George Pór's blog

I've just received an invite to this conference that will bring together about 150 leading figures in commons-based studies and activism for a multidisciplinary, internationally focused conference. The event will explore the range of commons-based policy and social approaches that now exist and forge a new network of commoners who will collaborate on commons-based initiatives in the future. The gathering will also serve to incubate entirely new ideas and strategies that the participants will bring to the conference, including new communications strategies, prototype commons, funding models and research needs. And, last but not least: it is supposed to draw attention of the classical media and the blogosphere to the issue.

Are modern societies prepared to create a framework in which the incentives behind production and governance are not private capital and debt-based growth, but human solidarity, quality of life and ecological sustainability?

Humankind is entering the era of its intentional evolution. We find a measure of that in the nascent legal framework for decisions about protecting its common assets, e.g.: the sky, the land, the oceans, indigenous culture and knowledge, technology, arts, universities, etc.

"The commons is still an embryonic vision. It will require time to evolve. But it is a vision with great potential, perhaps because it is not being advanced by an intellectual elite or a political party, but by a hardy band of resourceful irregulars on the periphery of conventional politics. (That’s always where the most interesting new things originate.) These commoners are now starting to find each other, a convergence that augurs great things." -- Imagining a New Politics of the Commons, David Bollier