain. Several disastrous earthquakes in the past decade accompanied with tsunamis have required a rapid assessment of the underlying causes of the tragic loss of life and property. Natural disasters risk reduction and control as a crucial criterion for sustainable development and minimizing social and economic loss and disruption due to earthquakes, tsunamis and other hazards requires reliable assessment of the seismic and tsunami hazard, as well as mitigation actions of the vulnerability of the built environment and risk. All of these provide the critical basis for improved building codes and construction emergency response plans for the people and infrastructure safety and protection.

scholarly journals From the Communism of Capital to Capital for the Commons: Towards an Open Co-operativism

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 356-361
Author(s):  
Michel Bauwens ◽  
Vasilis Kostakis
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Free Software ◽  
Peer Production ◽  
Open Hardware ◽  
Production Models ◽  
Common Ownership ◽  
The Commons ◽  
Governance Models ◽  
The One ◽  
Start Ups

Two prominent social progressive movements are faced with a few contradictions and a paradox. On the one side, we have a re-emergence of the co-operative movement and worker-owned enterprises which suffer from certain structural weaknesses. On the other, we have an emergent field of open and Commons-oriented peer production initiatives which create common pools of knowledge for the whole of humanity, but are dominated by start-ups and large multinational enterprises using the same Commons. Thus we have a paradox: the more communist the sharing license used in the peer production of free software or open hardware, the more capitalist the practice. To tackle this paradox and the aforementioned contradictions, we tentatively suggest a new convergence that would combine both Commons-oriented open peer production models with common ownership and governance models, such as those of the co-operatives and the solidarity economic models.

scholarly journals Stigmatization towards persons with mental and intellectual difficulties

Temida ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-56
Author(s):  
Mia Popic ◽  
Snezana Anticevic
Keyword(s):  
Social Withdrawal ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Social Marginalization ◽  
The People ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Human Tendency ◽  
Seeking Help

Persons with mental and intellectual difficulties are the most stigmatized social groups of all. Consequences of stigma towards these people present themselves in a wide range including social withdrawal; feelings of loneliness; low self-esteem; failure to take care of oneself; avoidance of seeking help; low enrolment in any kind of treatment; financial poverty and total social marginalization. Although most of the attempts to overcome stigmatization towards this population have shown a very pessimistic perspective, it is important to overcome our own helplessness in treating this issue and continue with the efforts to combat stigma. The only way to succeed is through continuous and careful analysis of the factors that contribute to a human tendency to stigmatize that could then be utilized as the ground base in development of mechanisms to battle this issue. This paper summarizes ways that the stigmatization of persons with mental and intellectual difficulties is manifested as well as the negative influences it has on the people who are stigmatized. Factors that contribute to the stigmatization of persons are carefully considered, as well as possible mechanisms that could be utilized as part of efforts to combat stigma.

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