Utopia Governance and the Commons: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview
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PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION 11
1. INTRODUCTION 13
Three Concerns ............................................................16
Six Questions ...............................................................18
Four Applications.........................................................20
2. UTOPIAS 23
Utopias and Ideals ........................................................24
Origins of Utopia..........................................................25
Golden Age — Looking Back......................................28
Golden Age — Looking Forward.................................34
Three Utopias...............................................................36
Privatopia .....................................................................37
Cornucopia ...................................................................40
Ecotopia .......................................................................42
Where to from Here?....................................................45
Some Inspiration ..........................................................48
In Summary ..................................................................52
3. THE QUESTION OF OWNERSHIP 55
The Meaning of Capital................................................58
Owning the Means of Production.................................67
Why do we want to Own? ............................................68
Ownership of Land.......................................................71
Money and Usury .........................................................76
What do the Utopias have to say about Ownership? ....79
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Utopia Governance and the Commons 4. DEFINING THE COMMONS 81
A Commons Exists for us Now ................................... 81
The Tragedy of the Commons ..................................... 82
Natural Commons as Resource and Wild Nature ........ 85
The Commons, Wealth and Capital............................. 88
Widening the Commons .............................................. 93
The Creative Commons ............................................... 97
Commons and Cultural Heritage ................................. 99
The Prospects for Common Good Laws.................... 101
Proposals for the Commons....................................... 102
Recognising the Commons invites a new Politics ..... 105
5. POLITY 107
State versus Stateless ................................................. 109
Individualism............................................................. 112
Collectivism............................................................... 113
Communism............................................................... 118
The Purpose of Government...................................... 124
Types of Government ................................................ 127
Federations and Assemblies ...................................... 134
What do the Utopias make of the Governance Options?139
Conclusion................................................................. 142
6. COMMUNITY ON A SMALL SCALE 145
The Issue of Scale...................................................... 147
Starting with Ourselves.............................................. 148
Personal Change leading to Vision............................ 150
New Missions are formed by Working Together....... 151
Power and Hierarchy ................................................. 153
Equality in Groups..................................................... 159
Community and Bureaucracy .................................... 162
Sociocracy ................................................................. 164
Local Democracy....................................................... 168
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Utopia Governance and the Commons Community and Business ...........................................170
From Small to Large ..................................................172
7. COMMUNITY ON A LARGE SCALE 173
Parapolity ...................................................................174
Parapolity — Scaling up from Neighbourhood to Nation178
People’s Parliaments and Citizens’ Assemblies .........183
Parecon.......................................................................185
The Adoption of Parapolity and Parecon ...................188
8. THE ECONOMICS OF THE COMMONS 193
The Economic Base of Society?.................................194
The True Base of Society...........................................196
What we Neglect — Wild Nature and the Emotional Economy ....................................................................200
Value ..........................................................................204
Value and Money — The Financial Economy ...........207
What Should we Own?...............................................211
What Should we Share? Equality and the Welfare Net213
What Should we Make? How Should we Trade? ......217
Money making Money ...............................................220
Neo-liberalism............................................................223
The Gift Economy......................................................224
The Importance of Corporations ................................230
Proposals ....................................................................232
How Do the Utopias View the Social Commons?......239
Summary ....................................................................240
9. NATURE 247
Natural Commons and Wild Nature ...........................248
Connection and Inspiration from Nature ....................249
Our Own Wild Nature ................................................253
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Utopia Governance and the Commons Nature and Value....................................................... 255
Nature as part of the ‘Moral Community’ ................. 257
Re-Wilding ................................................................ 259
Living on Wild Land ................................................. 260
Seeking out the Wild ................................................. 262
10. PLACE 265
The Mystery and Joy of Place ................................... 271
Competing Interests in Place ..................................... 272
The Importance of Beauty ......................................... 273
Taking Back Control of our Places............................ 276
Places ‘Planned’ by People ....................................... 278
Communities Shape Place ......................................... 279
Taking back the Commons ........................................ 282
Business and Place .................................................... 284
The Nightmare of Cars .............................................. 285
Slow Cities ................................................................ 287
11. A COMMONS OF COMPASSION 289
Sympathy, Empathy, Compassion ............................. 290
Why Compassion?..................................................... 292
Compassion for Self .................................................. 293
Compassion for Others .............................................. 295
Government and Compassion.................................... 297
Business and Compassion ......................................... 300
Wider Circles of Compassion.................................... 302
12. A COMMONS OF PLEASURE 307
Joy, Pleasure and Happiness...................................... 307
Grades of Pleasure? ................................................... 309
Abundance — What do the Utopias make of Pleasure?312
Different Pleasures .................................................... 314
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Utopia Governance and the Commons Pleasure and Nature....................................................317
Pleasure and Place......................................................319
Pleasure and Compassion...........................................322
Pleasure and Work .....................................................323
Pleasure and Business ................................................327
Carnival......................................................................328
Pleasure and Soul .......................................................330
Beauty, Slowness, Silence and Peace.........................331
13. A WIDER COMMONS 335
Education ...................................................................336
Science and Technology.............................................338
Why Privatopia will not Work ...................................338
Can the Future be a Cornucopia? ...............................342
Is Ecotopia Enough? ..................................................346
14. WHAT WE MIGHT DECIDE, IF WE COULD
DECIDE 351
Who Decides? ............................................................352
What do we Own? What should we Share?...............356
What Should We Make? How Should We Trade? ....360
How Should We Live? ...............................................361
15. A NEW STORY 365
From Facts to Story ....................................................368
The Voice of Dissent..................................................372
Daydreaming ..............................................................372
Education Without Character .....................................373
Name your Pleasures ..................................................374
Name your Fears ........................................................377
The Current Story.......................................................377
A Story of Isolation or a Story of Trust? ....................381
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Utopia Governance and the Commons The New Story........................................................... 385
The Demise of the Current Story? ............................. 391
Prospects for the New Story ...................................... 393
16. CONCLUSION 395
Where is the Vision? ................................................. 396
The Good Life ........................................................... 397
Three Utopias ............................................................ 398
Six Questions............................................................. 399
The New Story........................................................... 404
Trust .......................................................................... 408
17. GLOSSARY 411
18. BIBLIOGRAPHY 433