Re: [ox-en] Some notes on value..
- From: "Michel Bauwens" <michelsub2004 gmail.com>
- Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:44:00 +0700
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Hi Adam,
thanks for this illuminating text, which I found very useful.
I would have one short remark already.
You equate the dynamics of esteem with a gift economy, while I think that,
in line with Alan Page Fiske's relational grammar (
http://p2pfoundation.net/Relational_Model_Typology_-_Fiske), we are not in a
domain of strict reciprocity (individuals returning favours), but rather in
a regime of generalized exchange, what I call the non-reciprocal aspect in
my own defintion of peer production.
I think that recognizing this may change the way we think about 'valuing'
it.
I find the following typology of wealth useful, and in terms of esteem, we
are definitely in the third category of acknowledgeable wealth
http://openmoney.info/sophia/index.html:
Author is Eric Harris-Braun:
*1. Tradable Wealth:*
Food, shelter, services, time, are all forms of tradable wealth. We are all
familiar with tradable wealth--it is the stuff we need and want, the
resources that we compete for. Things we can trade are the products or the
components of systems.
*2. Measurable Wealth:*
My health is non-tradable--I can't give it to you. I can give you my blood,
which may affect both of our health, but I can't give you my health itself.
It is a property of my body as a whole. However, you can measure my health
in lots of objective ways: the miles I run or the number of times I see a
doctor. Another thing that is non-tradable is the productive capacity of a
factory. I can sell you the products of the factory, or the factory itself,
but not its productive capacity. But you can measure its productivity by
comparing its output to the inputs it requires. Similarly the health of a
forest is non-tradable. Its diversity, resilience, etc. can, as with bodily
health and productive capacity, be affected and objectively measured, but it
can't be traded. Bodies, factories, and forests are all examples of systems.
Things we can measure but not trade are properties of systems as a whole.
*3. Acknowledgeable Wealth:*
Friendship, beauty, freedom, civility, culture, happiness, integrity,
reputation--these are all forms of acknowledgeable wealth. They are neither
tradable nor objectively measurable because their impact is only felt
subjectively. I can have friendships of different strengths--from an
acquaintance to a best buddy--and though I can tell the qualitative
difference between them, that difference is not measurable using any
external scale. Rather, it is a difference in quality of relationship
between one system (me) and two other systems (my acquaintance, and my
buddy). Similarly my professional reputation comes from my relationships
with my previous clients. As a potential client you can get a subjective
sense of my reputation by talking to my previous clients, but there is no
one objective standard to go by in making your choice. Those things that we
can acknowledge but cannot measure or trade are inter-systemic resonances."
(http://openmoney.info/sophia/index.html)
From http://p2pfoundation.net/Wealth_Acknowledgment_Systems :
Why a Wealth Acknowledgement System is necessary
"When I barter a dozen of my eggs for a pound of your carrots, wealth
acknowledgment happens in the act of haggling: It's where we determined how
many eggs for how many carrots. When I pay you a coin for your carrots
instead (because you don't want my eggs), the coin itself is the
acknowledgment of the wealth transfer. The advantage is that the
wealth-acknowledgment token, the coin, is redeemable elsewhere in the
community. And when communities start using paper notes as
wealth-acknowledgment tokens instead of precious metal, the number of
transactions is no longer limited by the amount of metal available. When
communities invent wealth-acknowledgment tokens for investment, like stock
certificates sold by entrepreneurs, they further unlock the potential for
growth of wealth.
These examples show how the evolution of wealth-acknowledgment systems
prepares the ground for the growth of wealth. They also show how
wealth-acknowledgment systems are adopted by communities to reduce their
risk in making transactions. Bartering is not risky because the wealth is
immediately exchanged, but what if I don't need your carrots? Accepting a
token allows me to give without immediately getting wealth in return,
because I know I can use the token to get wealth later. Stocks and bonds
work similarly in higher-risk situations. Thus wealth-acknowledgment systems
evolve in a feedback spiral with social cohesion and trust. They require
some level of trust and cohesion to function, but they generate much greater
cohesion and trust, which allows new wealth-acknowledgment systems, and the
loop continues.
Grant-making, endowments, charitable trusts, and donations (what we call
philanthropy), are all efforts to increase measurable or acknowledgeable
wealth. Organizations that seek to increase measurable and acknowledgeable
wealth in communities almost always suffer from the lack of money. To
increase our ability to cultivate these levels of wealth, we need a
wealth-acknowledgment system that moves beyond money." (
http://openmoney.info/sophia/index.html)
On Wed, Feb 20, 2008 at 4:07 PM, Adam Arvidsson <arvidsson hum.ku.dk> wrote:
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This came out of a discussion with Bob Jessop in Lancaster a couple=20=20
of weeks ago.. I'd like to share and would be happy for comments-=20=20
it's all tentative.
Adam
---
BRANDS, ETHICAL CAPITAL AND THE ETHICAL ECONOMY
Brands can be understood to embody a third important form of capital=20=20
in the knowledge economy, along with material capital and knowledge=20=20
capital. Like knowledge capital (IPs) they work to establish a=20=20
monopoly rent from a resource that is essentially socially produced.=20=20
Unlike IPs this resource mainly consists in accumulated affect and=20=20
sociality. (The value of a brand depends on a mass of people=20=20
maintaining a relatively stable pattern of affectivity around it, a=20=20
brand is in this sense something a kin to, almost , a loosely
knitted=20=20
community, or maybe a community of weak ties) This way brands are a=20=20
form of ethical capital: they build on the ability and desire of
free=20=20
(that is not entirely commanded) actors to create community, in the=20=20
absence of given hierarchies or monetary obligations (cf.=20=20
Aristoteles=92 etikos).
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