To Save the World, with P2P to a post-capitalist society

Book by Michel Bauwens, published in Belgium:

Save the world
With P2P towards a post-capitalist society

From the back cover:

Our present society is based on the absurd idea that material resources are abundant and immaterial ideas are scare. We behave as if the planet is infinite and exploit the earth in a way that endangers survival of the human species. On the other hand, we are building artificial walls around human knowledge to prevent and impede sharing as much as possible.

The peer-to-peer model of Wikipedia (knowledge), Linux (software) and Wikipspeed (design), inspired by open source, wants to turn this logic on its head. According to Michel Bauwens, the sharing economy, P2P-networks, open source, crowd sourcing, fablabs, micro-factories, hackerpsaces, the makers’ movement, urban agriculture… all new phenomena forming patterns that lead us towards a post-capitalist society, in which the market will be subsumed to the logic of the commons.

Just as feudalism developed within the womb of the Roman slave society and capitalism developed within feudalism, we are witnessing the embryo of a new form of society within capitalism.

In order to save the world, we need a relocalisation of production and an extension of global cooperation in the field of knowledge, code and design.

Additional information:

The book is based on a 12-hour interview by former journalist Jean Lievens with Michel Bauwens, and is divided into sis chapters: the Economy of P2P, The politics of P2P, P2P and spirituality, the Philosophy of P2¨, the P2P Foundation and a Biography of Michel Bauwens, who was the only Belgian elected on the Enriched List of the Post-Growth Institute, a list with the 100 most inspiring people (dead and alive) ever in relation to sustainability.