Publications by: Guest content
Commoning governance: a shift in the value regime
Article / 24th March 2017Today, a new value regime is being born, one that is not based on surplus value created in the market through capital and labour, but through contributions that are recognized as such by ‘sovereign value communities’. The question is: how can we, ourselves, create and control the surplus value that we create through our work, and reinvest it in autonomous peer production communities?
Social justice for the sustainability of life: on the need for a global social pact
Article / 24th March 2017We now need transformative policies able to open a new horizon, without poverty, with less inequality, without destroying our natural environment. Our new situation requires an urgent reflection on power relations and concrete alternatives, central to which is the reconceptualisation of social protection in terms of commons.
The five poverties of inequality
Article / 22nd March 2017Despite billions spent in official aid to fight poverty, the number of poor people in the world is not diminishing. And Latin America remains the most unequal region in the world, writes Carlos March for openDemocracy.
Record-breaking climate change pushes world into ‘uncharted territory’
Article / 21st March 2017The record-breaking heat that made 2016 the hottest year ever recorded has continued into 2017, pushing the world into “truly uncharted territory”, according to the World Meteorological Organisation.
The decoupling delusion: rethinking growth and sustainability
Article / 21st March 2017Most economic policy around the world is driven by the goal of maximising economic growth, but if you think we have limitless solar energy to fuel limitless clean, green growth—think again. Rather than fighting and exploiting the environment, we need to recognise alternative measures of progress for a sustainable future in which equity considerations are primary. A co-authored case for a new economics, by James Ward, Keri Chiveralls, Lorenzo Fioramonti, Paul Sutton and Robert Costanza.
Women rights without borders: Combatting inequalities within and among countries is key to women’s empowerment
Report / 16th March 2017Women’s rights advocates have for years pointed out the negative impacts of inequalities on women’s human rights, on economies and on societies. Many organisations are not only analysing the cross-border impacts of domestic policy, but also showing the universality of human rights - to ensure that women’s rights know no borders. A new report by Barbara Adams and Karen Judd of Global Policy Watch.
World faces largest humanitarian crisis since 1945 as 20 million across four countries face starvation – UN aid chief
Article / 16th March 2017Just back from Kenya, Yemen, South Sudan and Somalia – countries are facing or are at risk of famine – the top United Nations humanitarian official today urged the international community for comprehensive action to save people from simply “starving to death.”
Basic income isn’t just a nice idea. It’s a birthright
Article / 8th March 2017With the rise of robots, the old promise of jobs as the salvation of the poor now looks hollow. The most hopeful response is a universal basic income which, if extended across borders through a global system of redistributive taxation, could instil a new sense of solidarity: that the earth’s natural bounty belongs to us all, writes Jason Hickel.
Has America become too generous?
Blog / 7th March 2017The Trump White House is framing foreign aid as a devastating drain on America’s treasure. But foreign aid isn’t killing the American dream — inequality is, writes Sam Pizzigati for the Too Much newsletter.
The inconvenient truth about foreign aid
Article / 4th March 2017Poorer countries routinely put more resources at the disposal of donor country interests than they receive in foreign aid—but it doesn't have to be this way. The idea of implementing a system of global taxation is gaining ground, and may open up a pathway towards an authentic system of redistribution across national borders, writes David Sogge for Open Democracy.