scholarly journals CAN CAPITALISM REFORM ITSELF AND MOVE TOWARDS A P2P SOCIETY?

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Lievens

AbstractThe first Dutch book on P2P “Save the World” by Michel Bauwens had a good reception in Flanders. Even for the critics, the emerging way of ‘getting things done’ through global cooperation on “what is light” and re-localisation of “what is heavy” is making a lot of sense and is indeed the way to go. In this article, we examine two criticisms of the book: the feasibility of an unconditional basic income within the present system and the possibility to move gradually to a P2P society without “overthrowing” capitalism.  Apart from the “low road” to peer-to-peer (after an economic collapse) and “the high road to peer-to-peer” (through neo-Keynesianism) a third way could open up, based on a reformed partner state facilitating peer production. Our conclusion is that under the present circumstances, with exponentially growing bottom-up initiatives, open source alternatives and the Internet as a new means of production, value creation and distribution, past failed experiences of ‘socialism in one country’ could today have more chances of succeeding on condition that a progressive government arms itself with a commons transitional plan. Such a transitional government would undoubtedly face many difficulties, but it would at least open the horizon for a better future. And it would certainly enjoy a wave of solidarity throughout the world. PODE O CAPITALISMO REFORMAR A SI PRÓPRIO E SE ENCAMINHAR PARA UMA SOCIEDADE P2P? ResumoO primeiro livro holandês sobre P2P “Save the World” de Michel Bauwens teve boa recepção em Flandres. Mesmo para os críticos, a nova forma de “conseguir fazer as coisas” através da cooperação sobre “o que é leve” e a relocalização de “o que é pesado” faz muito sentido e é, sem dúvida, o caminho a seguir. Neste artigo, analisamos duas críticas feitas ao livro: a viabilidade de renda básica incondicional dentro do sistema presente e a possibilidade de mudar gradualmente para uma sociedade P2P sem “derrubar” o Capitalismo.Além de uma “low road to peer-to-peer” (depois de um colapso econômico) e “the high road to peer-to-peer” (através do neo-keynesianismo) uma terceira via poderia ser aberta, baseada num estado parceiro reformado que facilitasse a produção do tipo “peer”. Concluímos assim que nas circunstâncias presentes, com iniciativas “bottom-up” crescendo exponencialmente, alternativas de código aberto e da Internet como novo meio de produção, criação e distribuição de valores, experiências falidas de 'socialismo em um só país' no passado poderiam agora ter mais chances de sucesso sob a condição de que um governo progressista se arme com um plano de transição dos comuns. Tal governo de transição poderia sem dúvida enfrentar muitas dificuldades, mas pelo menos abriria os horizontes para um futuro melhor. E certamente gozaria de uma onda de solidariedade no mundo inteiro.

2006 ◽  
pp. 126-134
Author(s):  
L. Evstigneeva ◽  
R. Evstigneev

“The Third Way” concept is still widespread all over the world. Growing socio-economic uncertainty makes the authors revise the concept. In the course of discussion with other authors they introduce a synergetic vision of the problem. That means in the first place changing a linear approach to the economic research for a non-linear one.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Bischof ◽  
Thomas Kurer

Political parties have long thrived on systematic grassroots mobilization of support. But does traditional partisan bottom-up mobilization still matter in an interconnected digital age turning the world into a `global village'? We address this question by studying the impact of the populist Movimento Cinque Stelle (M5S) on the rejection of the 2016 constitutional referendum in Italy. The movement's unusual practice to coordinate activities on a public event platform provides a unique opportunity to collect the complete event history of a modern political party. We merge this data consisting of over 200'000 geo-coded meetings by 1'000 local chapters with referendum results and individual panel data. Relying on regression, matching, and instrumental variable models, we find a small but consistent effect of M5S activity on the referendum outcome. Our findings demonstrate the continued relevance of bottom-up mobilization and highlight direct democratic means as an influential channel for populist movements.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 37-58
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Dojwa-Turczyńska

Problematyka kreacji instytucjonalnych elit władzy jest zagadnieniem, które absorbowało i nadal absorbuje przedstawicieli nauk społecznych. Procesy rekrutacji i selekcji, zdobywania poparcia społecznego i oddolnej legitymacji zdają się interesować nie tylko świat ludzi nauki, praktyków sfery politycznej, lecz także obywateli — wyborców. W niniejszym artykule podjęto próbę udzielenia odpowiedzi na pytania dotyczące udziału radnych sejmików województw wybranych w 2014 r. w wyborach parlamentarnych kolejnego roku. Zastanawiano się nad kwestią samej skali aktywności radnych, problemami ich związania lub nie z poszczególnym blokiem politycznym i z określonym terytorium, wreszcie analizie poddano zmiany dotyczące uzyskanego przez nich poparcia wyborczego. “Winners” and “losers.” Analysis of changes in the support received by provincial assembly councillors running for parliamentThe issues of the creation of institutional elites of the authorities constitute a problem that absorbs representatives of social sciences to this day. The processes of recruitment and selection, gaining social support and bottom-up legitimization seem to absorb not only the world of academics and practitioners of the political sphere but also citizens-electors. In this paper, an attempt has been made to give answers to questions concerning the participation of provincial assembly councillors elected in 2014 in the parliamentary elections held the following year. The issue of the scale of councillors’ activity, problems of their connection or its lack with a specific political bloc and specific territory have been considered, while the rest of the analysis refers to changes regarding the electoral support they gained.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1100-1123
Author(s):  
Cidália Costa Fonte ◽  
Joaquim António Patriarca ◽  
Marco Minghini ◽  
Vyron Antoniou ◽  
Linda See ◽  
...  

OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a bottom up community-driven initiative to create a global map of the world. Yet the application of OSM to land use and land cover (LULC) mapping is still largely unexploited due to problems with inconsistencies in the data and harmonization of LULC nomenclatures with OSM. This chapter outlines an automated methodology for creating LULC maps using the nomenclature of two European LULC products: the Urban Atlas (UA) and CORINE Land Cover (CLC). The method is applied to two regions in London and Paris. The results show that LULC maps with a level of detail similar to UA can be obtained for the urban regions, but that OSM has limitations for conversion into the more detailed non-urban classes of the CLC nomenclature. Future work will concentrate on developing additional rules to improve the accuracy of the transformation and building an online system for processing the data.


Author(s):  
Sara Dolnicar

Peer-to-peer accommodation networks have rocked the established accommodation sector, dramatically increasing the variety of accommodation options available to people around the world. They have also created a number of societal challenges never expected to result from a short-term accommodation trading platform. Something about peer-to-peer accommodation networks is very different from anything we have seen before, although they consist of building blocks which are not new at all. This chapter explores some of the unique features of Airbnb – the leading international peer-to-peer accommodation network – and proposes a conceptual model of elements contributing to Airbnb’s success.


2012 ◽  
pp. 249-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatyana Dumova

In an age of user-generated content, multimedia sharing sites, and customized news aggregators, an assortment of Internet-based social interaction technologies transforms the Web and its users. A quintessential embodiment of social interaction technologies, blogs are widely used by people across diverse geographies to locate information, create and share content, initiate conversations, and collaborate and interact with others in various settings. This chapter surveys the global blogosphere landscape for the latest trends and developments in order to evaluate the overall direction that blogging might take in the future. The author posits that network-based peer production and social media convergence are the driving forces behind the current transformation of blogs. The participatory and inclusive nature of social interaction technologies makes blogging a medium of choice for disseminating user-driven content and particularly suitable for bottom-up grassroots initiatives, creativity, and innovation.


2011 ◽  
pp. 136-153
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Roy

The objectives of this chapter are threefold: first, to first provide a conceptual framework for understanding e-government as a set of four, interrelated dimensions of public sector change; secondly, to consider the relevance and applicability of this framework for both developed and developing nations; and thirdly, to explore the interface between domestic and transnational governance reforms in an increasingly digital era. The world in the twenty-first century needs a globally federated governance architecture, the design of which must include social, economic, political and technological considerations. This strengthened focus on transnational governance systems must also be joined by the recognition of the dysfunctional nature of the present system of bilateral international assistance programs among countries. With improved governance conditions of transparency and trust transnationally – facilitated in part by a much more politically creative and aggressive use of new technologies, the resources allocated by each country across their various recipients would serve both developing nations and the world as a whole if they were pooled and coordinated through new transnational mechanisms.


Author(s):  
Yuan-Chu Hwang

The e-services have introduced a significant wave of change in communication patterns around the world. Such e-services are capable of intelligent interaction and are able to discover and negotiate with each other, mediate on behalf of their users and reconfigure themselves into services that are more complex. In this chapter, the author explores the future opportunities and its applications of ambient eservice. Contrast to traditional e-business service delivery method, their proposed service focus on the bottom-up collaborative approach that enables e-business participants to cooperate with nearby users and encourage information sharing and experience co-creation. The notion of ambient e-service is defined to identify a new scope of mobile e-service, which address dynamic collective efforts between mobile users (enabled by Mobile Peer-to-Peer technology), dynamic interactions with ambient environments (envisioned by Location-Based Service), the moment of value (empowered by wireless technologies), and low cost service provision. Several ambient e-service application scenarios will be introduced in the following sections.


Author(s):  
Jurjen A. Zeilstra

Chapter 7 traces Visser ’t Hooft’s activity as a (controversial) bridge builder during the period of the Cold War, on the unity of the church, and Eastern Orthodoxy. Despite the Cold War, which prevented Eastern Orthodox churches from joining the World Council, Visser ’t Hooft held firmly to the direction set by the World Council as a third way between East and West, utilising insights he laid out in earlier publications. At the same time the World Council had to deal with the question of churches recognising other churches as true. In this chapter we see how Visser ’t Hooft inspired people to apply ecumenicity across the East-West divide. The chapter also looks at criticism of Visser ’t Hooft’s approach.


2021 ◽  
pp. 184-211
Author(s):  
James D. Strasburg

This chapter examines how ecumenical American Protestants sought to come to Europe’s “spiritual aid” through carrying out a “Marshall Plan for the Churches.” By the summer of 1947, these Protestant ecumenists were preparing to rebuild European churches, distribute material aid across the continent, and promote theological exchange across the Atlantic. All the while, they also sought to strengthen the standing of democracy and capitalism in Europe and, in particular, to bolster European spiritual defenses against communism. While German and European Protestants welcomed ecumenical aid, they also protested the Cold War interests of the United States. In particular, they challenged American ecumenists for contributing to the spread of what they deemed a new kind of American imperial order in the world. In response, a growing number of Europeans called on ecumenical Protestants across the North Atlantic to become a “third way” spiritual force between American democracy and Soviet communism.


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