Peer to Peer: The Commons Manifesto (Critical, Digital and Social Media Studies)

"Not since Marx identified the manufacturing plants of Manchester as the blueprint for the new capitalist society has there been a more profound transformation of the fundamentals of our social life. As capitalism faces a series of structural crises, a new social, political and economic dynamic is emerging: peer to peer. What is peer to peer? Why is it essential for building a commons-centric future? How could this happen? These are the questions this book tries to answer. Peer to peer is a type of social relations in human networks, as well as a technological infrastructure that makes the generalization and scaling up of such relations possible. Thus, peer to peer enables a new mode of production and creates the potential for a transition to a commons-oriented economy. " The Blitz Companion offers a unique overview of a century of aerial warfare, its impact on cities and the people who lived in them. It tells the story of aerial warfare from the earliest bombing raids and in World War 1 through to the London Blitz and Allied bombings of Europe and Japan. These are compared with more recent American air campaigns over Cambodia and Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, the NATO bombings during the Balkan Wars of the 1990s and subsequent bombings in the aftermath of 9/11. Beginning with the premonitions and predictions of air warfare and its terrible consequences, the book focuses on air raids precautions, evacuation and preparations for total war, and resilience, both of citizens and of cities. The legacies of air raids, from reconstruction to commemoration, are also discussed. While a key theme of the book is the futility of many air campaigns, care is taken to situate them in their historical context. The Blitz Companion also includes a guide to documentary and visual resources for students and general readers. Uniquely accessible, comparative and broad in scope this book draws key conclusions about civilian experience in the twentieth century and what these might mean for military engagement and civil reconstruction processes once conflicts have been resolved 1 Introduction 1.1 What is P2P and How is it Related to the Commons? 1.2 Are P2P Technologies Good or Bad? 1.3 How Does P2P Relate to Capitalism? 1.4 How is P2P to be Implemented in Practice? 1.5 Towards a Commons-centric Society? 2 P2P and a New Ecosystem of Value Creation 2.1 Diverse Skills and Motivations 2.2 Transparent Heterarchy 2.3 A New Ecosystem of Value Creation 2.4 Four Short Case Studies 2.5 From Contradictions to an Integrated Economic Reality 3 P2P and New Socio-technological Frameworks 3.1 Two Generic Models 3.2 The Extractive Model of Cognitive Capitalism 3.3 The Generative Model of Commons-based Peer Production 4 P2P and the Structure of World History 4.1 Four Modes of Exchange 4.2 Towards Associationism 5 A Commons Transition Strategy 5.1 Pooling and Mutualizing Resources Wherever Possible 5.2 Introducing Reciprocity 5.3 From Redistribution to Empowerment and Predistribution 5.4 Subordinating the Capitalist Market 5.5 Organizing at the Local and Global Level 5.6 Summary of our Proposals 5.7 A Last Word Acknowledgments References Endnotes Index