Project Nottingham Book

Andreas:

I would organise a primer on peer production in such a way, that the boadest possible ground is covered.

So the framework we talked about earlier (and the framework you use in p2pfoundation) would seem better to me: 1. peer practices 2. peer governance 3. peer value/peer property

The legacy of the traditional commons could then be incorporated under peer property, perhaps as a chapter even. Similarly peer production and Physical Production could be incorporated under peer practices, again as a chapter inspecting this. The new logic of anti-rival goods - not sure: this could be part of peer practice, or part of peer value. But my point: I think the practices/governance/value framework is broader, that's why I would prefer this framework.

These are my thoughts so far: 1. main objective: a political economy of peer production

2. main perspective: an inspection of the political economy of peer production from below, a focus on bottom up structures, a focus on the theme of emergence (central here: Steven Johnson: Emergence, fantastic book, you have to read it!!!!). With this focus on bottom up structures we can do something that has not been done systematically in political economy literature, we would really cover new territory.

3. the structure: a. practices, b. governance, c. value/property for each of these three parts we focus on emergence.

Peer Practices: What kind of practices evolve? Perhaps we could aim for a typology of peer practices. Typology: this is something we are both interested in. You introduced a typology at the Notts workshops, and I have also made an attempt to organise different practices lately for a presentation in December on p2p (remind me to send you the file, I don't have it in my office computer at the moment.

Peer Governance: Key question: What systems of governance emerge?

Peer Value/Property: What forms of value creation emerge? How does property emerge?

With emergence are core concept we can/should produce genealogies, a genealogy of practices, a genealogy of goverance patterns, and a genealogy of property regimes (e.g. the commons)

This is my suggestion to proceed: First we need to agree on the structure of this book, and on the main objective(s), the main perspective(s) etc. If that is sorted we should produce a draft AND find people to contribute. Does that make sense?

Proposed Content

Introduction: Michel Bauwens, the Political Economy of Peer Production

Andreas Wittel: Presentation of the Issue and Preliminary Conclusions

Peer Practices

• Johan Soderbergh: Hacking as anti-capitalist practice

• Andreas Wittel: Varieties of network socialities

• Smari McCarthy: Distributed Digital Manufacturing

• Business Model Typologies in Peer Production

• John Heron: The Emergence of Participatory Spirituality

• Terre Vaden: Trends in P2P Learning

Peer Governance

• George Dafermos: The Governance of Linux

• Stan Rhodes: Creating Peer Trust Networks

• Christian Siefkes: Organizing the Peer Economy

• Mark Elliot on Stigmergy

Peer Value/Property

• Adam Arvidsson: The Crisis of Value in Capitalism and the Ethical Economy

• (Samuel Rose: a review of open money and wealth acknowledgment systems)