- Social economy or peer production?
- On the relationship of social economy and peer production
- Definitions
- Reasons, goals, means
- Commonalities and differences
- Commonalities
- Differences concerning economic activities
- Differences in subjective values
- Differences concerning mode of production
- Most important differences 1/2
- Most important differences 2/2
- Summarizing commonalities and differences
- The social enterprise compass
- Peer production and the social enterprise compass
- Overcoming capitalism
- On the relationship of social economy and peer production
Social economy or peer production?
On the relationship of social economy and peer production
Definitions
Examples of peer production
- Free Software
- Oldest example
- Very visible
- Wikipedia
- More recent
- Extremely visible
- Open Access
- I.e. Free Science
- Very interesting movement
- Others...
A growing movement
Definition: Peer production
- Focussed on production of useful goods
- Based on openness
- Everyone may participate (internal openness)
- Everyone may use the product (external openness, commons)
- Based on Selbstentfaltung
- Selbstentfaltung == enjoying task and project
- Having fun individually but maintain relation to society
- Expression of Selbstentfaltung: Volunteers do useful things for fun
- No goals beyond a nice project (aka no alienation)
- Results in production of use value
Peer production == production + openness + Selbstentfaltung
Definition: Solidarity economy
- Hard to find a good definition
- Common topic: Orientation in political goals
- Fairness, solidarity, social values
- Democracy and ecology
- Criticism of neo-liberal concepts
Addresses political values missing in capitalist economies
Definition: Social economy
- Somewhat easier to find a good definition
- Common topics
- Non-profit
- Support for disadvantaged groups
- May include volunteers
Addresses poverty and unprofitable goals
Forms of social / solidarity economy
- Focus on production
- Cooperative companies
- State companies under democratic control
- Self-managed companies
- Focus on distribution
- Consumer cooperatives
- Local Exchange Trade Systems (LETS)
- Gratis shops
Comes in various implementations
Therefore: A bit difficult to generalize
Reasons, goals, means
...for social / solidarity economy
- Reason: Capitalism has shortcomings
- Such as: social injustice, rule of money, destruction of nature, alienated labor
- Results in political will to overcome the shortcomings
- Goal: Repair shortcomings of capitalism
- In this case: By economic activities
- Today: Retreat of the (welfare) state creates new gaps every day
- Means: Cast political will onto capitalist economy
- Mostly by non-profit activities
- Sometimes supported by the welfare state
Supplement to capitalism based on political will
Important: Goal is repairing
Social / solidarity economy and capitalism
- Actors and goals somewhere between
- supplement to capitalism
- opposed to capitalism
- Third sector between
- private sector / business
- public sector / government
Position in capitalism is "between"
...for peer production
Reason
- Useful goods are missing
- It's fun to create them
- Commodities have only relative quality
- Commodities are not available freely
Goal: Make available useful goods while having fun
"Make available" presupposes producing them
This is different from illegal copies!
Production is Selbstentfaltung / fun
Production of commodities is alienated
- Means: Replace capitalist production with openness and
Selbstentfaltung
- Selbstentfaltung is a direct goal
- External openness / commons is a direct goal
- Internal openness / participation is a precondition for peer production
New mode of production beyond political will
Important: Means are replacement
Peer production and capitalism
- Valorization is opposed to openness
- Commodities must be scarce == no external openness
- Business secrets are to be kept == no internal openness
- Market is opposed to Selbstentfaltung
- Abstract money logic prevents Selbstentfaltung
- Relative quality is "good enough"
- Economic approach fundamentally different from capitalism
A new mode of production
Commonalities and differences
Commonalities
- Common goal: Improve life by certain economic activity
- Attain goals impossible in capitalism
- Economic activities
- == production, distribution, consumption of goods
- Beneficiaries inside and outside
- Embedded in capitalism
- Non-profit
- Individuals as predominant actors
- Self-managed
There are similar structures and a common goal
Differences concerning economic activities
Topic | Social / solidarity economy | Peer production |
Relevance of production | Secondary (if at all) | Predominant |
Distribution target | Closed groups | Commons (external openness) |
Reason for activity | Political will | Selbstentfaltung |
Precondition for activity | Political will | Education / abilities in the respective field |
Many differences in economic activities
Differences in subjective values
Topic | Social / solidarity economy | Peer production |
Mind set of actors bound to... | Capitalism | New mode of production |
Political values | Key | None in particular |
Solidarity | Key | Irrelevant |
Participation and empowering | Political goal (if at all) | Precondition (internal openness) |
Mind set of actors: Supplementing and opposing both relate to capitalism
Political values: In Free Software political values are massively different
Peer production does not need political awareness
Differences concerning mode of production
Topic | Social / solidarity economy | Peer production |
Mode of production | Basically the same as capitalism | New mode of production |
If capitalism would work better... | ...would be no longer necessary | ...would still be better than capitalism |
Keeping capitalism out of... | ...is difficult because of equal structures | ...is easy because of openness |
New mode of production is more sustainable
Most important differences 1/2
There are really lots of differences...
Topic | Social / solidarity economy | Peer production |
---|---|---|
Relevance of production | Secondary | Predominant |
Distribution target | Closed groups | Commons |
Reason for activity | Political will | Selbstentfaltung |
Most important differences 2/2
Topic | Social / solidarity economy | Peer production |
---|---|---|
Political values | Key | None in particular |
Mode of production | Basically the same as capitalism | New mode of production |
Relationship to capitalism | Repairing as a goal | Replacing as a means |
Some structures are similar but the differences go deep
Summarizing commonalities and differences
- Some common goals and structures
- Because of that the left gets interested in peer production
- Major differences go deep
- Openness is precondition instead of limitation
- Selbstentfaltung instead of political will
- New mode of production instead of supplement to capitalism
- Most significant: Relationship to capitalism
- Repairing capitalism as a goal for social / solidarity economy
- Replacing capitalism as a means for peer production
Though goals and some structures are similar the differences are big
The social enterprise compass
Ownership | |||
Public | Private | ||
Primary objective of the enterprise | Social purpose | Social administration | Social enterprises |
Commercial purpose | Public enterprises | Private industries |
Useful to classify projects / enterprises
Peer production and the social enterprise compass
Ownership | ||||
Commons / Community | Public | Private | ||
Primary objective of the enterprise | Selbstentfaltung | Peer production | - | - |
Social purpose | (Side-effect of ownership) | Social administration | Social enterprises | |
Commercial purpose | (Commercial peer production) | Public enterprises | Private industries |
Peer production is hard to locate in the social enterprise compass
Overcoming capitalism
Target groups
- So far: Analysis of the relationship between social / solidarity economy and peer production
- Now: Considerations about ways to improve society effectively
- Two target groups for this section
- People in social / solidarity economy most interested in improving society
- People in peer production interested in political effects
Fundamentally different approaches 1/2
Topic | Social / solidarity economy | Peer production |
---|---|---|
History | Old approach with little effect | New approach based on contemporary options |
Actors | Marginal groups | Core groups |
Fundamentally different approaches 2/2
Topic | Social / solidarity economy | Peer production |
---|---|---|
Origin | Political will and awareness | Needs of people and ability |
Means and goals | Repairing capitalism is a goal | Replacing capitalism is a means |
Mode of production | Capitalist framework is kept | Capitalist framework is replaced |
What looks similar on first glance is really very different
Suggestions for a long-term improvement
- Question: How does fundamental societal change come about?
- Answer: By a new mode of production
- Historical example: Shift from feudalism to capitalism
Social / solidarity economy is necessary
Retreat of the welfare state needs action
Unfortunately...
- Social / solidarity economy offers no perspective
- No way to overcome capitalist mode of production
- Peer production is the perspective
- Establishes a new mode of production
- This is the sustainable way to change society fundamentally
If you want to be effective support peer production
Cooperation?
- In general: Difficult
- Mind sets are very different
- Goals are very different
- Very few practical examples
- Social / solidarity economy can benefit from peer production
- Because commons of peer production are available for everyone
- Can peer production benefit from social / solidarity economy?