Proposal for a Conference on Commons-Oriented Economics

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Proposal for a Conference on Commons-Oriented Economics


Draft proposal in the context of the Commons Strategies Group


See also: a draft list of Commons-Oriented_Economists


Context

The CSG is a group of commons-advocates consisting of Silke Helfrich, David Bollier, Michel Bauwens and Bea Busaniche, dedicated to promoting the Commons as a societal alternative. In the fall of 2011, we co-organized, with and for the Heinrich Boll Foundation, a conference on Commons-oriented policy-making, which brought together representatives from both thedigital and the physical commons, which was held in Berlin on October 31-November, 2, 2011. The conference, the first time that digital and physical commoners came together to discuss common policy formulation, was considered very successful by observers, participants, and the co-organizers, and led to the decision to continue similar efforts.

The Calendar

During May 2013, it is proposed to organize the Second International Conference on the Commons, again in Berlin.

This large international conference will be prepared by three continental workshops, in the fall and winter of 2012.


  1. Germany for Europe: in Bechstadt, 3rd week of August
  2. Chiang Mai for South-East Asia, 3rd week of September
  3. Rio de Janeiro for South America, 3rd week of January

The Proposal

The theme to explore and deepen this time will be the economics of the Commons. Indeed it seems clear that both the state-socialist change proposals (1989), and the neoliberal assumptions governing the present economic system, have run out of the steam, with the latter becoming particularly dysfunctional. The present structural disfuntionalities of social-market-economy and welfare state in times of globalization and the severe threat to the biosphere through climate change and resource depletion make the reformist/ social democrat approaches inoperable and require a more radical restructuring centered around the protection of natural and human resources seen as a commons.

It is therefore imperative to create a dialogue between the economically oriented commons researchers, practicioners and advocates. However, this conference should by no means be restricted to economists only, as the distinction and dominance of the economic framework is part and parcel of the current crisis. Indeed, a commons approach to economy implies a redefinition of what the economy is, what value is, as well as a radical re-discussion about the measures (and the structures of power) which are embedded in the current from of dominant capitalism.


Proposed Major Themes:

  • The Commons Beyond Economics: commons-orientated critiques of capitalism and the current mainstrream economic assumptions.
  • The Commons in relation to other trans-economic approaches: What other approaches can be used, in addition to the commons, to go beyond the centrality of economics in human life, and to return it to a system of provisioning of sustainable human needs? How does the commons relate to the solidarity economy, buen vivir and other proposals?
  • Macro-economic conceptions: how does a commons orientation fits in today's economic approaches , or not, i.e. to what degree is the commons approach compatible with the existing system; what needs to change?
  • Solving the biospheric crisis: preserving and protecting the natural commons
  • The Commons and the non-capitalist economic traditions. The aim of this session is to open up a dialogue with indigenous, traditional and neotraditional conceptions of the economy, especially those which give the commons an important if not central place
  • Economics of the physical commons: what can we learn about the governance and economics of local physical commons
  • Economics of digital common: what can we learn from the economics governing digital commons
  • Money and Finance as a commons: from local credit commons to transnational monetary reform

Common-stock approaches (capital owned by citizens and workers) to physical production and manufacturing: to what degree can the emergence of global innovation commons based on open content, free software and shared design, be combined with not just open and distributed forms of machinery, but with new forms of distributed, commons-oriented, property and ownership

  • Sustaining Sectoral Commons. This section is where specialized commons can present and discuss their specific issues.
  • Legal Infrastructures for the Commons
  • Commons-economics oriented Policy proposals
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