Commons
One of the hallmarks of contemporary capitalism is the qualitative change in the way it expands beyond its borders. If, formerly, factories were the units of the means of production and the mode of accumulation, today the market space is almost total, investing every moment of life and every form of human relationship. All spaces and all social wealth have, one by one, been appropriated to become commodities and means to make profits. And this commodification process is taking place to the great detriment of environmental and fundamental rights.
Movements and organisations have increasingly adopted a fightback strategy that can, to some extent and in some spaces, stop this expansion. The right to the city, environmental struggles, and open digital communication experiments, each of these experiences invoke the concept of the common good.
transform! europe aims to organise and support research that analyses the forms of these struggles, the ways in which they are connected to the concept of the Commons, and how they can lead to a strategy that unifies the struggles, which, in combination, might prefigure another social and economic system.
We intend to offer a space for reflection and sharing around these issues, which can deepen our understanding and expand the boundaries of our initiative.
Analysis
Unconditional Basic Income. To Each According to Her or His Basic Needs
- Basic income is not just one financial measure among many but a social, economic and civic financial amount which has a far-reaching multiplier effect in many areas of life. Basic income is a profound civilizational change on par with the introduction of universal suffrage or universal health care. Read an analysis of its key aspects.
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Worldwide Organic Outlook
- Improving data, engaging citizens, and implementing smart policies.
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New Book Release
Making Shareholders Redundant - Why and how to manage without them ?
- This book begins a transformation programme which combines an ecological and social agenda with the end of the very notion of ownership of the means of production.
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Commons and Conflict
- From the World Bank, transnational companies to the European Union – today, everyone is speaking about commons and commoning, and everyone wants to build the commons. We have to be very clear about what the commons are. Or at least what they are structurally.
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The Right to the City. Urban Commons and Sustainable Cities
- Due to the local character of most Commons initiatives it’s obvious that cities are preferred places. From social housing to urban gardening to digital citizenship to public cultural spaces to educational initiatives to healthcare-centres to direct farmers-consumers-cooperatives to workers’...
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A Pathway to a Decent Life for All of Us. Remarks on the Theoretical Context and Vision of The Common Good of Humanity
- The question of property is central to all left politics from its (organised) beginnings in the nineteenth century until today. The private appropriation and exploitation of labour, resources, and nature are the driving forces in capitalism.
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Introduction and Conference Report
The Concept of 'Common' – Towards an Economic and Social Democracy
- It appears increasingly obvious that the concept of the Common can provide a framework for a left alternative project embracing the questions of social and economic democracy and ecology. Read an introduction on the concept of the Common and conference report by Roberto Morea.
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Authors
