Alternative Economies In An Age Of Failed Capitalism
One of our skills exchange members has decided to take the bull by the horns and start an open discussion on alternative economies in Dublin on Saturday 10th December. If you’re interested, curious, intrigued get in touch.
We’re living in extraordinary times – and the only safe prediction we can make is that things are set a whole lot stranger!
The governing and finance institutions that regulate our lives have exposed deep cracks at their very foundations; their collapse would throw much of how things are done upside down.
So what can we do about it?
Should we just hunker down, brace for impact and hope for the best?
Heck no!
Or at least, there’s more to it than that: we can start building today new institutions and communities that will give us control of our own lives – and hold things together as the old ones fall apart.
This chaos and turbulence we are experiencing also makes the ground fantastically fertile to new ideas – new ideas which are popping up and spreading all over the world!
What are some examples of this?
Here’s a sample:
Time Bank – where people provide each other directly with the services they need, in the form of their time. Popular for decades in the US and UK, clusters of schools are the best examples of implementation here in Ireland.
Local currency – “the atms have stopped working?!” no problem, we’ll make our own money
Mobile phone companies are a more popular source of currency than banks in Africa.
When we try it here, why it could work well with a Time Bank…
Tool Library – borrow tools when you need them instead of buying (and storing and maintaining and…)
Crowfunding – use petty cash to fund the products and content and culture you want to see created.
Hackerspace – Ireland has a network of amazing hackerspaces, with members tinkering and toying with projects on the bounds of imagination.
FabLab – make anything!
Worker co-ops – fire your boss and keep the profits
These are just a few of the successful solutions to local problems that are developed every day.
The more interesting and important aspect is how these solutions are knitted into the social fabric, how they form an ecosystem of independent but interlinked communities.
For me, the timebank will be fundamental to any new economy.
Its like a washing machine that we throw our messy lives and resources into, then jumble em round till clean, resilient communities come out.
That is why I’d like to invite anyone who’s interest has been sparked to come to a meetup to discuss things further.
We’ll have it in a nice Dublin location (open to suggestions for it!) with a proposed date of Saturday 10th December.
The agenda will be for people to discuss ideas relevant to a new economy in Ireland – then layout how they can be applied here.
Hopefully we’ll also set up a working group to really get things rolling!
In the meantime, if anyone on facebook would like to kick-off a discussion and start bouncing ideas, there’s a facebook group you can join here.
You can also email me for any related matters.
Looking forward to working with you, and until we meet: There Is Only Alternatives!
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The meeting’s at 2pm in Dakota Bar on South William Street
There’ll also be a conversation with Occupy Dame Street at some point during the day!