Introduction

• Michel Bauwens:

1. The basic orientation of p2p theory towards societal reform: transforming civil society, the private and the state
2. To the Finland Station: the political approach of P2P Theory

• Michel Bauwens & Vasilis Kostakis

1. Network Society and Future Scenarios for a Collaborative Economy, 2014, Palgrave Macmillan: See especially Part Three.

• John Restakis:

1. Civil Power and the Partner State. By John Restakis. Draft text of a keynote address to the 2nd Good Economy conference in Zagreb, Croatia. 18 March 2015.

Key Resources

Articles

• A Civilized Market Economy as the Horizon of Progress. Peter Ulrich

Books

• Anarchy as Order: The History and Future of Civic Humanity. Mohammed A. Bamyeh. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. (May 16, 2010)

• Röpke, W. (1960): A Humane Economy: The Social Framework of the Free Market, transl. E. Henderson, Chicago: Henry Regnery Co. (orig. German: Jenseits von Angebot und Nachfrage, 2nd ed. 1958).

• Ulrich, P. (2008): Integrative Economic Ethics: Foundations of a Civilized Market Economy, Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press.

• Commons, Markets and Associations in the European Middle Ages. JEAN-FRANÇOIS DRAPERI. Associations in the Medieval West. From the emergence of the commons to the supremacy of markets. Le fait associatif dans l’Occident médiéval. De l’émergence des communs à la suprématie des marchés. Le Bord de l'Eau, [1]: "Associations dominate the economy of the central Middle Ages: monasteries, parishes, guilds, brotherhoods, communes, found the renaissance of the 12th century. Acting on the medieval associative fact invites us to pose the hypothesis that associations and the social economy are not an invention of contemporary society, but rather a discovery. The social economy was not born in reaction to capitalism, but the capitalist economy was born from the transformation of trade associations and the seizure of power by merchants and bankers over the commons and communes in the 13th and 14th centuries."

Quotes

Scaled-Up Welfare Systems are rooted in grassroots community experimentation

Ted Howard:

"Solutions start where all fundamental change comes from—which is in communities and from the bottom up. This has been the case with large order change in both the UK and in my own country, the United States. Back home, we call it the laboratories of democracy. As the Great Depression took hold in America in 1929, the levels of pain across the country grew. But the ideology of the then federal government was that the government should do nothing to address the growing depression, that the market would correct itself. And so, in community after community people took history into their own hands and began to address their problems themselves. New approaches were devised that could eventually be lifted up and scaled. America’s primary social safety net, the Social Security System, began in small Alaska and California communities as people grappled with their challenges. When the politics changed nationally, when the Roosevelt administration came into power, and the New Deal began, these small models were lifted up into a comprehensive system of national support. Here in Britain there is a similar experience. When Bevan launched the NHS in 1948, he drew his inspiration from the Tredegar Medical Aid Society, a community based model in South Wales that began in 1890. This small Welsh experiment was scaled up into one of the great health systems of the world."

(https://democracycollaborative.org/content/democracy-collaborative-joins-jeremy-corbyns-new-community-wealth-building-unit-advisors)

How Bioregional Commons Create Civic Commons

"Civic culture emerges through what Peter Block calls "the structure of belonging" — regular practices that transform isolated individuals into interdependent communities. Shared meals become governance forums. Barn raisings teach collaborative construction. Seed swaps maintain agricultural biodiversity while weaving social networks. Time banks create reciprocal obligations outside market logic. Each practice builds what Robert Putnam termed "social capital" — the trust and relationships that enable collective action.

The commons, both physical and cultural, provide the medium through which this civic culture develops. Unlike private property (which individualizes) or state resources (which bureaucratize), commons require active participation in governance. Managing irrigation systems teaches water democracy. Maintaining tool libraries develops sharing protocols. Protecting forests requires conflict resolution between different use patterns. The commons become schools for citizenship, teaching through practice rather than theory.

Yet this civic culture cannot be imposed through top-down mandate or imported wholesale from other contexts. Each bioregion's culture emerges from its specific ecological patterns, history, and cultural inheritances. Salmon Nation's civic practices differ from those in the Sonoran Desert, shaped by different seasonal rhythms, resource constraints, and indigenous traditions. This place-specificity makes bioregional culture both deeply rooted and fundamentally plural—unified by commitment to place rather than homogeneous belief."

- Benjamin Life [2]