Frontiers of Commoning, with David Bollier

The Schumacher Center for a New Economics, David Bollier
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Frontiers of Commoning, with David Bollier

A monthly conversation with creative activists pioneering new forms of commoning.

  1. Stefan Gruber's Global Portfolio of Urban Commons

    1 OCT

    Stefan Gruber's Global Portfolio of Urban Commons

    Stefan Gruber, a Carnegie Mellon University professor of architecture and urbanism, sees cities as a prime site of struggle between capitalism and commons, and therefore an important incubator of just, regenerative, self-determined communities that move beyond the market/state paradigm. The traveling international exhibit, 'An Atlas of Commoning,' which he helped curate, and his course on 'Commoning in the City', study how participatory action, community design, and creative commons/public partnerships are reinventing urban life. More on the commons at www.Bollier.org.

    43 min
  2. Brandon Letsinger on Cascadia and Bioregional Activism

    1 SEPT

    Brandon Letsinger on Cascadia and Bioregional Activism

    Brandon Letsinger, a Seattle organizer and cofounding director of the Cascadia Department of Bioregion, discusses the history of bioregional activism in Cascadia and current challenges and strategies. Cascadia consists of three watersheds in the Pacific Northwest extending from British Columbia to northern California. For more than 40 years, Cascadia activists have been in the vanguard of a larger, now resurgent global movement. Its general goals are to reinvent markets, cultures and identities in ways that foster bioregional self-reliance and responsible stewardship of watersheds, energy, agriculture, wildlife, and other living systems.

    53 min
  3. Bram Büscher: Bridging the Human/Nature Divide through Convivial Conservation

    1 AUG

    Bram Büscher: Bridging the Human/Nature Divide through Convivial Conservation

    Bram Büscher, an activist-scholar in sociology at Wageningen University in The Netherlands, has launched an ambitious international project to invent noncapitalist forms of land conservation. He calls it "convivial conservation." Instead of locking up land as wilderness or using it to make money through ecotourism and genetic patents, "convivial conservation" is about enabling humans to become integral, respectful co-creators with nature. The new Convivial Conservation Centre, with staff in five countries and many allies worldwide, champions constructive, symbiotic human relationships with local ecosystems and the bridging of the deep divide separating humans from nature. More on commons: www.Bollier.org

    52 min
  4. Safouan Azouzi: Lessons of Desert Oases for Eco-Resilient Transformation

    1 JUL

    Safouan Azouzi: Lessons of Desert Oases for Eco-Resilient Transformation

    Safouan Azouzi, a Tunisian scholar of the commons and participatory social design, discusses how cultural traditions in desert oases hold important socio-ecological lessons for the world. For the Global South, long victimized by colonialism and capitalist extraction, oases culture embodies an eco-friendly, alternative vision of development. For the industrial West, oases reveals the importance of commoning in building stable, regenerative economies in sync with ecosystem needs. More on the commons at www.Bollier.org. A PDF transcript of Episode #52 can be found here: https://www.bollier.org/files/misc-file-upload/files/Safouan_Azouzi_Ep._52_transcript.doc.pdf

    50 min
  5. Camila Vergara's Vision of Plebeian Constitutionalism

    1 JUN

    Camila Vergara's Vision of Plebeian Constitutionalism

    Chilean political philosopher Camila Vergara boldly argues in her book 'Systemic Corruption' that decay and corruption are inevitable even in liberal, representative systems because oligarchs end up capturing state governance and law. Ordinary people rarely have their own plebeian institutions to express their interests and curb the abuses of the elite. Drawing on ancient Greek and Roman history and four modern political philosophers, Professor Vergara makes an audacious case for constitutionally ordained plebeian institutions such as citizen assemblies through which citizens could propose and veto legislation and political appointees, among other powers. More on the commons: https://www.bollier.org.

    53 min
  6. Cooking Sections Serves Up Art, Eco-Activism & Local Food

    1 MAY

    Cooking Sections Serves Up Art, Eco-Activism & Local Food

    The artistic duo known as Cooking Sections -- Alon Schwabe and Daniel Fernández Pascual of the Royal College of Art in London -- use their virtuoso visual, performance, and installation artworks to jolt people into new understanding of local ecosystems, capitalism, and food. Their work, shown at prestigious venues around the world to great acclaim, dramatizes how modern diets are products of "a globally financialized landscape," ranging from artificially colored farmed salmon to eco-destroying monoculture crops. But Cooking Sections also uses its art to work closely with farmers, restaurants, schools, politicians, and citizens to reinvent local foodways through commoning. (Photo by Aman Askarizad, IHME)

    47 min
  7. Nathan Schneider on Building Democratic Governance on the Internet

    1 APR

    Nathan Schneider on Building Democratic Governance on the Internet

    To counter the "implicit feudalism" that is the norm on the Internet, activist-scholar Nathan Schneider explains the potential of democratic governance in online life and its importance to "real world" democracy. A professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, Schneider argues that "online spaces could be sites of creative, radical and democratic renaissance." But this will require progressive activists to heed the lessons of various social and decolonial movements throughout history, and to find the resolve to use the technologies in creative ways.

    50 min
  8. WIll Ruddick on 'Commitment Pooling' to Build Economic Commons

    1 MAR

    WIll Ruddick on 'Commitment Pooling' to Build Economic Commons

    Will Ruddick, development economist and founder of Grassroots Economics, has spent the past 16 years in Kenya developing innovative "community inclusion currencies" for dozens of poorer communities. By combining ancient mutual aid practices with credit vouchers (circulating as a kind of money) and digital ledger technologies (to expand the scale of exchange), people are able to develop their own economic commons to meet everyday needs. Ruddick credits the success of the currencies to "commitment pooling" protocols that have long been used by Indigenous and traditional communities. Blog post: https://www.bollier.org/blog/will-ruddick-commitment-pooling-build-economic-commons

    52 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

A monthly conversation with creative activists pioneering new forms of commoning.

Information

  • Creator
    The Schumacher Center for a New Economics, David Bollier
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2024
  • Episodes
    55
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2020. Licensed under Creative Commons 4.0 BY-SA license.
  • Show Website
    Frontiers of Commoning, with David Bollier

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