P2P Foundation

A non-profit organization and global network dedicated to advocacy and research of commons-oriented peer to peer dynamics in society.

The P2P Foundation was conceived to help people, organizations and governments transition towards commons-based approaches to society through co-creating an open knowledge commons and a resilient, sustainable human network.

Between the paradigms of the network and the organization, the P2P Foundation exists as an ‘organized network’ which can facilitate the creation of networks, yet without directing them. Our primary aim is to be an incubator and catalyst for the emerging ecosystem, focusing on the ‘missing pieces’, and the interconnectedness that can lead to a wider movement.

P2P, in practice, is often invisible to those involved, for a variety of cultural reasons. We want to reveal its presence in discrete movements in order to unite them in their common ethos. To do this, a common initiative is required which:

  • gathers information
  • connects and mutually informs people
  • strives for integrative insights contributed by many sub-fields
  • organizes events for reflection and action
  • educates people about critical and creative tools for “world-making”

The P2P Foundation monitors the emergence of P2P dynamics in every field of human activity. We document these projects on our open access wiki and report and critique current events on our daily blog. Our Commons Transition website combines a platform for policy proposals with a web magazine featuring specially curated stories and interviews, with and for commoners worldwide. Our research network, led by the P2P Lab, empirically explores and expands the theoretical work produced on commons-oriented peer production, governance and property to ascertain its viability in real-world applications. Our focus on the productive potential of communities and networks inspires us to nurture partnerships with prefigurative collectives and more established players to extend our policy recommendations to those in the position to effect change.

P2P Foundation members are active all over the world, with representatives in Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa, South America, and North America.

We are always looking to expand our coverage and welcome new members to our community.

The Love School Project

A co-creative process between students of product design at UdK and pupils from Love School in the Slum Kangemi in Nairobi

In a co-creation process between students of product design at University of Arts Berlin and pupils from Love School in the Slum Kangemi in Nairobi, Kenya, designs have been created that focus on craft, material understanding and form development. Both cultural environments served as sources of knowledge and inspiration. A variety of multifaceted object with hybrid aesthetics have come into being that evince an autarchic identity both as high end products as well as DIY variation. Experiments and developments were done with porcelain, clay, plaster, fine metal, fibre, sisal, veneer, plastic bags, PET bottles, corrugated sheet metal and bulk trash.

Besides the design process the question of value of those materials, the necessity of new products and the relation to a global social context was reflected. The students became teachers of their own by continuously reflecting their own process and to then pass on a simplified version to the children. The children on the other hand participated in the design and problem solving process and thus experienced an increasing awareness of self-efficacy as well as ownership concerning the final sale of the designed objects. The revenue serves the purchase of a piece of land for the continuously displaced Love School Center which will be cleared out once again due to speculation.

So additionally to the financial support of the school in Nairobi the goal of the project was diverse: it was an attempt to test development work as a co-creation process. It sensitized the students to see their work as a creative service in a client relationship and it offered the kids from the Love School Center the opportunity to cooperate with the students and participate in the purchase of new grounds. For all participants this project was and will be an inspiring, mind expanding experience.

Interspace

A concept for an experiential urban space enabling new ways of human encounters.

The experience of space and the boundaries it has raised have made us rethink and reimagine opposites. With our project INTERSPACE we would like to encourage exchange. Furthermore, borders need to be broken in order to playfully enter into exchange. Closeness and distance, experiencing spaces in full reception and thinking beyond. Our exit strategy is a beginning to move and interact in new spaces.

 

During our research on the topic of living space and alternative supply structures (organic food, food sharing, permaculture…) it became more and more clear to us how comprehensively this field touches all other problematic areas (such as education, nutrition, climate…) and we moved from a bird’s eye view to a closer look at the space as such. More and more the idea emerged to use the potential of change that lies in the form of an intervention.

We now want to create a temporary space of experience, a space of imagination that could lead to a different, more conscious and supportive way of living together. This experiential space is to be created as an intervention in public space and provide an occasion for an exchange on how space could be designed, lived and enlivened. Above all, the aspect of participation is very important to us, since the joint activity or use of the installation, brings people together almost automatically on one level and thus directly a fruitful space for discussion can arise.

The installation will be mobile, so it can be installed in different places. It will be thick, organic-looking ropes hanging from a metal framework. The ropes are looped around the struts of the scaffolding with a knot and hang loosely down to the ground. The somewhat strangely curved greenish ropes, which are reminiscent of a fleshy plant or aerial roots, are intended to arouse the curiosity of passers-by and invite them to interact. The ropes can be knotted, for example, to form small and also larger seating levels and swings, and thus the space around the ropes is in constant flux. Also due to the openness to all sides, the installation is constantly influenced by wind and weather and keeps changing. It is a large network of knots to which everyone can connect. This joint creation and linking of a space can give impulses for an expanded perception of space and its design possibilities.

Viewed in a larger context, this playful approach should also lead to a questioning of our fixed ideas/images of historically grown cities and to thinking about a new space in between. A space of exchange, mutual support and shared experience. We want to create an interface of urban/artificial space, natural space and social space. In a way, the installation is meant to stand as a metaphor for an abundance and a density (of the city) and to invite to deal with this abundance, to order it and to create new space. The interaction can be seen as a playful exercise of how we might deal with our living space, leading to an invention of possible futures (in the dimensions of social and educational).

Initially, a small model of the installation exists, but we also set our sights on a possible location in Berlin, namely the old Hammelhalle near Storkower Straße. The scaffolding of the old Hammelhalle could be the perfect support for the ropes of the installation. By working with the already existing construction, the installation would be realizable with very simple means. An opening of the installation is planned as well as regular events to give concrete food for thought for the conscious interaction with the installation. These thought-provoking impulses could, for example, take the form of a performance that illustrates the possible shared spaces of experience or brings them to life. Also conceivable is a certain coloring of the ropes, divided into several color groups, which provide a clue for possible connections over long distances and make it clear that the space can only be created in conjunction with several people.

A concept by Marc Roman Page, Devi Sofia Sund Rojo and Natalie Marie Preuß

DOWNLOAD PROJECT PDF

 

 

Global Ecovillage Network

Envisioning empowered citizens and communities, implementing pathways to a regenerative future, while building bridges of international solidarity.

Who is the Global Ecovillage Network?

The Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) catalyzes communities for a regenerative world. GEN is a growing network of regenerative communities and initiatives that bridge cultures, countries, and continents.

GEN builds bridges between policy-makers, governments, NGOs, academics, entrepreneurs, activists, community networks and ecologically-minded individuals across the globe in order to develop strategies for a global transition to resilient communities and cultures.

What is an Ecovillage?

An ecovillage is an intentional, traditional or urban community that is consciously designing its pathway through locally owned, participatory processes, and aiming to address the Ecovillage Principles in the 4 Areas of Regeneration (social, culture, ecology, economy into a whole systems design).

Ecovillages are living laboratories pioneering beautiful alternatives and innovative solutions. They are rural or urban settlements with vibrant social structures, vastly diverse, yet united in their actions towards low-impact, high-quality lifestyles. Read more about ecovillage definitions in our Glossary.

Who is in the GEN Network?

About GEN 2GEN is composed of 5 regional networks, and the youth arm, NextGEN, spanning the globe. The network is made up of approximately 10,000 communities and related projects where people are living together in greater ecological harmony.

Some network members include large networks like Sarvodaya (2,000 active sustainable villages in Sri Lanka); the Federation of Damanhur in Italy and REDES in Senegal; as well as small rural ecovillages like Gaia Asociación in Argentina and Huehuecoyotl in Mexico.

It also includes urban rejuvenation projects like Los Angeles EcoVillage and Christiania in Copenhagen; permaculture design sites such as Crystal Waters, Australia, Cochabamba, Bolivia and Barus, Brazil; and educational centres such as Findhorn in Scotland, Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales, Earthlands in Massachusetts, and many more.

Disruption Network Lab

An ongoing programme of events and research focused on the intersection of politics, technology and society

Examining the intersection of politics, technology, and society, Disruption Network Lab exposes the misconduct and wrongdoing of the powerful.

Disruption Network Lab is an ongoing platform of events and research focused on the intersection of politics, technology and society. We are a Berlin-based nonprofit organisation in Germany (Disruption Network Lab e. V.) that has since 2014 organised participatory, interdisciplinary, international events at the intersection of human rights and technology with the objective of strengthening freedom of speech, and exposing the misconduct and wrongdoing of the powerful. We develop work that advocates for the globally marginalised.

Disruption Network Lab organises inter-disciplinary conferences at the interface of scholarship and politics and local meetups throughout the year.

New Work – New Office

design of an alternative working environment

Digitization is affecting our lives in many ways, and this is becoming more and more apparent at work. The developments entail some risks, but also offer great potentials. For example, increasing automation and the more extensive use of machine learning could lead to the loss of many jobs in the future. This gives us the opportunity for a comprehensive reorientation in terms of work. Today’s concept of wage labor, which focuses solely on the end product and ultimately on maximizing profit, must be questioned in light of current economic and social developments. The economic system is heading for a crisis, and it is time to develop new forms of collaboration in which people with all their needs and the purpose for society are at the center of entrepreneurial activity. At this point, digitization also plays a crucial role, because only the appropriate technology makes it possible, for example, to work in a decentralized and asynchronous manner. The Corona pandemic has opened many people’s eyes to the upheavals that lie ahead for our way of working in the future. In the current “home office” intensive test phase, both the advantages and disadvantages of these developments became clear. Social isolation is probably the most decisive negative effect of office abstinence. More than ever before, the importance of the workplace as a place for social exchange and creative collaboration became apparent. And even if decentralized working becomes more mainstream after the pandemic, these aspects will remain.
Based on our research in the field of non-violent communication and the idealistic notions of the “New Work” movement, we have designed a concrete spatial concept that reflects the current developments towards more personal responsibility and needs orientation and transfers them into a future utopia of an ideal workplace. The concept represents a starting point. The spaces presented require further elaboration. Facilities and processes need to be evolved. And finally, the concept can also be transferred to other settings such as the education sector.

English Version: New_Office_Tamm_Machmer_English

German Version: New_Office_Tamm_Machmer_Deutsch

 

Research:

Das Ende der Megamaschine_ Mitschrift

Reinventing Organizations_Mitschrift

 

Interview on the topic of nonviolent communication:

https://www.gewaltfrei-kommunizieren.hamburg/aktuelles/interwiews-und-webtalks-zur-gewaltfreien-kommunikation/

SEEDS

A payment platform and financial ecosystem to empower humanity and heal our planet.

Seeds: A New Currency

SEEDS’ unique protocols maintain a more stable value for Seeds. This addresses the intense volatility of many alternative currencies.

This happens by tracking demand changes and creating new Seeds to meet new demand. For example, with Bitcoin new demand is represented by an increase in the price of BTC, leading to wildly appreciating price.

Imagine borrowing BTC a few years ago. You’d have a 1000+% interest rate to pay back that 1 BTC. Seeds fixes this problem. Bitcoin, and many alternative currencies are designed like gold and stocks while Seeds are designed like national currencies.

Bitcoin = Digital Gold;

Most Other Cryptocurrencies = Better Stocks;

Seeds = Better Money

Unlike national currencies, Seeds are not created from impossible debt and exploitative interest. Instead, Seeds are created to replace destroyed currency and to meet new demand as our society grows.

Destroying Seeds

Seeds are also routinely destroyed to account for any decreases in demand.

Many services provided today could be replaced with code providing “zero marginal cost” services. Examples include, digital advertising, banking services, insurance services, escrow services, etc). SEEDS will provide these services and users pay for them by burning Seeds. These services will become more valuable as SEEDS grows, balancing growth and destroying currency to fuel the harvest.

Where the money comes from

Growth comes from transitioning away from our current financial systems – not from converting our natural and social world into money. We repurpose the incredible growth designs of our present systems to transition into new ones. Once we’ve transitioned into this new system we can evolve it however we need using a clear and direct governance process.

New Seeds go directly to reward a variety of beneficial behaviours in our society.

Digital Education

An undeceiving concept for the Young on how to responsibly deal with the advantages and pitfalls of digital media.

We are interested in the subject of psychology because for us mental health and its care are extremely important, especially in these digital times. We think that this topic receives too little attention in the public. 

At the beginning of our work, we researched separately. Since both research topics showed certain parallels, we joined. By combining both topics (internet use & mental hygiene) we developed our final concept.

Since we believe that these topics are an important aspect of everyone’s life, we asked ourselves why we are not taught strategies to maintain mental health from an early age on. Our internet use can also affect our psyche. Through the use of algorithms, internet sites tend to show us only information that matches our previous views. This can effectively isolate us in a bubble. Starting from the issues that children are confronted with during their school years, we developed our concept. It deals with digital education of school children and includes learning important precautions and general behavior in dealing with the internet, social media, etc. 

Collaboration of Céline Lanzl, Merle Lehmann-Korn, Klara Herrmann

 

PDFs:

Digitale-Aufklärung-Recherche-Psychohygiene
Digitale-Aufklärung-Konzept-Präsi
Digitale-Aufklärung-Recherche-Filterblase
Digitale-Aufklärung-Konzept

“And how will you make a living with that?”

Questioning work and its perception

My initial research began with investigating the value of work. I dived into topics such as money, economy, capitalism, performance, consumption, etc., and analyzed their relations. Early on, it became clear that economic thinking has a prior role in our lives. Although, we might not always be conscious about it. Remembering my time in high school, I realized how much my training focused on working for money and predefined goals that were not mine. The dominance of work with financial motivation pushed all other demands aside.

I started to ask questions. What is the source of this attitude? Why are we so strongly motivated by money? Why are we neglecting other significant things in our lives, such as our health, social environment, or personal fulfillment? Led by those questions, I came across alternative ways to organize work, for instance, the concept of unconditional basic income and New Work. These ideas became a great source of inspiration during my research. I felt convinced by their human-centered and value-oriented approach.

In my essay “And how will you make a living with that?” I discuss the perception of work and its role in our lives. Furthermore, I include proposals of how general education could help to shift our view. My ideas intend to serve as a starting point to a complex problem and draw attention to our personal needs and desires.

Research notes: Recherche-Wert-der-Arbeit

Designing Regenerative Cultures

A holistic view on how to build a better system. By Daniel Christian Wahl

At the invitation of Susanne Stauch, Daniel Christian Wahl spoke on the topic “Designing Regenerative Cultures” as part of the lecture series “On Gestaltung”, initiated by Jörg Petruschat and Patricia Ribault at weißensee kunsthochschule berlin.

 

 

About Daniel’s book: Designing Regenerative Cultures,
2016, Triarchy Press, Axminster.

Cultures are not designed from the top down as much as they grow organically from the bottom up. We try to understand the various happenings through the lenses of history, sociology, anthropology and, after the passage of enough time, archaeology. Even if cultures cannot be designed as whole and coherent things, we have acquired a knack for designing parts like the banking system, the educational system or the next high-rise development. The things so created, however, are mostly tailored to the convenience of the existing structures of power and wealth without regard for the other parts or the long term. The resulting incoherence is a source of much befuddlement to scholars.

So, after several millennia of trial, error and happenstance, our future is in jeopardy. We are trending to a world of maybe eleven billion people, divided by ethnicity, religion, income and nationality. We don’t much like each other and the prospects for lethal conflicts are many. We are coming apart at the seams as nation-states appear powerless when challenged by drug cartels, cyber criminals and terrorist organizations. We are increasingly networked, interlinked and mutually dependent but often unable to find common purpose and act for the common good.

We are caught between the centripetal and centrifugal forces of post-modernity. And the pace of technological change is accelerating, giving us little time — or even inclination — for reflection. Not the least, we are rapidly changing the climate, extinguishing species, acidifying oceans and destroying entire ecologies.

Against this backdrop, Daniel Wahl proposes “designing regenerative cultures”. The vision of a designed future is easy to dismiss as yet another utopian scheme with roughly the same chance of success as Marxism or 19th-century Fourierism. The differences, however, are many.

First, in contrast to all previous eras, we know for certain that business as usual will be suicidal. That has been said so often and for so long as to appear trite with the effect of inducing mass narcosis. Unfortunately, it is true and we should pay attention. Second, the scale of our predicament is global; there are no safe places left anywhere on Earth.

Third, as Wahl describes, the ecological design arts broadly are flourishing. They are transforming farming, building, transportation, manufacturing and planning in ways congenial to ecologies and Earth systems. Their common characteristics are the use of nature as a model for design, maximal use of solar energy, preservation of biological and cultural diversity, and full-cost accounting.

Ecological design is no longer a distant prospect, it is happening all over the world. It is practical, not theoretical. It has very large political consequences, but is itself non-ideological and neither liberal nor conservative — simply forward. It is also affecting economics, accounting and the behaviour of investors and corporations. But ecological design has yet to change politics and calibrate governance with ecological processes and systems.

Fourth, ecological design transcends the Western experience. It is not synonymous with engineering or science. Rather, it is a compendium of the entire human experience of farming, building, engineering, planning and making. The ancient Javanese farm or the Balinese water system, for example, demonstrated remarkable design skills, which in some ways exceed our own. That is true partly because the design of resource flows of water and materials coincided with cultural and religious norms in ways that we, in our more compartmentalized world, find incomprehensible. Vernacular design, at its best, included humans, animals, land and waters as whole systems ordained by complex religious systems. The flaws were many, but the results were often durable over centuries. The fact is that there is much to learn about whole-systems design from other cultures and in other times.

Fifth, design is a systems revolution which is the art of seeing things whole and regarding our actions together with their likely consequences. Given the complexity of all systems and our inescapable ignorance, a systems perspective requires humility and pre- caution. It means working at a smaller scale, say, the neighbourhood, the farm, the factory, before generalizing to systems at a larger scale. Changing the scale also changes the system and so on.

Thinking in systems over longer periods of time is the revolution of our time. All of our new gadgetry and inventions pale in comparison. We are, as Wahl ably describes, parts of larger wholes, no one and no organization can be an island complete in itself. The upshot is that systems thinking moves us toward enlightened self-interest by which we understand that our wellbeing and human flourishing is collective, not individual; long-term, not short-term.

Sixth, whether acknowledged or not, systems thinking is kin to the core meaning of religion — ‘to bind together’ in Latin. We, living in a secular culture, tend not to see the connection, but it is nonetheless inescapable. Aldo Leopold’s ‘land ethic’ and the rules of decent behaviour prescribed in each of the Axial religions bear more than a coincidental similarity to the rules of enlightened design. We are our brother’s keeper and also that of the bears, whales, birds, soils, trees, lands and waters; and they ours. The entire system is mindful, shot through with consideration.

The word ‘regenerative’ in the title of this book signifies a commitment to the life processes inherent in ecological design. That, too, is reciprocal, mutual and inescapable. It also carries the command of the writer of Deuteronomy to “choose life” [30:19] Whether from self-interest or duty, the command requires that we comprehend and value life and life processes, become ecologically competent stewards of land, wildlife, soils, waters, and that we care.

Daniel Wahl has compiled a great deal of useful information in a masterful synthesis. That alone is a significant accomplishment, but he’s given us more than that. Designing Regenerative Cultures describes the doorway to a possible, indeed, necessary future. We are not fated to the dystopia in prospect. We have, as he writes, the capacity to design and to organize our societies to protect, enhance and celebrate life. The blueprint was there all along. The awareness of our possibilities is growing. The art and sciences of ecological design are flourishing. The choice, as always, is ours and that of those who will follow.

Doughnut Economics

An inspiring lecture about a 21. century approach towards economics. By Kate Raworth

Kate Raworth explains the ‘doughnut’ economy is based on the premise that “Humanity’s 21st century challenge is to meet the needs of all within the means of the planet. In other words, to ensure that no one falls short on life’s essentials (from food and housing to healthcare and political voice), while ensuring that collectively we do not overshoot our pressure on Earth’s life-supporting systems, on which we fundamentally depend – such as a stable climate, fertile soils, and a protective ozone layer. The Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries is a new framing of that challenge, and it acts as a compass for human progress this century.”

Food Plant Solution

A database of over 30.000 edible plants to end malnutrition in the world.

” A SOLUTION THAT ENDS MALNUTRITION
We create educational materials that explain what nutritional food is, why our bodies need it and how to grow and use it. We focus on what are often neglected and underutilized plants, plants that are growing in and adapted to their environment, and are high in the most beneficial nutrients. Our materials are designed to empower people, but particularly women, so that they can make informed choices on what plants to grow and eat that will nutritiously feed themselves and their families. This project is cost effective, proven to work, sustainable and enables self-sufficiency.

We can end malnutrition – it’s as simple as growing the right plant in the right place.”

Communities of Hope

A beautiful inspiration for another way of living in community.

COMMUNITIES OF HOPE is a film born from a quest to discover a regenerative culture.

It is an invitation to discover a new way of life. A way of life measured by the rhythms of nature, the depth of human  connection, the vast horizon of human potential. It’s the way of life in ecovillages; the intentional communities that Diego and Lou of  The Great Relation Films have spent the last two years documenting.

Filmed largely at the European Ecovillage Network’s annual European Ecovillage Gathering, and drawing on two years of travel and exploration in communities in Europe, the film takes us on a journey around the mandala of regeneration: how ecovillages relate to the social, economic, ecological and cultural dimensions of sustainability. It offers pathways towards a new way of seeing the world, and a new way of living together.

The filmmakers and GEN Europe wish to extend a special thanks to all those who participated, and especially to Damanhur, Amalurra and Tamera for providing footage for use in the documentary. 

Living Gaia

Wonderful initiative collecting donations for the Huni Kuin indiginous people of Acre, Brazil to buy back their land in the Amazon rainforest.

Amazon landpurchase project

Protecting and strengthening indigenous groups also protects the rainforest. Satellite images clearly show that only the areas inhabited by indigenous people in Brazil have experienced little deforestation.

To protect the forest and its inhabitants, we plan to enable the Huni Kuin to buy 16,800 hectares of land in the Jordão community.

The land is located between the Huni Kuin’s land and uncontacted groups being pushed back into Brazil by Peru. We want both groups to benefit from this purchase. About one third of the land to be bought has been cleared and is to be reforested. The farmland is surrounded by intact forests. We hope that the reforestation will also help the wildlife in this region to recover. A centre for dialogue and exchange is also to be established.

The Huni Kuin live in 32 villages along the rivers Jordão and Tarauacá near the village of Jordão in the state of Acre, Brazil.

Uncontacted Indigenous Groups
There are groups of the Huni Kuin people who fled across the border to Peru after first contact with rubber collectors and have been living in isolation ever since. Over the past ten years, they have been pushed back to Brazil due to the activities of large corporations on the Peruvian side.

The land to be purchased will serve as a buffer zone between the contacted and uncontacted Huni Kuin, who are relatives and friends.

 

What can I do?
Donate to our association account!
A donation receipt will be sent via e-mail (on request also by postal service) to you at the beginning of the next quarter. Please send your name, address, transfer date and amount by e-mail to contact@living-gaia.org.

Living Gaia e.V.
IBAN: DE48 4306 0967 1150 1986 00
BIC: GENODEM1GLS
Keyword: Amazon land purchase

or by SEPA direct debit mandate (single or recurring payment)

We need a transformation of consciousness on a global scale

Interview with Dennis McKenna

Dennis McKenna is an American ethnopharmacologist, research pharmacognosist, thinker, lecturer, author and the founder of the McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy. For more than forty years, his professional research, interests and activities have focused on hallucinogenic plants as well as the quest for synergy between Western science and ancient indigenous knowledge, between science and mysticism. McKenna is convinced that the future of humanity is only possible in symbiosis with nature.

Sacred Economics

A revolutionary approach towards money and economics. By Charles Eisenstein

Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth.

Today, these trends have reached their extreme – but in the wake of their collapse, we may find great opportunity to transition to a more connected, ecological, and sustainable way of being.

 

Design Your Exit Strategy Toolkit

A philosophical approach to humanity's greatest challenge.

By “tools” we mean a mental framework… a set of ideas. A way of looking at the biggest problem we’ve ever faced.

With this “toolkit” one can approach the daunting task of exiting modern civilization.

https://toolkit.comingtogether.earth/

(And in some ways, this project was the inspiration for the current class.)