Rift

"Alternative Economics, Alternative Societies" by Oliver Ressler / e-flux "Alternative Economics, Alternative Societies" Wyspa Institute of Art (Ed.), English/Polish, 240 pp., 2007

Nice overview on service>product and more.

Everything is a service « Dachis Group Collaboratory The emerging service economy will require some fundamental restructuring of business and society. The organizations that got us to this point have bee

There's No Place Like Here: Liberty Tool H.G. "Skip" Brack salvages tools from all over New England to resell at affordable prices, in an effort to support his local economy and craftsmen. Read the full Etsy blog post: http://etsy.me/libertytool

Also, the Guggenheim Lab has a couple of relevant events on Wednesday. http://www.bmwguggenheimlab.org/whats-happening/calendar/event/film-screening-end-of-suburbia-?instance_id=165

Feedback 10: The Nonconsuming Self | BMW Guggenheim Lab As consumers, we move through the world in a very particular manner. Our habits of consumption shape our cities, our bodies, and our thoughts. Is it possible to map new habits and ways of being in the city? How can sensing our environment activate nonconsumer patterns? What are the bodily and enviro...

Juliet Schor discusses several ideas we are working on at RIFT. She'll be speaking Friday and Jason and I will be there to listen. Join us: http://www.bmwguggenheimlab.org/whats-happening/calendar/event/juliet-schor?instance_id=489

Video: New Dream Mini-Views: Visualizing a Plenitude Economy | Juliet Schor This fun animation provides a vision of what a post-consumer society could look like, with people working fewer hours and pursuing re-skilling, homesteading, and small-scale enterprises that can help reduce the overall size and impact of the consumer economy.

In Greece, Barter Networks Surge Greeks squeezed by wage cuts, tax increases and growing fears about the euro have looked for creative ways to cope with a radically changing economic landscape.

Shareable: From Mass Consumerism to Mass Change: Hope for Sustainable Consumption A global culture of consumerism has firmly taken hold – the average British woman buys half her body weight in clothing every year; a typical American purchases more stuff every day than an average American weighs; more than 30 million tons of food was dumped in landfills in the US in 2009; and the ...

Issue no. 27 "Alternative Economies" / e-flux We can now say with some certainty that one advantage of the Cold War was that it placed many of the complexities and contradictions of economic problems within a clear and singular binary between capitalism and communism. On top of that, arguments in favor of one or the other had massive geopolitic...

A Chance to Reshape the Economy - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com Is this dragged-out downturn an opportunity to make the U.S. economy stronger, or to rethink American work life?

That troubling word, "consumer" The next social and industrial order has more to do with abundance and trust than with scarcity and stickiness. The key assets are trusted relationships.