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P 2P REVOLUTION AND COMMONS PHASE TRANSITION .

NOTES ON THE NATURE OF THE REVOLUTION IN THE P2P/COMMONS EPOCH

Michel Bauwens is the founder
event. Yet at the same time, there is clearly a time
of the Foundation for Peer-towhen industrial changes emerged in a mostly
Peer Alternatives and works
agrarian context, and a time when it is the indusin collaboration with a global
trial processes and forms of organisation that are
group of researchers in the
dominant, and the agrarian aspects subsumed
exploration of peer producunder that domination. Clearly, between these
tion, governance, and property.
two
moments, a phase transition has occurred.
He has co-produced the 3-hour
Revolution is also used in a much more narrow
TV documentary Technocalyps
with Frank eys, and co-edited the
fashion, which usually refers to a momentous
two-volume book on anthropology of digseries of concrete events, in which the very
ital society with Salvino Salvaggio. Michel is currently Primavera
organisation of power in society changed funResearch Fellow at the University of Amsterdam and external
damentally, leading to a wholesale replacement
expert at the Pontical Academy of Social Sciences (2008, 2012).
of human personnel, a new different balance of
Michel Bauwens is a member of the Board of the Union of
power between social classes, and the like. ParaInternational Associations (Brussels), advisor to Shareable magdigmatic examples would be the French and
azine (San Francisco), to Zumbara Time Bank (Istanbul) and
Russian revolutions.
ShareLex; and scientic advisor to the Association Les RenBoth types of revolutions occur throughout histocontres du Mont-Blanc, Forum International des Dirigeants
de lEconomie Sociale et Solidaire (2013-). He functioned as
ry, but for many people, at least for those that live
the Chair of the Technology/ICT working group, Hangwa
more comfortably, the second notion is less attracForum (Beijing, Sichuan), to develop economic policies for
tive. Indeed, it is most often associated with violong-term resilience, including through distributed manulence, often directed against the very leaders of the
facturing. He writes editorials for Al Jazeera English, and is
first phases of such revolutions, and to boot, usually
listed at #82, on the Post-Carbon Institute (En)Rich list.
leads to counter-revolutions. The achievements of
Michel currently lives in Chiang Mai, ailand, and is
such revolutions, their victories, are often also very
research director of the transition project towards the
problematic.
Who can unproblematically affirm that
social knowledge economy, an ocial project in Ecuador
the
Napoleonic
and Soviet regimes for example, were
(oksociety.org).
necessarily
better
than what they replaced; or, that
He is a founding member of the Commons Strategies
these radical social and political events produced better
Group and has taught at Payap University and Dhuoutcomes than the slower processes that led to similar
rakij Pandit Universitys International College. In his
rst business career, Michel worked for USIA, British
phase transitions? An additional issue for the narrower
Petroleum, Riverland Publications, Belgacom, and cremeaning of revolution is that for many people, even for
ated two internet start-ups.
those who dislike the presently dominating regime of

T THE P2P

F OUNDATION ,

their time, is that it is not very clear most of the time,

what form the new post-revolutionary regime should
take, especially if the negative aspects of other attempts
are quite clear.
For this and other reasons, we prefer to talk at the P2P
Foundation, about phase transition, stressing the
process of change from one system to another, without
necessarily being able to predict how exactly these
changes will occur, especially on the political and
social level. But lets be clear, from the historical
record, it is pretty clear that such fundamental
changes are usually associated with rather deep social
convulsions. For example, if we take the deep shift
from the Roman system to the feudal system, it was
characterised by military invasions from foreign

WE DON T USE THE

moniker revolution with much frequency, preferring the concept of phase

transition.
In this article, we would like to elucidate
the relation between the two concepts.
In my experience, revolution is used in two quite
different senses; in a generic sense, it just means a
big change, like for example when we speak about
the Industrial Revolution, this was a long and
drawn out process, with many aspects, and it would
be really difficult to identify it with one particular

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tribes, which substantially changed the political

market creates added value services and products
leadership in post-roman regimes. for centuries,
around these commons.
Europe was unstable. if we take the changes associSo what we see here in the nature of these changes
ated with the reformation for example, we see simiare a series of qualitative reversals in terms of the
lar convulsions and religious civil wars; the change
operating logic of the system.
from the ancien regime to capitalism was similarly
These phase transitions are inextricably linked
fraught with deep political and social crises. So there
to changes in the nature of economic, social
is no doubt that a similarly deep transition will be
and political power. how should we see that
associated with social convulsions, wars, and yes, politrelationship ?
ical and social revolutions. The question is, what kind
The process of past phase transitions has been
of forms these will take, and not that we can guarantee
the following:
a cosy transition.
1 ~ the existing dominant system increasingly
however, just as the revolutions of feudalism differed
creates systemic crises that it no longer is
fundamentally from the revolutions that created capiable to solve;
talist societies, so the transition to a commons society
2 ~ both managerial (ruling), and productive
will take different forms.
classes (the dominated producers of value
in what follows, i explain my view of what those differfor the managerial classes), look for soluences could be.
tions; they do this in varied, fragmented,
first, what do we mean more precisely, when we talk
and pragmatic ways, under the dominance
about a transition towards a post-capitalist, p2p-driof the older structure; forming patterns of
ven, commons-oriented society?
response, or solutions. gradually, these pathere are a few pointers.
terns find themselves, and though they are
used by the dominant system, they also reprein the present dominant form of society and economsent an alternative logic that is slowly building
ics, nature is considered to be an infinite resource and
up and asserting itself. within the old parathe market externalises environmental concerns. it is
digm a new prefigurative paradigm emerges,
based on pseudo-abundance. at the same time, the
which is subsumed under the old logic at first
present system attempts to systematically render
but gradually gains strength;
artificially scarce what is naturally abundant, such
as say agricultural processes, but more specifically,
3 ~ these changes in the modalities of production
knowledge production. in p2p/commons processand value creation and diffusion also create new
es, the natural abundance of the immaterial comsocial structures; an exodus occurs from the old
mons such as knowledge, software and design,
system towards the new system; roman slaveholdand technical and scientific knowledge, is recogers become feudal lords become merchants and
nized and shared and made available to all
industrial capitalists; slaves become serfs become
humanity; and it is associated with changes in
labour. when the tensions between the new and the
the mode of production, that insure that proold are no longer absorbed by the old system, social
duction regenerates resources, maintaining ecoand political convulsions occur, eventually leading to
logical and resource stability for coming generarevolutions in the organization of society.
tions and for the natural world and its beings,
Today, we see this process clearly at works.
of which we are an integral part.
The systemic crisis of global neoliberal capitalism is
in the present form, corporate entities compete
leading to 3 types of patterned responses:
against each other, but within these entities, col1 ~ sustainable production which takes into account
laboration, though mostly hierarchically driven,
ecological limits:
occurs: cooperation is subsumed under competi2 ~ solidarity economy and cooperative forms of
tion; in the new form, ethical entrepreneurial
organisation which stress the need for social justice
coalitions co-create commons with contributory
in terms of value distribution;
productive communities; and are interlinked
3 ~ commons oriented peer production and other
around these commons through social charters
forms of sharing and openness which operative
and open licenses; though they may compete withagainst the enclosures, artificial scarcities and priin that sphere of collaboration. in other words,
vatisation of common knowledge.
competition is subsumed under collaboration. The
value is created and deposited through commons,
These patterns are still fragmented, only exceptionalthe economy creates livelihoods around these comly eco-systemic in their concrete practice, though
mons and their contributory communities, and the
these alternative eco-systems are definitely emerging

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and strengthening. what is specifically emerging is

have learned through experience that prefigurative
actions and protests cannot produce substantial vica new proto-mode of production in which contribtories in the context of a hostile state; and that thereutory communities create common knowledge, in
fore, the state itself has to be tackled and transwhich entrepreneurial coalitions create added value
formed. what is most likely in this evolution is the
on top of the commons in the still capitalist markettransformation of the electoral democracies, in
place, and in which for-benefit associations create
which elections have now themselves become
and maintain common infrastructures of cooperation
enclosures of political power of the people by a
and production.
professional political class that is operating in a
what needs to happen, and is starting to happen is that
market state form that is dominated by private
these productive communities, rather than be subject to
financial interests that have made real and gradual
the logic of extractive value captation by netarchical
change impossible. New hybrid forms will comcapitalists (those in the old system which are investing
bine elections, with associated forms of deliberain the new systems for their own benefit); create their
tive and participative democracy, but the political
own ethical economic vehicles, which allow them to creinitiative more directly in the hands of the citiate livelihoods around their commons-creating activizenry, and use the partner state model, in which
ties. This represents the necessary convergence, through
a transformed state will create the necessary civic
open cooperativism, of economic forms which respect
and technical infrastructures to enable and
social justice (the solidarity economy and other forms),
empower individual and collective autonomy; on
with peer production; and on the other hand the equalthe political agenda is the development of publicly necessary convergence with sustainability, through
commons partnerships and the commonification
for example the open source circular economy.
of public services, such as for example the example
an important issue today is the relation between the
of the Bologna regulation for the care of the
prefigurative forms, i.e. individuals and communiurban commons.
ties finding alternative systems of value creation that
My personal belief is that, given the exodus from
respond and solve the present systemic crisis, with
labour forms of work to those of networked and
political and social change. The crisis today expresscommons-creating peer producers of the new prees itself because the traditional emancipatory forces
carious working class, a reconstruction of social and
of the industrial society (left parties, unions and
political institutions is necessary, based no longer of
the like), are still oriented towards the old parathe declining form of the salariat (which is itself a
digm of capital and labour; while the many prolegal form of subordination), but on the commons. i
ductive communities have a strong distrust of
have elsewhere proposed to create at the local level,
these older political forms, and new forms are
assemblies of the commons for civic actors and
still weak and emergent.
chambers of the commons for the new economic
Nevertheless, we see this necessary convergence
actors, to reconstitute institutions of commonfare that
is also already happening:
can recreate a powerful social force that will in turn
1 ~ new political forms are emerging from the
reconfigure politics to create powerful coalitions for the
new digitally networked production praccommon(s), such as En comu in Barcelona. The
tices, such as the Pirate Parties and others;
Barcelona victory was indeed preceded by precisely such
a civic reconstruction by the post-15M activists, which
2 ~ huge social mobilisations have taken place,
created new participatory forms in the social movements
using the models of peer production in their
and commons-creating productive communities.
creation of politics, which has substantially
influenced the new political movements
another important issue to be resolved in this specific
that have also grown from this, like Syriza
phase transition is the relation between the local and the
in greece, and Podemos in Spain. Emblemglobal. The big wave of relocalisation taking place today,
atic may be the city coalition in Barcelona,
through for example the groups reconfiguring the proEn comu, which won the elections, and
vision of food and energy, is paradoxically itself facilitatwhich is the first political coalition to specifed by the globally networked technology that is the
ically refer to the commons in its new politiinternet. But most of the time, these local communities
cal ideology. other perhaps even more radiare using global technology to strengthen local activity,
cal forms are the civic coalitions that have
and not necessarily to project global power.
emerged in france (Saillant), and the uk
Today we have global formal civic associations, and
(frome), in which allied civic groups directly
through p2p, global open design communities. what is
replace the existing political machines.
missing is global ethical entrepreneurial forms that can
These more political movements have emerged from
operate on a global scale and can form a counterpower
what were originally anti-political mobilisations but
to private and extractive multinational corporations.

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The immediate limitations imposed on the greek

Syriza party also shows the very strong limitations for
local and national politics in terms of structural
change. local and national movements are necessary,
but not sufficient, and an orientation towards the global
commons, through physical global institutions, will be
vital, as is their political expression. lasindias.net has
proposed, and we support this vision, the creation of
phyles, global business eco-systems that sustain the commons and their communities, and the faircoop project is
a first attempt at developing this.
revolutions in the narrow sense are organic and often
destructive events, out of the control of any particular
social force. we can notice the tinder, but we cant
know which spark will set it alight. it would be unwise
to rejoice especially if the alternative social forces and
productive systems are still emerging.
Big waves of social revolution have been unsuccessful,
like for example the wave of 1848 in Europe, or the
wave of 1968; and as for the successes, be careful what
you wish for.
Therefore today, what matters is the reconstruction of
prefigurative value-creating production systems first,
to make peer production an autonomous and full
mode of production which can sustain itself and its
contributors; and the reconstruction of social and
political power which is associated and informed
by this new social configuration. The organic
events will unfold with or without these forces,
ready or not, but if were not ready, the human
cost might be very steep.
Therefore the motto should be: contribute to the
phase transition first; and be ready for the coming sparks and organic events that will require
the mobilization of all.
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