Thinking About Commons as a Post-Capitalist Perspective for Social Work
* Bookchapter: Thinking about Commons: A post-capitalist perspective for social work. By Jef Peeters. In: A-L. Matthies & K. Närhi (eds.), The Ecosocial Transition of Societies: The contribution of social work and social policy (p. 71-88). Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-4724-7349-3
Description
Jef Peeters:
"Looking for a new economic paradigm, above all the growing new commons movement comes to the fore. Commons - common goods managed by communities - define a logic beyond market and state, thus prominently represent an alternative for the factual market-state duopoly. Moreover, this logic encompass in its core principles of sharing and cooperation well suited to realize the needed prosperity without growth. Further it is able to form a bridge between various alternative economic movements (Bollier and Conaty 2015). To place the commons within a broad horizon of transformational social change, I first look at some fundamental understanding of economics from anthropological and historical studies. This leads to a critical understanding of the actual market society and of the challenge of a paradigmatic shift. Next I will focus on the commons: defining them and explaining their relation to peer production and to the sharing economy. Then I present a proposal for a commons based transition to a post-capitalist society, which in the last part will be translated to some first ideas for social work and social policy."