Hannes Gerhardt Geography

Interesting read on the proleterianization of academic labor. Consider: "Even before the pandemic, graduate students were six times more likely to experience depression and anxiety than the rest of the population, under conditions of work in which isolation, competition, obligatory professional conformity, and minimal job prospects constitute the norm."

Introduction: Notes on Contemporary University Struggles - Viewpoint Magazine In the last two years, renewed militancy in university struggles has led to both victories and defeats at campuses across the country and beyond. Against the backdrop of continuing academic proletarianization, ever rising student debt, and expanded campus policing, students and workers have nonethel...

Water filled, abandoned coal mines as a "natural" source of geothermal energy. Smart thinking. Who knew that a quarter of UK homes sit on abandoned mines?

How flooded coal mines could heat homes A quarter of the UK's homes sit above abandoned coal mines, long since flooded with water. Now, the mines are being put to a new, zero-carbon use.

Here's a nice, simple summary of what capitalism is from a libertarian municipalism perspective. One issue with these anarcho type approaches, however, is that the state is seen as a non-reflective servant of capital. If that is the case, then any state engagement would seem futile. Only revolution then? Not many who will want to be counted in on that.

Capitalism: an introduction libcom.org's brief introduction to capitalism and how it works.

The Next Systems Project explores alternatives for a different, more just and sustainable economic arrangement. Here are three papers they offer that are particularly focused on the commons.

As per their page:

"Individually and collectively, these papers challenge the deadly notion that nothing can be done – disputing that capitalism as we know it is the best and, in any case, the only possible option."

New Systems: Possibilities and Proposals Truly addressing the problems of the twenty-first century requires going beyond business as usual – it requires “changing the system.” But what does this mean? And what would it entail?

Complimentary currencies have long been used to support local, alternative economies. But could crypto technology help them create an expansive parallel economy, that offers a guaranteed income to boot? Circles is exploring the possibilities.

Circles UBI – A basic income system for communities The value and the use of the basic income that you can have with Circles depends on the community, which uses it. In the beginning it might be rather an act of solidarity, later, if it becomes stronger, you can have with Circles a strong, living alternative economy, which gives more stability for th...

Could an intentional, values-based economy be coded using blockchain based smart contracts. Tere Vadén of the Economic Space Agency claims that this is the way to a post-capitalist economy, i.e. to create environments for economic interaction that “… encode incentive mechanisms and choose specific valuation metrics of non-monetary assemblages (from relationality, trust, and quality to land, labour, and material goods) in smart contracts.” Learn more here:

Economic Space Agency - ECSA - A new economic grammar Open sourcing economy towards a common design space. The promise of distributed computation unlocked by new implementations of economy.

One of the biggest hurdles to achieving commons-based governance over our natural resources, as per Eleonor Ostrom, is actually gaining control of these resources to begin with. Consider agriculture and how hard it is to gain access to land. There are very impressive efforts underway to address this challenge, however. The U.S. based Agrarian Trust, for example, seeks to support “sustainable agriculture and preserve its affordability for new and disadvantaged farmers” by buying up land and managing it using commons-based principles. The Trust currently presides over 11 agrarian commons across the country, with each holding up to 12 farms. Check it out:

Agrarian Trust Agrarian Trust’s mission is to support land access for the next generation of farmers.

Clearly, a shift in how we do energy is an absolute must in terms maintaining a planet that is hospitable to human habitation. Renewable energy is certainly a bit part of the equation. But shouldn't we be looking to de-centralize production as well? The future of energy will not be about centralized producers but about micro-grids where consumers and producers merge to become energy prosumers. Here's a little bit more about microgrids.

Smart Microgrids: The Future of Sustainable Power Fueled by renewable resources and controlled by smart algorithms, microgrids stand to overhaul how we produce, consume—and share—energy.

How long will it take before economists, and then politicians, start to seriously rethink our current monetary thinking? Monetary reform activism is starting to take off, rooted in the premise that only if we change who gets to create and give out money (currently banks) will we be able to address income inequality and environmental collapse. In many ways, it all comes down to money. Here are the links to two of the leading organizations leading this charge in the US and UK.
https://www.monetaryalliance.org/
https://positivemoney.org/

Positive Money Join our campaign for a fair, democratic and sustainable money system.

What would a transition look like out of the current late-capitalist status quo if the answer isn't state-centered socialism. This is a question that deserves much more attention, especially in geography. The P2P Foundation has offered significant work to help answer this question, and although their analyses may sometimes be too optimistic or lack some critical analyses, they are a very helpful contribution. Here is just one page introducing their work.

In the book I am working on , which challenges us to think through a post-capitalist future, I rely quite a bit on the foundational work of the P2P Foundation. From here on out, I will be posting regularly about commons-transition ideas, especially where links to geography are most salient.

Commons Transition: The Book - Commons Transition Commons Transition: Policy Proposals for an Open Knowledge Society. Free e-book with material by Michel Bauwens, John Restakis, George Dafermos and more.

A second podcast interview! Check it out.

Hannes Gerhardt – The Postcapitalism Podcast Our music is taken from the song “Pourquoi je pas?”, and is kindly provided by Chocolat Billy, a band based in Bordeaux, France. To find out more about them, visit their pages on Bandcamp, Facebook and the Free Music Archive. ABOUT OUR GUEST Hannes Gerhardt is a professor of human geography ...

Check out my most recent interview with the Blockchain Socialist.

Avoiding co-optation of the commons under capitalism For this interview I sat down with Hannes Gerhardt, professor of Human Geography at the University of West Georgia and author of a recent piece in ROAR Magazine titled, Blockchains: Build…