Re: [ox-en] Project / Book
- From: Stefan Merten <smerten oekonux.de>
- Date: Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:46:53 +0200
Hi Mathieu, Andreas, StefanMz, Manu, all!
I moved the Wiki page about the book initiative from the Oekonux-also
area to the Oekonux-only area. You now will find it at
http://en.wiki.oekonux.org/Oekonux/Project/Book
So this is now really an initiative for an Oekonux book. I also added
important things from this thread already.
Here are some thoughts about such a book.
* Separate articles or a big narrative?
Mathieu outlined a number of chapters containing separate articles.
This is clearly an option. It also certainly reflects the way the
project works and patchworked thinking like this is probably quite
wide-spread.
But wouldn't it also be an option to have a big narrative? A single,
big text which starts with the beginnings and ends with an end?
Probably such a book would be more work. It is harder to write a
single text than to write a couple - especially if it is written by
several authors. But wouldn't this be nice?
* Goals of a book
Similar to the website initiative I would like to ask for the goals
of such a book. Well,
last week (7 days ago) Mathieu O'Neil wrote:
> In general I have been thinking about what [ox] is for. My short
> answer: [ox] aims to disseminate the idea that peer production is
> a valid alternative to capitalism.
So the book should make this clear - this is the short answer to the
goal question.
However, this can be spelled out in various ways. Some suggestions:
* Basic (Oekonux) theory about peer production
* Outlining the potential of peer production on a theoretical basis
* Studies of existing peer production projects
* Relationship of peer production to classical social movements
* Addressing open questions of the generalization of peer production
* ...
You could imagine a book about a single suggestion or a mixture.
More suggestions?
* Intended audience
Similarly I'd also would like to ask for the intended audience.
There are already some suggestions about the audience:
Scientific book
---------------
A book, especially if it is a `conference proceedings`_ book, could
have its main audience in academia.
A scientific book has a quite limited audience and by some is seen as
a waste of time.
Also if we want to reach academia we can probably use the existing
connections to existing academia institutions.
Public book
-----------
Such a book would have its main audience in the general public such as
* bookstores,
* media people,
* journalists.
-- http://en.wiki.oekonux.org/Oekonux/Project/Book#audience-variants
Personally I'd strongly prefer a book for the general public. If
academics read it that's fine but in this case more average persons
are more important to me.
Such a decision would also have consequences for the structure of
the book and also the language used. It should be not too
complicated then - or rather: things need to be explained more.
Last week (7 days ago) Mathieu O'Neil wrote:
I have come up with a suggestion for possible chapters, i.e. this is
what a book exploring the issue - a marxist-theoretical analysis of
peer production as an alternative to capitalism - should have at a
minimum. It is of course incomplete, to be used as a base for
discussion.
Thanks so much for this.
Following my readings of people in and around [ox] I also suggest
possible authors, as if someone has - for example - published a book
on a relevant topic it sort of makes sense to have them involved. At
the same time in all cases several authors could be involved, or the
issues can be discussed onlist, hence the use of "Oekonux" as an
author in all cases.
This raises the question whether we want to have only authors which
have some relationship with Oekonux - however this is defined - or
also authors who have nothing to do with Oekonux.
May be it could be said this way: Each author must at least agree that
the fundamental ideas of Oekonux are at least promising. This
automatically applies to all Oekonux participants because otherwise
they would not be here ;-) .
PEER PRODUCTION AND CAPITALISM
Hah - suggestions for titles :-) . What about something more dramatic
like
Peer Production: The missing link from capitalism to a new era
by OEKONUX
I think we need to be a bit careful here. Oekonux has no "party line"
so we need to qualify "by Oekonux" a bit. Something like "written by
authors in and around the Oekonux Project" in some prominent place
would do.
Chapter 1: Introduction
Content: Short general introduction to book and chapters. Peer
production as already existing challenge to capital; but it is also
coopted by capital (free content serves to justify the consumption
of hardware for example). Need to consider free software / free
hardware not just as challenge to copyright but as social /
production process with broader potential.
Well, this topic alone could fill half of a book.
Chapter 2: Peer production as a germ form
Content: Explanation of free software and peer production, concept
of "Selbstentfaltung".
If StefanMz explains Selbstentfaltung right then this takes another
quarter of a book.
Chapter 3: Peer production and the Marxist tradition
Content: How does peer production relate to different strands of
marxist theory today - German tradition (?), Althusser (?),
Callinicos (?), Harvey (?), Negri/Tronti (?), etc.
What would be the use to explicitly compare it with Marxist
traditions? I could imagine to outline the commonalities and
differences with other, classical movements.
IMHO the result of such a chapter needs to be that though the goals
are similar the structure of the peer production movement is very
different from classical political / social movements. In fact I think
this is one of the most important messages at all because then
hopefully more people interested in emancipation will start to see the
world with new eyes.
Chapter 4: Peer production and labour
Content: Hacking as reaction to boredom, "radical role of hackers in
preventing labour market from being sole determinant of allocation
of programming resource in society".
Well, that is a looong story ;-) . Though certainly interesting to
tell.
Chapter 5: Peer production and growth
Content: Against Left and Right "green capitalism" - need to
consider relationship of peer production to productivity and growth.
Author: Oekonux / I could contribute some ideas to this.
May be this could also be subsumed under a "peer production and
classical movements".
Chapter 6: Challenges of contemporary hardware projects
Content: Overview of current projects that exist today that apply peer production principles.
Author: ?? / Oekonux
Chapter 7: A complete social model
Content: How could a peer production society work - Siefkes' weighed contributions, d-pool, stigmergic, etc. Other models?
Author: Christian Siefkes / Oekonux
Well, though I value Christian very much I think his concept is
fundamentally flawed. As far as I can see there are some more people
who think this way.
Chapter 8: Alternative to Oekonux
Content: There has been some disagreement with friends in P2P about
issues such as the role of money and markets in a non-alienated way.
Rather than excommunicating those we disagree with we should have a
dialogue with them. In fact this chapter could be in the form of a
dialogue between the two perspectives. This would make the book more
self-critical, more reflexive and help it to breathe a bit.
Well, it depends. If all of the book talks of Selbstentfaltung and a
post-capitalist era and then the final chapter says "No, alienation
and capitalism are just fine" then it makes little sense to me.
Especially if the P2P Foundation is writing a whole book with exactly
this message then I don't think it needs to be repeated in an Oekonux
book.
This doesn't mean that Michel needs to be excluded. However, a
contribution from him or others from the P2P Foundation should match
the rest of the book - which at least Michel can easily provide.
Other possible chapters could deal with:
- expertise / elitism
- role of "others", such as women in peer production (not sure about that - maybe just needs to be acknowledged in introduction that there can be barriers to entry and that these should be fought wherever applicable)
- art
Some more:
* Governance / maintainership
* Structure of collaboration
* Relationship of technical and social means of production
* Volunteers and paid work
* The political economy of digital things (using mainly marxist
theory)
Author: Andreas Wittel
Finally, I did not put in a chapter on organisation in peer
production or "peer governance" which I would be qualified to write
as this does not directly relate to capital - I'm not against it,
just thought it was a bit outside.
See above. I think the question of governance is very crucial -
especially because it is structured very differently both from
capitalism and from standard anarchist ideas.
Some of these chapters are already written in some sense (2, 4, 7
and 8 if you count the list discussions). Others would need to find
primary authors. What do people think?
Well, I think there are lots and lots of ideas which make sense for a
book. In fact I think it is so much that we need to set some
priorities. And if such a book works once then it can work twice -
right?
6 days ago Stefan Meretz wrote:
A comprehensive text about Selbstentfaltung is missing. I could
contribute. This text would evaluate the role of the individual in peer
production.
That would be really great.
I could contribute some ideas from a more general perspective: What is a
society and how does it work? What is a "social model"? How can we
determine functions of a society?
Would be great again.
2 days ago emmanuel ecorev org wrote:
Quickly : marxism + "décroissance" + peer production = André Gorz.
[...]
His last article for ecoRev' : in
french<http://ecorev.org/spip.php?article641>or in
spanish <http://ecorev.org/spip.php?article640>.
I can't read Roman languages but if it is a good article would there
be any chance to include such an article?
Grüße
Stefan
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