Curated article: An overview of research into the emergence of the contributory economy
An overview of fifteen years of research into commons-based peer production, by the P2P Foundation and its network of collaborators.
Introduction
Michel Bauwens:
(This was not yet available: a complete survey of the research reports of the P2P Foundation! Please note that every report title is also the link to documentation in our wiki, while the pdf version is provided separately. This annotated bibliography was created with the assistance of Mayssam Daboul.)
The P2P Foundation, as a network of researchers around the themes of ‘commons-based peer production’, has been informally active since November 2005. This means that for nearly 20 years now, we have been publishing empirical research reports, which reveal the state of advancement of this new method of value creation and distribution.
I believe that, with hindsight, there is some kind of unfolding logic in these research activities, and here is my attempt to summarize these insights of where we have been, where we are, and where we may be going. The aim is also to make all these reports accessible in one place.
Here is the overall logic as I see it:
The first phase was an investigation of past historical transitions and the particular dialectic that we believe we can see between the prefigurative construction of seed forms, the interconnection of them in subsystems, and the 'coming to fruition' of the new social norms after major social and political conflicts. This is roughly a phase I would place in the period 2003-2006, before the creation of our online presence.
In the second phase, we focused on peer to peer dynamics and the creation of contemporary commons, mostly by observing the 'three-in-one' institutional dynamics of digital commons and their surrounding economies. I would say this is roughly the period 2007-2010. With three in one, we mean the interconnectedness of the newly emerging commons practices with market and state forms, and how all three are changed through their interaction.
Thus emerged a need for more deep investigation which focused on the creation of ethical livelihoods and especially the interaction between the commons and the market; how to avoid extractive relations and create market forms that are commons-compatible and commons-friendly, which culminated in quite specific ideas on commons-market institutional design. Roughly the period 2010-2014. It was expressed succinctly in our study Value in the Commons Economy.
2014 was the year of an important pivot in our work as we were asked to examine the transition of the nation-state of Ecuador towards a social knowledge economy. Invited by three institutions, we focused on how to create shared knowledge commons for each domain of social and economic life, and what the material and immaterial conditions were for their realization. What we could not do for lack of mandate and means, was looking at actual material commons. But this is exactly what we did in Ghent in the spring of 2017, which was an investigation focusing on the very material urban commons that are growing exponentially in European cities, and are building alternatives for the allocation of value in nearly all vital provisioning systems. Our focus both in Ecuador and Ghent has been on institutional design for public-commons cooperation. This is roughly the period, 2014-2017.
I think that with the combination of our insights in commons-market and commons-public institutional design, we have a handle on the emerging forms of cooperation between these three vital domains of economic, social and political life, i.e. the civil society of commoners, the ethical entrepreneurial market coalitions, and the enabling and facilitating partner state.But note that these material commons allocate already produced resources, they are not yet making them. They were at first ‘consumptive’ commons, not production commons, except for the some emerging models in agriculture (collective food purchasing in alliances with farmers), and energy (village cooperatives producing their own renewable energy). Our report on the commons in Ghent was the bridge to this new orientation towards the production commons.
So a parallel track was developed around DGML (Design Global, Manufacture Local), also called cosmo-local production, with the help of our substantial P2P Lab in Ioannina and other researchers like Jose Ramos in Melbourne. We published the Cosmo-Local Reader which theorized, historicized, the shift towards material peer production. We consider our introduction, The Pulsation of the Commons, as important as our first landmark essay, The Political Economy of Peer Production, which was our original call to arms. This was our second, moving from the digital to the physical.
This parallel track on the conditions for sustainable commons-oriented physical production brings us naturally to our next phase of research, which is symbolized by our publication, the Thermo-Dynamic Efficiencies of Peer Production, written by Celine Piques and Xavier Rizos, which looks at the underlying biophysical conditions and capacities for a mode of production that can take into account natural limitations. How can the social construct of the political economy of the commons know the limits of its resource base?
So imagine three circles representing the three major societal institutions, but under it, the ecological and social requirements that we all need to make such a system work. I feel we have a good handle on the superstructure, but a lot more work needs to be done on these underlying requirements. This brings us to the current phase of our work, dedicated to the emergence of a mutual coordination economy, for which there is not at yet a publication, but stay tuned as it will be published next fall.
Chronology of Research
Part I. Introduction to P2P and Commons Dynamics
Citation: Bauwens, M. (2005). The Political Economy of Peer Production. CTheory.
The foundational text that preceded the creation of the P2P Foundation: what is peer production and what will its impact be.
This is the foundational text that offers the definition and first analysis of the meaning of the emergence of peer production, and what it means for our human society and productive capacity. Peer production is essentially about ‘trans-local’ self-organization, a new capacity of humanity to coordinate voluntary work at a global scale. We ask the question of how this new capacity relates to the institutions and practices of the market, capitalism, and the state.
Citation: Bauwens, M., & Niaros, V. (2017). Synthetic Overview of the Collaborative Economy. P2P Foundation Wiki.
An overview of the new ways of digitally enhanced human collaboration and how it creates new economic forms
In this report we explore the full set of collaborative economic practices that co-emerged with the internet and the web,, such as
commons-based peer production (Yochai Benkler),
wikinomics (Don Tapscott),
crowdsourcing (Jeff Howe),
open innovation (Henry Chesbrough), and
collaborative consumption (Rachel Botsman).
We ask: how do these new horizontal practices impact hierarchical corporations and the global economy.
Citation: Bauwens, M. (2017). Commons Transition and P2P Primer. P2P Foundation Wiki.
An easy explanation of the foundational principles of peer to peer and the commons and how they affect our world.
In this simplified and illustrated presentation, we summarize the principles and practices of the commons, especially as to how it affects the state and market. The work presents a pioneering transition program that outlines this transformation in political and policy terms, based on the experiences of the P2P Foundation advising the Ecuadorian government, and the city of Ghent.
Part II. Our Books
Citation: Bauwens, M., & Kostakis, V. (2014). Network Society and Future Scenarios for a Collaborative Economy. P2P Foundation Wiki.
How will P2P infrastructures change our society and economy? This book outlines four potential scenarios.
This was the first published book of P2P Foundation authors, in which we outline four potential scenarios for the emergent networked society.
In the first scenario, based on the centralized extraction of peer to peer dynamics in false commons, large corporations extra our data and attention, extracting rent from our own collaboration and exchanges.
In the second scenario, based on the emerging world of crypto and web3, the world and its infrastructures are design to that every citizen becomes an entrepreneur, potentially liberated from the control of big government and big finance
In the third scenario, bottom-up urban and rural commons projects, take control of the provisioning and use of food, transport, housing, etc .. based on the potential of p2p and commons dynamics
In the fourth scenario, global digital commons of knowledge, software and design, create common knowledge and cooperation protocols that allow local projects to scale and cooperate globally.
Bear in mind that these are four worlds that are co-emerging and mixing as we speak, but this is in our view the great ‘infrastructural’ struggle of our age. Which scenario will prevail?
Citation: Bauwens, M., Kostakis, V., & Pazaitis, A. (2019). Peer to Peer: The Commons Manifesto. University of Westminster Press.
The second book of the P2P Foundation outlines a positive program for the transition of our human civilization to a commons-centric, ‘cosmo-local’ format.
What is peer to peer? Why is it essential for building a commons-centric future? How could this happen? These are the questions this book tries to answer. Peer to peer (P2P) is a type of social relations in human networks, as well as a technological infrastructure that makes the generalization and scaling up of such relations possible. We believe that these four aspects will profoundly change human society. P2P ideally describes systems in which any human being can contribute to the creation and maintenance of a shared resource while benefiting from it. There is an enormous variety of such systems: from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia to free and open-source software projects, to open design and hardware communities, to relocalization initiatives and community currencies. Thus, P2P enables a new mode of production and creates the potential for a transition to a commons-oriented economy.
Part III. Proposal for Commons Based Policy Transitions
Citation: Bauwens, M., Kostakis, V., Troncoso, S., & Utreras, J. (2014). FLOK Report. P2P Foundation.
A report to the Ecuadorian government on how to transition to a Free, Libre, Open Knowledge Economy
In 2014, three Ecuadorian institutions asked to craft a transition plan towards a commons-centric knowledge society. With a team of six researchers, and after extensive consultations with political and social forces in Ecuador, several reports were published for transitioning different sectors of the Ecuadorian economy and society. Answering such questions as: which knowledge commons should be enabled for the agriculture, educational, industrial sectors, etc …
Citation: Bauwens, M., & Niaros, V. (2017). Commons Transition Plan for the City of Ghent. P2P Foundation .
How can a city transition through the empowerment of commons-centric citizen initiatives, assisted by the public authorities of a city.
In the spring of 2016, the mayor and the city council of Ghent, a city in northern Belgium (the Flanders), asked to craft a commons transition plan for the city. We mapped over 500 initiatives, inquired with 80 founders and leaders of such communities, and held 9 thematic workshops to coalesce their proposals in a integrated plan.
Citation: Bauwens, M., & Onzia, Y. (2017). Urban Commons Transitions. P2P Foundation.
This is a rewrite, and expansion, for a broader public, of the findings of our project in Ghent, extended to other cities who also developed similar public-commons partnerships.
This report explores the revival of urban commons through both grassroots citizen initiatives and innovative municipal administration, focusing on the new regulatory and cooperative arrangements but citizen groups and the public administrations.. It begins by examining the historical and contemporary relationship between cities and the commons, emphasizing the importance of urban commons for achieving a social-ecological transition. The report reviews various grassroots initiatives in both the global north and south, but with a special focus on municipal coalitions in Barcelona, Bologna, Naples, Frome, Ghent, as well as Seoul. It concludes by proposing an institutional framework to support urban commons transitions, addressing how cities can meet new citizen demands, facilitate social-ecological transitions, and implement institutional adaptations to support these roles.
Citation: Bauwens, M. (2017). Mutualizing Urban Provisioning Systems. P2P Foundation.
This is a highly expanded and in-depth review of commons-friendly city policy-making, commissioned by the city of Seoul.
A review of municipal policies in favor of individual and collective autonomy, through citizen-centric commons initiatives. It updates and expands on previous reports, looking at regulatory innovations such as partner cities, the Bologna Regulation for the Care and Regeneration of Urban Commons, the quintuple helix governance models in Italy, the promotion of a sharing economy in Seoul, etc ..
Part IV. The shift towards a Contribution-Based Commons Economy
Citation: Bauwens, M., & Niaros, V. (2017). Value in the Commons Economy. P2P Foundation.
The functioning of an economy based on contributory value dynamics; how does it work ?
Our world faces significant questions about the evolution of value, especially in the context of resource allocation in human societies. This is particularly relevant in our increasingly digitalized and networked societies where knowledge commons play a vital role.
Key questions include:
What constitutes value in these contexts?
How should value be defined in a world with ecological and resource constraints?
Can a new value system incorporate diverse social, cultural, and institutional values that are often overlooked by traditional systems?
The key theme of this report and reflection is that human societies and economies are moving from a commodity-based value system, to a contributory value system, which also accounts for, and rewards, non-commodity based contributions to human and non-human welfare.
Citation: P2P Accounting for Planetary Survival: Towards a P2P Infrastructure for a Socially Just Circular Society. By Michel Bauwens and Alex Pazaitis. Foreword by Kate Raworth. P2P Foundation, June 2019.
How shared perma-circular supply chains, post-blockchain distributed ledgers, protocol cooperatives, and three new forms of post-capitalist accounting, could very well save the planet.
With the creation of a universal ledger, i.e. originally the blockchain associated with the creation of the Bitcoin currency, we now have an open global accounting system which can allow multiple agents to coordinate their economic and social and labor activities in a shared system. This is in contrast to the closed accounting systems of corporations and states, which are only able to see their own profit, but not the impact on ecosystems and human and non-human communities. In addition, the peer production and crypto networks that are using these new methods of economic coordination are inventing a new accounting system that can account for 1) contributory value and negative impact ; 2) the real thermo-dynamic, i.e. matter and energy flows, and 3) how their transactions take place in a open collaborative network. This is creating a economic and societal revolution that allows for ‘context-based sustainability’., allowing human groups and individuals to make decisions that take into account the natural limits of the planet.
Download PDF Here
Citation: Bauwens, M., & Niaros, V. (2017). Introduction to Commons Economics. P2P Foundation Wiki.
This report explains that we need to abandon the premises of neoclassical and neoliberal economics, based exclusively on scarcity and commodities, and refound an economics which takes into account the value contributions of the commons.
This report outlines ‘principles of operation’ that should be at the basis of a new type of economics that takes into account the natural economy, abundant, renewable and self-growing resources, and not just scarce resources subject to a tension between supply and demand. Commons economics should be 1) biophysical 2) based on ‘abundance’ engineering rather than scarcity engineering 3) recognize contributions (and impact), 4) recognize commons-based practices and institutions, etc … For each of these seven principles we highlight really existing examples undertaken by pioneering production communities.
Part V. Cosmo-Localization: Producing for Human Needs while respecting the Planet and Life
Citation: Peer to Peer and the Commons: a path towards transition. A matter, energy and thermodynamic perspective. Céline Piques and Xavier Rizos. P2P Foundation, 2017.
How peer production is a vital ingredient of the pathway towards a stable bio-physical economy
Any economy for the production of the natural and social needs of human beings, can only be rooted in a ‘thermodynamic’ perspective, i.e. it must operate within the context of the limited resources available on planet, and take into account the needs of non-human living beings.
“The first volume of this research explores how scientists and thinkers have come to realise that thermodynamics teaches us that economic theory must take into consideration the constraints of our ecosystem. It also articulates why contrary to what classical economics implies, the possibility to decouple growth from resource use is a myth, and why the commons and commons-based peer production are the right paradigms for the new economy.
The second volume surveys current practices in agro-economics and the dynamics of resource replenishment. It is also a basis for undertaking a future structural analysis of the thermodynamics of relocalization. It shows with scenarios applied to food and fibre, non-renewable resources, and energy, how the commons economy help us overcome the impasse of unlimited growth.”
Citation: Ramos, J. Bauwens, M. et al. (2021). Cosmo-Local Reader. P2P Foundation.
The new principle of production which combines localized and mutualized production for human need, with cooperation at the global scale through knowledge commons. This report includes 40 case studies and the key theoretical considerations.
“‘What is heavy is local and what is light is global and shared’. This is the new principle of production which combines localized and mutualized production for human need, with cooperation at the global scale through knowledge commons. This report presents 40 global case studies of applications of this principle in really-existing projects, but also a historical and theoretical perspective of why this is a necessary next step for human civilization. It contains the seminal essay, The Pulsation of the Commons which highlights the crucial historical role of the commons as regenerative institution.
Access to the key essay:
Placing the Commons in a Temporal Framework: The Commons as a Planetary Regeneration Mechanism. By Michel Bauwens and Jose Ramos.
URL = https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Pulsation_of_the_Commons
I did not define DESO, which is decentralized economic social organization. I posted, Reed C. Kinney responding to, P2P Accounting For Planetary Survival, by Michel Bauwens and Alex Pazaitis
https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/images/AccountingForPlanetarySurvival_def.pdf?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Today. If you open it, then know that decentralized economic social organization is DESO.
Thank you.
You all be well and be in Good Spirits!
Yours always, Reed C. Kinney