COMMONS MAGAZINE
(By Alyce Santoro under a Creative Commons license.)
For people who participate in commons, peer production or co-operatives, the emerging economy presents a frustrating paradox in the enormous mismatch between cooperative culture on the one hand and the organizational forms, on the other hand, that can sustain it and advance the general well-being of society.
To love winter, simply find your inner child. (Photo by Tim Pierce under a Creative Commons license)
If chilly days are part of your town’s weather, you can be sure your winters are getting colder in the eyes of the world even though temperatures may be getting warmer.
Four guys hanging out at Gas Works Park on a rare snowy day in Seattle. (By Wonderlane under a Creative Commons license)
Many people take vitamins to promote their health. Most vitamins come in tablet or capsule form and are sold in bottles. Recently, Richard Louv in his book, The Nature Principle, suggested a type of vitamin that doesn’t come in pill format. This is Vitamin N, with “N” referring to nature.
Louv’s basic theme is that we can become happier, healthier and smarter through more contact with the natural world. A growing number of pediatricians and other physicians are actually prescribing a daily dose of Vitamin N as a way to enhance our health and well-being.
The new book by On the Commons' co-founder Peter Barnes has found it way into the hands of Bill Clinton (see photo).
(By Catholic Church of England and Wales under a Creative Commons license)
Understanding the commons is critical for saving us from climate chaos. The fact that we all depend on the earth’s atmosphere for survival provides a strong foundation for new policies to protect us from polluters who wantonly jeopardize everyone’s future.
This view is being voiced frequently on the frontlines of green activism. But it’s also being heard in unexpected places too, such as the Vatican.
(By LaDawna Howard under a CC license.)
Since its passage in 2009, ferocious opposition to the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) had proven a devastatingly effective electoral strategy for Republicans. In 2010, they gained a net 63 seats and control of the House of Representatives. They gained political control of 11 additional states, bringing their total to 25. When the ACA went into effect in late 2013 virtually all 25 were refusing to expand Medicaid, a decision they were permitted to make by a June 2012 Supreme Court ruling overturning the mandatory expansion provision in the law.
A light rail station in Santa Clara, California. (By Richard Masoner under a CC license)
Americans made 10.7 billion trips on public transportation in 2013--the highest number since 1956 when the massive mobilization to build highways and push suburban development began.
(By Laity Lodge Family Camp under a CC license.)
There’s long been a notion that, because money is a prerequisite for survival and security, everyone should be assured some income just for being alive. The notion has been advanced by liberals such as James Tobin, John Kenneth Galbraith, and George McGovern, and by conservatives like Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, and Richard Nixon. It’s embedded in the board game Monopoly, in which all players get equal payments when they pass Go.
And yet, with one exception, Americans have been unable to agree on any plan
New York's High Line is a popular poster child for Creative Placemaking. (By David Berkowitz under a CC license)
This is an exciting time for America’s neighborhoods as people come together--block by block, coast to coast--to boost the places they call home. Too many communities are still devastated by disinvestment, poverty and crime, but signs of hope are sprouting everywhere as folks roll up their sleeves to restore a sense of place and possibility in cities, suburbs and small towns
Drinking water for New York City is protected by strict land use policies in places far from the city. (By David Leip under a CC license.)
Environmental disasters caused by human folly are all too familiar. But what about the environmental serendipity? The unexpected stories where nature and humans co-exist harmoniously. They do happen, and some may be found close at hand by looking at your faucet and following the water back to its source.
By the Catholic Church of England and Wales under a CC license.
On December 10th the Vatican released the text of still another vigorous message by Pope Francis in support of oppressed workers. “(M)illions of people today – children, women and men of all ages – are deprived of freedom and are forced to live in conditions akin to slavery,” he asserts.
(By Chris Goldberg under a CC license)
Every month the federal government issues a new jobs report. Then, the stock market gyrates, pundits pundify, politicians politic. Whether employment expands slowly or fast one central fact remains. The fastest growing occupations all pay low wages: retail salespersons, cashiers, food preparation and food service workers such as waiters and waitresses.
By Chuck Grimmett under a CC license
Politicians left and right often use pet phrases to justify their positions: states rights, individual liberty, personal responsibility. Rarely are these consistently applied.
Even more rarely do politicians or political parties offer a coherent framework for deciding when a higher level of government should preempt a lower level of government or when individual liberty trumps state regulation. Which makes what has happened in Alaska so refreshing and instructive. The issue addressed was the right of individuals to use drugs when the state outlaws their use.
Great city neighborhoods are often mid-rise, not high-rise. (By La Citta Vita under a CC license)
Battle lines are shaping up across American cities and suburbs today over urban density. On one side stand neighbors and developers who explain that convenient transit, walkable communities, environmental protection and continuing economic growth depend on welcoming more people-per-acre to our communities. On the other side stand developers and neighbors who plead that everything we cherish about our communities is about to vanish in the wake of hulking mega-projects.
(By Jeremy Hunsinger under a CC license)
The commons is not just a battlefield between corporate predators and those who resist them – it is also a source of hope for those willing to imagine a world beyond capitalism. It represents a space between the private market and the political state in which humanity can control and democratically root our common wealth. Both the market and the state have proved inadequate for this purpose. In different ways, they have both led to a centralization of power and decision-making.
By Moyan Brenn under a CC license
I love to hike. Some of the things I look for in a good trail are a physical challenge, wild nature, impressive terrain, and solitude. I’ve hiked in some spectacular places with all of these features – Mount Rainer, the Smoky Mountains, Jackson Hole, Glacier National Park, and Old Pali Road in Hawaii. These places all fill me with a sense of awe. Sometimes, I also feel a sense of unity or connectedness to a larger world -- an experience I seldom have while indoors.
By Alfredo Mendez under a CC license from flickr.com
The “sharing economy” has attracted a great deal of attention in recent months. Platforms such as Airbnb and Uber are experiencing explosive growth, which, in turn, has led to regulatory and political battles. Boosters claim the new technologies will yield utopian outcomes—empowerment of ordinary people, efficiency, and even lower carbon footprints. Critics denounce them for being about economic self-interest rather than sharing, and for being predatory and exploitative. Not surprisingly, the reality is more complex.
By Susan Sermoneta under a CC license
The austerity agenda is often presented as inevitable, which is really just a way for corporatists and conservatives to dismiss any discussion or debate. “There are no alternatives!” they thunder. But as Co-operatives UK demonstrates in a brilliant new report, there are a growing array of highly practical alternatives that are both financially feasible and socially effective. They are known as multi-stakeholder co-operatives, or more simply as “social co-operatives.”
There are few things more basic to human life than walking.
We lost sight of this fact over recent decades, building new communities all over the world where moving on foot is dangerous or unappealing, if not downright impossible. That’s beginning to change now as research shows the simple of act of walking offers surprising benefits for our health, our prosperity and the vitality of our communities.
By Erik Soderstrom under a CC license
Walking is going places.
Humans’ most common pastime--forsaken for decades as too slow and too much effort-- is now recognized as a health breakthrough, an economic catalyst and a route to happiness.
