Cooperation and the Commons 2014 in Review | P2P Foundation

"At this time last year, I had just arrived in Ecuador as a researcher for the FLOK Society Project at the National Institute for Advanced Studies (IAEN). I was part of an international research team that had been recruited to develop policies for a 'social knowledge economy' that could transform Ecuador’s productive matrix away from neo-liberalism and the dependence on oil extraction, to an economy based on the free and open access to knowledge. Ecuador was the first country to explicitly promote open knowledge and the development of the commons as a strategy for systemic transformation of the nation’s economic model. I was responsible for co-ordinating the research stream focusing on Social Infrastructure and Institutional Innovation. In this, I was bringing my own background in co-operative economic development and social economy to examine how the notion of a social knowledge economy relates to the kinds of social institutions that could both reflect and sustain such a model. It was the first time I had engaged seriously on the interface between commons, co-operatives, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and the broader civil society as components of an integrated strategy for changing the idea and praxis of political economy as practiced both by the neo-liberal right and the traditional statist left. It was a period of intense intellectual stimulation and engagement with fields of study and practice that extended and challenged my previous experience with the co-operative movement as a factor of progressive economic social change. To this, I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Michel Bauwens as my key interlocutor and collaborator during this period. It is a collaboration that has continued beyond our joint work in Ecuador to extend now into the broader terrain of envisioning and articulating how the notion of an open, co-operative commonwealth can be implemented in regions across the globe. The work completed by FLOK provides a crucial first reference and basis of analysis and policy development for adaptations and applications abroad ..."