Commons Transition
About Commons Transition
About this site
The Commons Transition Platform is a database of practical experiences and policy proposals for a more humane and environmentally grounded society.
What is Commons Transition?
What do we mean by a “Commons Transition” and how can we achieve it? A special introduction by Michel Bauwens and John Restakis.
F.A.Q
Our Frequently Asked Questions will give you a brief but comprehensive overview on Commons Transition, its goals and its underlying values.
Our Wiki
The Commons Transition Wiki acts as an indexed repository of material on transitioning societies at all levels towards a commons orientation.
News and Articles
A selection of featured essays, interviews and texts on Commons Transition projects and related initiatives.
Videos
Interviews, lectures and documentaries on Commons Transition strategies and related material.
Commons Transition Plans
A Commons Transition Plan
The Commons Transition Plan is based on the analysis and observation of existing commons-based processes and economies and describes how a generative, commons-producing civil society can lead to a new market and state.
Public Policy for a Social Knowledge Economy
A report on the radical democratization of the state and the mobilization and expansion of the social/solidarity economy through the creation of public-commons partnerships.
Open Design Commons and Distributed Manufacturing
A report on the application of social knowledge economy principles to the secondary economic sector, with an emphasis on manufacturing.
Towards a Partner State: Elements for a Commons Transition
Strategic proposals for building an alternative economy to provide a livelihood to those contributing to the shared commons - the heart of a Commons Transition.
Commons Based Reciprocity Licenses
Solving the paradox of peer production — where the more communistic the sharing license, the more capitalistic the practice — with a new type of license.
Open Cooperativism
Suggestions for new cooperative enterprise forms which retain the internal democracy of traditional coops, but replace their competitive mentality with a transnational commons orientation.
Blueprint for a Partner State
Occupying a reduced role compared to the classic state, the new peer to peer state will find many of its functions met by civil society associations, fostering commons development interlinked with processes of global governance.
Commons Transition Projects:
Past, Present and Future
Information and resources for past, present and future Commons Transition Plans.
Ecuador’s FLOK Society plan
Ecuador’s FLOK Society (Free-Libre, Open Knowledge) project marked the first time a nation state commissioned a practical plan to transition to a mature Peer to Peer Economy. It was initiated to “fundamentally re-imagine Ecuador”, based on the principles of open networks, peer production and a commons of knowledge.
The Catalan Integral Cooperative’s
Commons Transition Plan
The Catalan Integral Cooperative (or CIC) is a political project seeking to unite consumer and labor initiatives. The CIC’s objective is to generate a self-managed post-capitalist society based on P2P principles and environmental and social realities.
Commons Transition Network
Commons Transition Stories
People
-
Elsie Roderiques
Team member
About Elsie Roderiques
Elsie Roderiques (née Bryant) is an activist, organiser, writer and creative with a focus on systemic change that eradicates dehumanising inequity and facilitates environmental regeneration. She works in leadership and supporting roles to challenge dominant narratives in pursuit of more just economic and political systems with interconnectedness and anti-colonialism at their heart. Elsie writes ‘The Commoner’ newsletter and manages Commons Transition’s online presence.
-
Sara Escribano
Team member
About Sara Escribano
Just a frisky bandit in a lonely town. A jester, a rascal, a bookworm, a dreamer, a private eye, a reckless sailor, and a ferret, all inhabiting a single body unit.
Always been passionate about literature, languages and communication. My strong idealism, horror at the system’s countless forms of oppression and eagerness to bequeath a world that is non-completely-blighted to the upcoming generations throws me like an arrow into new paradigms of governance and understanding life. I am all about community rhythms and mutual support. I also act as liaison between the various pilots (a.k.a DisCO LABS) and the core project, helping them to transition to more convivial and lively systems, creating and curating content for our (preferably decentralized) Social Media platforms and helping with the newsletter, among other more community-specific admin tasks.
-
Stacco Troncoso
Co-founder and team member
About Stacco Troncoso
Stacco Troncoso teaches and writes on the Commons, P2P politics and economics, open culture, post-growth futures, Platform and Open Cooperativism, decentralised governance, blockchain and more as part of DisCO.coop, Commons Transition and Guerrilla Translation.
-
Silvia López
Team member
About Silvia López
Intepreter, translator and editor in Guerrilla Media Collective, sharp-eyed Silvia can spot typos, double spaces in texts and budget gaffes in a wink.
Co-developer of the DisCO Model (Distributed Cooperative Organizations). Legal financial development and sustainability, I was particularly active in the legal setup of the GMC cooperative in Spain in 2019. Spanish translation and copyediting. Translator in the Spanish edition of “Free, Fair and Alive —the Insurgent Power of the Commons”, by David Bollier and Silke Helfrich (published in English in 2019 by New Society Publishers, Spanish edition “Libres, dignos, vivos: el poder subversivo de los comunes” published in Spain by Icaria Editorial in 2020).
I am really passionate about new forms of governance, based on patterns of commoning, convivial tools and rhythms, and of course care. I believe DisCO is a way to shape the future that we want, and need.
-
Rachel O'Dwyer / Lecturer, Digital Media Scholar, Data.ie
The commons transition project draws together vital research, practices and proposals for enacting forms of commons-based production on a transnational scale. It traces a blueprint for how we might collectively produce new vocabularies, politics and policies for social emancipation going forward.
-
Primavera De Filippi / Legal researcher on distributed online architectures , Berkman Center for Internet and Society
The Commons Transitions constitutes a possible shift from a traditional, capitalist society based on the notions of “ownership” and “exclusivity” towards the establishment of a modern Commons-based society based on the notions of “access” and “sharing”.
-
Neal Gorenflo, Co-founder, Shareable
Commons Transition has a direction that's close to my heart, to explore pathways to a commons-based society in which ordinary people take on the joys and challenges of charting their own destinies together in every sphere of life.
Friends and Partners
