The Heinrich Boll Foundation just released a detailed, educational, and inspiring report summarizing the international conference it hosted in Berlin, Germany May 22-24, 2013. Two hundred commoners from around the globe converged at the Economics and the Commons Conference (ECC) to explore the commons as an alternative worldview to market-fundamentalism, to catalyze the commons movement, and to lay the foundation for the commons to become a core paradigm of today's politics, economics, and culture.
The report highlights the most salient ideas presented during ten keynote talks and provides summaries of the five conference streams. Short overviews of significant side events held during the conference are also included, in addition to resources generated at the event (most notably the ECC communications platform) and profiles from the network of commoners whose work aligns with themes from the conference. The Commons Strategies Group, a co-host of the conference, also offers final reflections on what the ECC means for the commons movement.
Anyone interested in the commons movement can use this report as a kind of primer. It’s also likely that the report will become an invaluable resource for activists, academics, and others working to advance the commons framework as a powerful tool for managing civic life, natural resources, urban spaces, the Internet, and other realms. Only by sharing and implementing important ideas can we work toward defeating what the Heinrich Boll Foundation calls “one of the most significant impediments to positive social change”: the entrenched power of market-fundamentalism as an political, economic, and cultural paradigm.
The Heinrich Boll Foundation invites you to forward the report to friends and family and to check out a collection of video interviews by Remix the Commons that were recorded during the conference.
There are 76 clips total more than 8 hours run time. They are classified in the following three categories:
Define/définir/definir the Commons
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is composed of 53 short interviews responding to the question : « If you had to define the Commons in one sentence, what would it be?” Most of the interviews are in English, but 28 of them are in the original language of the participant. This series was begun at the 2010 Berlin conference and has been enriched during several international meetings of different social movements around the world since then. The series counts more than a hundred clips now.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiO9RvnsUfkYA3AHFtDOUCQCcCvEzkn-S
Economics and the Commons
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includes 13 video interviews with individuals or round table discussions facilitated by us or the event organisers. They vary in length from 5 to 35 minutes and total 5 hours. The themes chosen reflect the conference streams and the round tables attempt a synthesis bringing together the actors and the moderators of each stream.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiO9RvnsUfkatF08AS-5t1PJSU35khJ3S
An Agenda for the Commons
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includes 11 videos covering themes such as education and the culture of the Commons, research, the political dimension and the relationship to the State.They total 3 hours and 10 minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiO9RvnsUfkYR3nlESkj73h8CLnDhh2kY