Theater und Museumsflatrate in Thüringen

„Sich trotz Finanzkrise Kultur zu erschwinglichen Preisen leisten… und dazu Freiheit in der Auswahl.“ Klingt gut. Oder? Kommt direkt aus der thüringischen Provinz. Gute Ideen gibt’s immer um die Ecke.

Gestern sah ich mir die Deutsche Uraufführung der Oper „Wallenstein“ (1937) von Jaromír Weinberger im Großen Haus in Gera an. Dort gräbt man aus, was dem Vergessen anheim zu fallen droht. Wieder daheim, schaute ich bei youtube nach, ob es Hinweise auf den bemerkenswerten Opernabend gibt. Gibt es. Und bei der Gelegenheit stolpere ich über…

„Die Flatrate – erstmals bei Theater&Philharmonie Thüringen Anfang 2007 eingeführt, …  hat sich für Zuschauer wie Theaterleute bewährt. Zur Spielzeit 2009/2010 unterbreitet das Theater diese Offerte nicht nur in Gera, sondern auch in Altenburg. …Mit der Flatrate-Karte für 88,88 Euro kann man sämtliche Vorstellungen und Konzerte einer Spielzeit in den kleinen Spielstätten besuchen. Dazu gehören auch die Premieren, ausgenommen sind nur Gastspiele und Sonderveranstaltungen. Wer die ca. 200 Vorstellungen in einer Spielzeit besucht, hat letztlich 44 Cent pro Vorstellung ausgegeben.„

Ok, ok – cool bleiben. Ausser Vorstellungen besuchen muss man noch essen, schlafen, in die Schule gehen, zur Uni, in die Fabrik oder ins Büro.

Doch selbst für Nicht-GeraerInnen wie mich ist das schon attraktiv, denn Flatrate-Karten-Besitzer dürfen ihren „Joker“ neuerdings auch für Museen nutzen, das Otto-Dix-Geburtshaus zum Beispiel. Ganz großartig. Die thüringische Kulturflatrate im Video:

Trotz aller Begeisterung für den Ansatz, gibt’s dann doch noch ein paar Fragen und einen Vorschlag:

Opening Speech: World Commons Forum/port.

Nachdem meine kleine Eröffnungsrede zum World Commons Forum II (Salzburg) soviel Aufmerksamkeit erfahren hat und hier von „Shareable“ nochmal editiert und bebildert wurde, gibt’s nun auch eine etwas ausführlichere portugiesische Variante.

Bens Comuns: o novo conto do século XXI. Zum pdf. Diese enstpricht der deutschen Fassung, die in der letzten Contraste publiziert. Am besten hier nachzulesen.

Von Mackerschaften und gemeinen Mackern

Mit einer Kollegin überlegte ich gerade, wer die „Vielköpfige Hydra“ von Peter Linebaugh und Markus Rediker rezensieren könnte, die u.a. die Geschichte der „Piraterie“ in ein neues Licht rückt, da schrieb sie:

“Übrigens gab es bei uns in Pommern im 19. Jahrhundert (wahrscheinlich auch schon früher) ein Allmende-Modell aus der Seefahrt: die „Mackerschaften“ der Zeesboote im Stettiner Haff und im Greifswalder Bodden, das waren eigentlich kleine Genossenschaften. Auf diesen Booten gab es keine Kapitäne, sondern nur gleichberechtigte ‘Macker’.“

Ab ins Internet. Dort stelle ich zunächst fest: die Mackerschaften haben es noch nicht bis in die Wikipedia geschafft!

Ich frage mich, was das Wort Macker eigentlich bedeutet. Man ahnt es schon: …

Eine Bankpublikation über Gemeingüter?

doch, auch das gibt es. Und zwar hier. Die GLS-Bank hat die neueste Ausgabe ihres Bankspiegels den Gemeingütern gewidmet – an 60000 Kunden verschickt und großzügig in den ICEs ausgelegt.  Statt zu referieren, was im Schwerpunkt steht („rasche“ Einführung ins Thema, die die sozialen, natürlichen und kulturellen Commons berücksichtigt) will ich den Anlass nutzen, etwas zur GLS Bank, zur GLS Treuhand, zu Geld/Krediten und den Gemeingütern zu sagen.

Gemeingüter brauchen Kredite und Kredite brauchen Vertrauen

Klar ist: Gemeingüter sind nicht durch Geld ersetzbar. Klar ist aber auch:  Geld kann helfen, die Sphäre der Gemeingüter auszuweiten und gegenüber dem Markt zu behaupten. Wenn Geld für gemeinwohlorientierte Projekte knapp ist, aber Vertrauen reichlich vorhanden, dann finden die GLS-Kreditberater offenbar eher eine Lösung als andere Kreditinstitute….

Dieter Bohlen über Filesharing

Was es alles gibt: Johannes B. Kerner provoziert ein bisschen mit der Rede  vom „Geistigen Eigentum“, das irgendwie geschützt werden muss und Bohlen erwidert: „Gebt die Musik frei! Du kannst doch den Leuten nicht sagen: ‘Hier ist ein Hammer, aber hau den Nagel nicht in die Wand.‘! Das ist gut zwei Jahre alt …. Unterhaltsam Treffendes zu Weihnachten also, und ansonsten allen Leserinnen und Lesern ein Schönes Fest! (vía)

Die zwölf besten Commonsbücher des Jahres

… sind hier und hier aufgelistet. Das mit den „besten Büchern“ ist natürlich immer subjektiv. Ihr könnt in den Kommentaren hinzufügen, was EUCH fehlt. Bin gespannt, wann wir es hinkriegen, die zwölf besten deutschprachigen Commonsbücher des Jahres zu listen . Es gibt tatsächlich eine ganze Menge.

Was ich schon jetzt versprechen kann ist, dass shareable.net die Liste internationaler und multimedialer machen wird.

Autoren und Titel/ 2009

• The Age of Empathy: Nature‘s Lessons for a Kinder Society, by Frans de Waal (Harmony Books):
• Why We Cooperate, by Michael Tomasello (Boston Review Books)
• A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster, by Rebecca Solnit (Viking)
• Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet, by Jeffrey D. Sachs (Penguin)
• Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less are the Keys to Sustainability, by David Owen (Riverhead)
• Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take It Back, by Douglas Rushkoff (Random House)
• Viral Spiral: How the Commoners Built a Digital Republic of Their Own, by David Bollier (New Press)
• Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation, by Tim Brown (Harper Business)
• Consequential Strangers: The Power of People Who Don\\\‘t Seem to Matter. . . But Really Do, by Melinda Blau & Karen L. Fingerman
  
• Makers, by Cory Doctorow (Tor Books)
• Manhood for Amateurs, by Michael Chabon (Harper) and Bad Mother, by Aeylet Waldman (Doubleday)
• The Sharing Solution: How to Save Money, Simplify Your Life & Build Community, by Janelle Orsi and Emily Doskow (Nolo)

12 Best Commons Books of 2009

von OnTheCommons.org — Everything

The Age of Empathy: Nature\\\‘s Lessons for a Kinder Society, by Frans de Waal (Harmony Books): We often fancy that chimps and other nonhuman primates live in a state of constant competition and violence—an image, we fear, that also applies to human beings. In The Age of Empathy, leading primatologist Frans de Waal draws on decades of research to reveal that evolution has bequeathed capacities for empathy, compassion, and sharing to all primates, humans included. The really hard question: What conditions allow goodness to flourish? The Age of Empathy doesn’t attempt to design a human utopia, but it does suggest that attempts to build a more shareable society are necessary and natural. “In fact,” Dr. de Waal writes, “I’d argue that biology constitutes our greatest hope. One can only shudder at the thought that the humaneness of our societies would depend on the whims of politics, culture or religion.”

Why We Cooperate, by Michael Tomasello (Boston Review Books): Tomasello, co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, studied the cooperative behavior of one-year-old children—and compared it to that of apes. The results, which build on decades of similar studies, show that even preverbal children have a natural inclination to share and help others, much more so than nonhuman primates (this doesn’t contradict de Waal’s argument in The Age of Empathy; it just means our cooperative behavior is more evolved). Remarkably, Tomasello includes critiques of his argument by four other leading scientists, many of whom debate his interpretations of the facts—thereby embedding his cooperative values in the book itself. Why We Cooperate is a scientific treatise, and it might be a trifle dry for some tastes—but its data and arguments are critical to our understanding of ourselves as species. (Folks interested in the science of human empathy and cooperation might also read Born to Be Good, by my former Greater Good colleague Dacher Keltner, which was published in January 2009.)

A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster, by Rebecca Solnit (Viking): We often imagine that in a disaster, it’s every one for him- or herself. This is the image we’ve seen in countless movies about earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, terrorist attacks, and fires. But research has found that this is the opposite of the truth: in the midst of disaster, people are more likely to pull together and share resources in order to survive. In A Paradise Built in Hell, National Book Award-winner Rebecca Solnit roams from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake to 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina, and beyond, in order to reveal the altruism, cooperation, and mutual aid that spontaneously emerge when we face collective threats. “The recovery of this purpose and closeness without crisis or pressure�—without disaster�“is the great contemporary task of being human,” she concludes.

Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet, by Jeffrey D. Sachs (Penguin): Sachs is a complicated figure. He’s a neoliberal technocrat and the architect of some of the last century’s biggest economic disasters—but in the twenty-first century he’s become a leading advocate of global wealth sharing, arguing that targeted aid could eradicate extreme poverty in two decades. In Common Wealth, Sachs takes his ideas one step further and proposes planet-wide sharing as a solution to global warming, population pressures, poverty, and other problems. Sachs has a tendency to write from the Ivory Tower—he’s one of those would-be philosopher kings who are forever designing utopias—but we appreciate his thoughtfully empirical approach, and his chastened ideas should be considered by anyone who wants to build a more compassionate world.

Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less are the Keys to Sustainability, by David Owen (Riverhead): In Green Metropolis, New Yorker writer David Owen convincingly argues that the best thing any of us can do for the environment is to encourage the growth of livable, shareable cities, the ultimate in human habitats. Owen starts by pointing out that Manhattan residents have the smallest carbon footprints in the country. \“The city’s efficiencies, like the efficiencies of all dense urban cores, are built into the fabric of the place, and they don’t depend on an unprecedented commitment to sacrifice and compliance by environmentally concerned citizens,\” says Owen in our Shareable.net Q&A. This is not a perfect book—its chapters feel like a string of magazine articles—but its case for urbanism as a path to a more sharing, sustainable society is one that Americans need to hear.

Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take It Back, by Douglas Rushkoff (Random House):Rushkoff tackles a big and loaded subject—the rise and power of corporations in our lives—in a fascinating, at times humorous, and always erudite way. While Rushkoff is sometimes guilty of becoming shrill and overreaching, this is one of those books that makes you think about mainstream ideas we never stop to question: Why do we equate productivity with busyness? Why do we have the money system that we do? Why do corporate rights so often trump human rights? You won’t always agree with Rushkoff, but you might find yourself benefitting from the arguments he inspires in your head.

Viral Spiral: How the Commoners Built a Digital Republic of Their Own, by David Bollier (New Press): In Viral Spiral, Bollier makes an argument that is central to our work here at Shareable.net: That the rise of open source software, social media, and peer-to-peer swapping are creating the model for a new kind of culture and economy based on sharing. \“A world organized around centralized control, strict intellectual property rights, and hierarchies of credentialed experts is under siege,\” writes Bollier (who edits our allied site, On the Commons). \“A radically different order of society based on open access, decentralized creativity, collaborative intelligence, and cheap and easy sharing is ascendant.\” At root, Viral Spiral is a history book, but it\\\‘s also a call to arms, asking us to apply Internet principles of sharing to all spheres of life. Read this one along with Cory Doctorow\\\‘s novel Makers!
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Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation, by Tim Brown (Harper Business): While the book teeters on over-promoting the organization that Brown leads, IDEO, he does a great job at articulating the critical role of “design thinking” in turning “What if?” and “How might we?” into “What we can do is…” Design, Brown reminds us, is a valuable tool we can use to identify and create shared solutions that fulfill our consumer whims and desires in ways that help us to share, not hoard, our stuff. This goes for the process as well as the products. \“A process fed by design thinking will feel chaotic to those experiencing it for the first time,\” Brown writes. But \“the linear, milestone-based processes\” that define traditional business practices, he argues, result in products that are boring, easy to copy, and ultimately unsustainable. \“It is better to take an experimental approach: share processes, encourage the collective ownership of ideas, and enable teams to learn from one another.\”

Consequential Strangers: The Power of People Who Don\\\‘t Seem to Matter. . . But Really Do, by Melinda Blau and Karen L. Fingerman (WW Norton): This is a “big idea” book about a beautiful and simple notion: that we should look beyond our “primary relationships” (friends, family) to casual acquaintances in order to gauge the quality and meaning of our lives. It’s our baristas and bartenders, doctors and hairdressers, basketball buddies and Facebook friends “who bring novelty and information into our lives, allow us to exercise different parts of ourselves, and open us up to new opportunities.” The authors combine social theories such as Mark Granovetter’s “The Strength of Weak Ties” and Marilyn Brewer\\\‘s idea of “optimal distinctiveness” with accessible stories and anecdotes to get across some wonderful ideas around how important people on the peripheries of our lives can be to our personal satisfaction and well being.

Makers, by Cory Doctorow (Tor Books): Makers is the only novel on this list, and make no mistake: It is a novel, meaning that it has complicated characters, vivid settings, and a compelling plot. But, like all good science fiction, it\\\‘s also a novel of ideas: Doctorow takes today\\\‘s mashable, DIY, Internet-based culture and extrapolates it into the future, imagining the social and economic impact of a device that can mash-up physical objects the same way we now mash-up video on YouTube. The result is a snapshot of the shareable future, both a warning and a promise.

Manhood for Amateurs, by Michael Chabon (Harper) and Bad Mother, by Aeylet Waldman (Doubleday): These two separate books, written by two separate and very successful authors who happen to be married, portray shared parenting in all its contradictory glory. Neither Chabon (best know for his Pulitzer-winning novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay) nor Waldman (author of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, coming soon to a theater near you) are propagandists. They’re writers, and that means they write gracefully and honestly about the pain of their lives as well as the joys, and about everything in between. Taken together, these two books might provide emotional support, inspiration, and meaning to couples trying to share parenting in the twenty-first century. \“Lucky me that I should be permitted the luxury of choosing to find the intimacy inherent in this work that is thrust upon so many women,\” Chabon writes, speaking for many fathers with equal parts of satisfaction and resentment. \“Lucky me.\”

The Sharing Solution: How to Save Money, Simplify Your Life & Build Community, by Janelle Orsi and Emily Doskow (Nolo): When I met for the first time with Free Range Studios, which designed Shareable.net, a copy of The Sharing Solution sat on the conference table. I took it home, read it, and discovered the blueprint we need for living shareable lives. From housing to gardening to bike repair to childcare to petcare, attorneys Orsi and Doskow (now both Shareable.net columnists) explain how to break down the real and imagined barriers that keep us from sharing our stuff and our lives. The results: more community, lower costs, and reduced impact on the environment. Just browsing through The Sharing Solution will open your eyes to a whole new way of life. And if more people read this book, which I hope more people will do, we’ll live in a better world.

Thanks to Rachel Botsman, Neal Gorenflo, Michel Bauwens, and Silke Helfrich for their suggestions for this piece.

Shareable.net is a lively new website that explores the almost limitless possibilities of sharing to enhance our lives, restore the environment, save money and build community.

So, und jetzt bestelle ich eins davon für den Weihnachtsmann….

Commons und ein neuer Multilateralismus

Neue Überzeugungen für eine neue multilaterale Praxis

„Die Wiederbelebung der unter Druck geratenen Gemeingüter wird als Quelle partizipativer Governance und nicht-geldvermittelter Wertschöpfung entscheidend sein, damit öffentliche und private Akteure wieder Wege aus der gegenwärtigen globalen Wirtschafts-, Energie- und Umweltkrise finden.“

In diesem KOSMOS-Artikel beschreibt James Quilligan (s)eine Vision. Quilligan ist internationaler Commonsaktivist, ehemaliger Berater Olof Palmes, Julius Nyereres, Willi Brandts und anderer; derzeit mit Kolleginnen und Kollegen damit beschäftigt, den Commons in UN-Kreisen Gehör zu verschaffen.

Unter Commons (Gemeingütern) versteht Quilligan „nicht privateigentumsfähige Ressourcensysteme, die voll zugänglich bleiben müssen und oft in lokalen Traditionen verwaltet werden“. Aus dem Paradigma der Commons, so die zentrale These, müsse sich ein neuer Multilateralismus entwickeln. Denn, so formuliert David Bollier die Blickrichtung:

„Wenn sich die Idee der Commons nicht auf auf allen Ebenen verwurzelt, ist zu fragen, welche Konsequenzen das für unser Verständnis vom Staat, multilateralen Institutionen und Politikentwürfen hat?“

In der Tat trägt die Commonsdebatte eine Redefinition des Staates und des Multilateralismus im Schlepptau.

Fortalecer los bienes comunes. ¡Ahora!

Das Gemeingütermanifest „Gemeingüter stärken. Jetzt!“ des Interdisziplinären Salons „Zeit für Allmende“ der Heinrich Böll Stiftung gibt es nun auch auf spanisch. Hier als pdf.

English version: Strenghten the Commons. Now!

“Los bienes comunes son espacios institucionales en los que estamos libres de las restricciones impuestas por los requerimientos de los mercados.”
Yochai Benkler

De cómo la crisis hace visible la red de nuestros bienes comunes

La explosión en el avance del conocimiento, la tecnología y la productividad posibilitó un acrecentamiento sin precedentes de la riqueza privada durante los dos últimos siglos. No obstante que ello mejoró nuestra calidad de vida en muchos sentidos, a la vez hemos permitido que las fuentes se agoten y la riqueza social merme. Las crisis, interrelacionadas de múltiples maneras, lo hacen evidente. La crisis de finanzas, de economía, de alimentación, de energía y de medios ecológicos de subsistencia. Las crisis han provocado que se incremente en las personas la conciencia por la existencia y la importancia de los bienes comunes. Los bienes comunes naturales son indispensables para nuestra supervivencia, los bienes comunes sociales aseguran la cohesion social y los bienes comunes culturales son requisito para nuestro desenvolvimiento individual. Es tiempo que enfoquemos nuestro entusiasmo y nuestra creatividad, nuestros medios y nuestros talentos en el acrecentamiento de la riqueza social. En aras de este objetivo tenemos que cambiar las estructuras en la política, la economía y la sociedad.

¡Más prosperidad social en vez de más producto interno bruto! Nos parece amenazante, cuando la curva de crecimiento se vence y el producto bruto interno disminuye. Pero las apariencias engañan. El producto bruto interno representa únicamente cifras productivas y flujos de dinero, sin importar que estén articulados con la producción de medios que necesitamos para vivir o con la destrucción de los mismos. Así, el producto interno bruto no registra la prosperidad social. De hecho, un decremento del producto interno bruto no necesariamente se articula con un decremento de la riqueza real de una sociedad. Comprender eso significa ampliar la perspectiva.

Los bienes comunes ofrecen salidas de la crisis, pero necesitan un apoyo sistemático. En nuestro idioma (alemán¹) ni siquiera existe un término poderoso para ellos . Estas palabras son nuestro aporte para darles una voz a los bienes comunes.

Qué son los bienes comunes y por qué son fundamentales

„Der Grund des Patentrechts“ 3/12: Neoinstitutionalismus

„Stellen Sie sich vor, Sie verwenden unheimlich viel Geld, Zeit und Investitionen auf eine Erfindung. Diese Erfindung wird irgendwann publik gemacht und nun kommt irgendjemand daher – aus Deutschland oder aus einem fernen Kontinent – eignet sich die Blaupause an und verwertet die betreffende Erfindung kommerziell. Was bedeutet das?…“ Heute also Folge 3 der Vorlesung von Dirk Löhr.

Hier geht es um:

• positive Externalitäten und die Trittbrettfahrerproblematik
• kurz um die Ursachen von Marktversagen („Nutzen und Kosten haben unterschiedliche personelle Anknüpfungspunkte„)
• vor allem aber um die Neoinstitutionalisten und die Konsequenzen  neoinstitutionellen Denkens für die Allmende

Commons Manifesto: Strenghten the Commons. Now!

This thesis paper (4 pages) was developed in collective authorship in the context of the Interdisciplinary political salons of the Heinrich Böll Foundation‘s, „Time for commons,“ 2008/2009.

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Strengthen the Commons. Now!

”Commons are institutional spaces in which we are free.” – Yochai Benkler

„Over the last two hundred years, the explosion of knowledge, technology, and productivity has enabled an unprecedented increase of private wealth. This has improved our quality of life in numerous ways. At the same time, however, we have permitted the depletion of resources and the dwindling of societal wealth. This is brought to our attention by current, interrelated crises in finance, the economy, nutrition, energy, and in the fundamental ecological systems of life.

These crises are sharpening our awareness of the existence and importance of the commons. Natural commons are necessary for our survival, social commons ensure social cohesion, and cultural commons enable us to evolve as individuals. It is imperative that we focus our personal creativity, talents and enthusiasm to protect and increase our social wealth and natural commons. This will required an eye on the goal to change some basic structures of politics, economics, and society.

More social prosperity instead of more gross domestic product!

When the economic growth curve drops and the GDP sinks, it seems threatening to us. Yet appearances deceive. The GDP merely maps production figures and monetary flows without regard for their ecological or social value; such numbers do not measure the things we truly need to live, they may simply count their destruction. Social prosperity cannot be measured through such means. A reduction in the GDP does not necessarily signal a reduction in the real wealth of a society. To recognize this fact widens our perspective and opens the door for new types of solutions.

The commons can help us overcome the crisis, but it requires systematic advocacy. This is our contribution to give the commons a voice.

What are the commons and why are they are significant? … to the complete „Manifesto“. (pdf)

Thanks to my colleagues Michelle Thorne and David Bollier for their help to translate this text thoughtfully into English.

Strengthen the Commons. Now!

”Commons are institutional spaces in which we are free.”

– Yochai Benkler