Abundance Logic vs Scarcity Logic

Discussion

David de Ugarte:

"Abundance logic is a seminal concept introduced by Juan Urrutia in 2002 as the basis on which to understand what was then known as the "new economy".

The classic example is the comparison between newspapers and the blogosphere. In a newspaper, with a limited paper surface, publishing one more line in an article entails suppressing a line somewhere else as in a zero-sum game. By contrast, in the blogosphere, a space where the social cost of an extra post is zero, any blogger's publishing his or her information does not decrease anyone else's publication possibilities. The marginal cost is zero. The need to collectively decide what is published and what is not simply disappears. As opposed to scarcity logic, which generates the need for democratic decision, abundant logic opens the door to pluriarchy.

In such a universe, every collective or hierarchical decision on what to publish or not can only be conceived as an artificial generation of scarcity, a decrease in diversity, and an impoverishment for all.

For a generation and a professional domain whose work tools work under such a logic, even economic democracy must be seen as a lesser evil, a truce with reality in those social spaces – such as business – where scarcity still prevails. In that way, innovators in the domain of social networks or Internet design rediscover traditions as old as cooperatives from a new perspective." (http://deugarte.com/gomi/phyles.pdf )

Source

• Book: Phyles: Economic Democracy in the Network Century. by David de Ugarte

URL = http://deugarte.com/gomi/phyles.pdf

References

• Juan Urrutia, “Redes de personas, Internet y la lógica de la

abundancia: un paseo por la nueva economía”, Ekonomiaz: Revista Vasca de Economía, 2001; 46: 182-201 (ISSN 0213- 3865).

• Véase VV.AA, De las naciones a las redes, El Cobre, 2009.

More Information

1. Abundance vs. Scarcity Mentality