Michel Bauwens is the founderof the Foundation for Peer-to-Peer Alternatives and worksin collaboration with a globalgroup of researchers in theexploration of peer produc-tion, governance, and property.

He has co-produced the 3-hourTV documentary Technocalyps

with Frank eys, and co-edited thetwo-volume book on anthropology of dig-

ital society with Salvino Salvaggio. Michel is currently PrimaveraResearch Fellow at the University of Amsterdam and externalexpert at the Pontical Academy of Social Sciences (2008, 2012). Michel Bauwens is a member of the Board of the Union ofInternational Associations (Brussels), advisor to Shareable mag-azine (San Francisco), to Zumbara Time Bank (Istanbul) andShareLex; and scientic advisor to the Association Les Ren-contres du Mont-Blanc, Forum International des Dirigeantsde lEconomie Sociale et Solidaire (2013-). He functioned asthe Chair of the Technology/ICT working group, HangwaForum (Beijing, Sichuan), to develop economic policies forlong-term resilience, including through distributed manu-facturing. He writes editorials for Al Jazeera English, and islisted at #82, on the Post-Carbon Institute (En)Rich list.Michel currently lives in Chiang Mai, ailand, and isresearch director of the transition project towards thesocial knowledge economy, an ocial project in Ecuador(oksociety.org). He is a founding member of the Commons StrategiesGroup and has taught at Payap University and Dhu-rakij Pandit Universitys International College. In hisrst business career, Michel worked for USIA, BritishPetroleum, Riverland Publications, Belgacom, and cre-ated two internet start-ups.

T THE P2P FOUNDATION, WE DONT USE THEmoniker revolution with much fre-quency, preferring the concept of phasetransition.In this article, we would like to elucidate

the relation between the two concepts.In my experience, revolution is used in two quitedifferent senses; in a generic sense, it just means abig change, like for example when we speak aboutthe Industrial Revolution, this was a long anddrawn out process, with many aspects, and it wouldbe really difficult to identify it with one particular

event. Yet at the same time, there is clearly a timewhen industrial changes emerged in a mostlyagrarian context, and a time when it is the indus-trial processes and forms of organisation that aredominant, and the agrarian aspects subsumedunder that domination. Clearly, between thesetwo moments, a phase transition has occurred.Revolution is also used in a much more narrowfashion, which usually refers to a momentousseries of concrete events, in which the veryorganisation of power in society changed fun-damentally, leading to a wholesale replacementof human personnel, a new different balance ofpower between social classes, and the like. Para-digmatic examples would be the French andRussian revolutions.Both types of revolutions occur throughout histo-ry, but for many people, at least for those that livemore comfortably, the second notion is less attrac-tive. Indeed, it is most often associated with vio-lence, often directed against the very leaders of thefirst phases of such revolutions, and to boot, usuallyleads to counter-revolutions. The achievements ofsuch revolutions, their victories, are often also veryproblematic. Who can unproblematically affirm thatthe Napoleonic and Soviet regimes for example, werenecessarily better than what they replaced; or, thatthese radical social and political events produced betteroutcomes than the slower processes that led to similarphase transitions? An additional issue for the narrowermeaning of revolution is that for many people, even forthose who dislike the presently dominating regime oftheir time, is that it is not very clear most of the time,what form the new post-revolutionary regime shouldtake, especially if the negative aspects of other attemptsare quite clear.For this and other reasons, we prefer to talk at the P2PFoundation, about phase transition, stressing theprocess of change from one system to another, withoutnecessarily being able to predict how exactly thesechanges will occur, especially on the political andsocial level. But lets be clear, from the historicalrecord, it is pretty clear that such fundamentalchanges are usually associated with rather deep socialconvulsions. For example, if we take the deep shiftfrom the Roman system to the feudal system, it wascharacterised by military invasions from foreign

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tribes, which substantially changed the politicalleadership in post-roman regimes. for centuries,Europe was unstable. if we take the changes associ-ated with the reformation for example, we see simi-lar convulsions and religious civil wars; the changefrom the ancien regime to capitalism was similarlyfraught with deep political and social crises. So thereis no doubt that a similarly deep transition will beassociated with social convulsions, wars, and yes, polit-ical and social revolutions. The question is, what kindof forms these will take, and not that we can guaranteea cosy transition.however, just as the revolutions of feudalism differedfundamentally from the revolutions that created capi-talist societies, so the transition to a commons societywill take different forms.in what follows, i explain my view of what those differ-ences could be.first, what do we mean more precisely, when we talkabout a transition towards a post-capitalist, p2p-dri-ven, commons-oriented society?here are a few pointers.in the present dominant form of society and econom-ics, nature is considered to be an infinite resource andthe market externalises environmental concerns. it isbased on pseudo-abundance. at the same time, thepresent system attempts to systematically renderartificially scarce what is naturally abundant, suchas say agricultural processes, but more specifically,knowledge production. in p2p/commons process-es, the natural abundance of the immaterial com-mons such as knowledge, software and design,and technical and scientific knowledge, is recog-nized and shared and made available to allhumanity; and it is associated with changes inthe mode of production, that insure that pro-duction regenerates resources, maintaining eco-logical and resource stability for coming genera-tions and for the natural world and its beings,of which we are an integral part.in the present form, corporate entities competeagainst each other, but within these entities, col-laboration, though mostly hierarchically driven,occurs: cooperation is subsumed under competi-tion; in the new form, ethical entrepreneurialcoalitions co-create commons with contributoryproductive communities; and are interlinkedaround these commons through social chartersand open licenses; though they may compete with-in that sphere of collaboration. in other words,competition is subsumed under collaboration. Thevalue is created and deposited through commons,the economy creates livelihoods around these com-mons and their contributory communities, and the

market creates added value services and productsaround these commons.So what we see here in the nature of these changesare a series of qualitative reversals in terms of theoperating logic of the system.These phase transitions are inextricably linkedto changes in the nature of economic, socialand political power. how should we see thatrelationship ?The process of past phase transitions has beenthe following:1 ~ the existing dominant system increasingly

creates systemic crises that it no longer isable to solve;

2 ~ both managerial (ruling), and productiveclasses (the dominated producers of valuefor the managerial classes), look for solu-tions; they do this in varied, fragmented,and pragmatic ways, under the dominanceof the older structure; forming patterns ofresponse, or solutions. gradually, these pat-terns find themselves, and though they areused by the dominant system, they also repre-sent an alternative logic that is slowly buildingup and asserting itself. within the old para-digm a new prefigurative paradigm emerges,which is subsumed under the old logic at firstbut gradually gains strength;

3 ~ these changes in the modalities of productionand value creation and diffusion also create newsocial structures; an exodus occurs from the oldsystem towards the new system; roman slavehold-ers become feudal lords become merchants andindustrial capitalists; slaves become serfs becomelabour. when the tensions between the new and theold are no longer absorbed by the old system, socialand political convulsions occur, eventually leading torevolutions in the organization of society.

Today, we see this process clearly at works.The systemic crisis of global neoliberal capitalism isleading to 3 types of patterned responses:1 ~ sustainable production which takes into account

ecological limits:2 ~ solidarity economy and cooperative forms of

organisation which stress the need for social justicein terms of value distribution;

3 ~ commons oriented peer production and otherforms of sharing and openness which operativeagainst the enclosures, artificial scarcities and pri-vatisation of common knowledge.

These patterns are still fragmented, only exceptional-ly eco-systemic in their concrete practice, thoughthese alternative eco-systems are definitely emerging

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and strengthening. what is specifically emerging isa new proto-mode of production in which contrib-utory communities create common knowledge, inwhich entrepreneurial coalitions create added valueon top of the commons in the still capitalist market-place, and in which for-benefit associations createand maintain common infrastructures of cooperationand production.what needs to happen, and is starting to happen is thatthese productive communities, rather than be subject tothe logic of extractive value captation by netarchicalcapitalists (those in the old system which are investingin the new systems for their own benefit); create theirown ethical economic vehicles, which allow them to cre-ate livelihoods around their commons-creating activi-ties. This represents the necessary convergence, throughopen cooperativism, of economic forms which respectsocial justice (the solidarity economy and other forms),with peer production; and on the other hand the equal-ly necessary convergence with sustainability, throughfor example the open source circular economy.an important issue today is the relation between theprefigurative forms, i.e. individuals and communi-ties finding alternative systems of value creation thatrespond and solve the present systemic crisis, withpolitical and social change. The crisis today express-es itself because the traditional emancipatory forcesof the industrial society (left parties, unions andthe like), are still oriented towards the old para-digm of capital and labour; while the many pro-ductive communities have a strong distrust ofthese older political forms, and new forms arestill weak and emergent.Nevertheless, we see this necessary convergenceis also already happening:1 ~ new political forms are emerging from the

new digitally networked production prac-tices, such as the Pirate Parties and others;

2 ~ huge social mobilisations have taken place,using the models of peer production in theircreation of politics, which has substantiallyinfluenced the new political movementsthat have also grown from this, like Syrizain greece, and Podemos in Spain. Emblem-atic may be the city coalition in Barcelona,En comu, which won the elections, andwhich is the first political coalition to specif-ically refer to the commons in its new politi-cal ideology. other perhaps even more radi-cal forms are the civic coalitions that haveemerged in france (Saillant), and the uk(frome), in which allied civic groups directlyreplace the existing political machines.

These more political movements have emerged fromwhat were originally anti-political mobilisations but

have learned through experience that prefigurativeactions and protests cannot produce substantial vic-tories in the context of a hostile state; and that there-fore, the state itself has to be tackled and trans-formed. what is most likely in this evolution is thetransformation of the electoral democracies, inwhich elections have now themselves becomeenclosures of political power of the people by aprofessional political class that is operating in amarket state form that is dominated by privatefinancial interests that have made real and gradualchange impossible. New hybrid forms will com-bine elections, with associated forms of delibera-tive and participative democracy, but the politicalinitiative more directly in the hands of the citi-zenry, and use the partner state model, in whicha transformed state will create the necessary civicand technical infrastructures to enable andempower individual and collective autonomy; onthe political agenda is the development of public-commons partnerships and the commonificationof public services, such as for example the exampleof the Bologna regulation for the care of theurban commons.My personal belief is that, given the exodus fromlabour forms of work to those of networked andcommons-creating peer producers of the new pre-carious working class, a reconstruction of social andpolitical institutions is necessary, based no longer ofthe declining form of the salariat (which is itself alegal form of subordination), but on the commons. ihave elsewhere proposed to create at the local level,assemblies of the commons for civic actors andchambers of the commons for the new economicactors, to reconstitute institutions of commonfare thatcan recreate a powerful social force that will in turnreconfigure politics to create powerful coalitions for thecommon(s), such as En comu in Barcelona. TheBarcelona victory was indeed preceded by precisely sucha civic reconstruction by the post-15M activists, whichcreated new participatory forms in the social movementsand commons-creating productive communities.another important issue to be resolved in this specificphase transition is the relation between the local and theglobal. The big wave of relocalisation taking place today,through for example the groups reconfiguring the pro-vision of food and energy, is paradoxically itself facilitat-ed by the globally networked technology that is theinternet. But most of the time, these local communitiesare using global technology to strengthen local activity,and not necessarily to project global power.Today we have global formal civic associations, andthrough p2p, global open design communities. what ismissing is global ethical entrepreneurial forms that canoperate on a global scale and can form a counterpowerto private and extractive multinational corporations.

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The immediate limitations imposed on the greekSyriza party also shows the very strong limitations forlocal and national politics in terms of structuralchange. local and national movements are necessary,but not sufficient, and an orientation towards the globalcommons, through physical global institutions, will bevital, as is their political expression. lasindias.net hasproposed, and we support this vision, the creation ofphyles, global business eco-systems that sustain the com-mons and their communities, and the faircoop project isa first attempt at developing this.revolutions in the narrow sense are organic and oftendestructive events, out of the control of any particularsocial force. we can notice the tinder, but we cantknow which spark will set it alight. it would be unwiseto rejoice especially if the alternative social forces andproductive systems are still emerging.Big waves of social revolution have been unsuccessful,like for example the wave of 1848 in Europe, or thewave of 1968; and as for the successes, be careful whatyou wish for.Therefore today, what matters is the reconstruction ofprefigurative value-creating production systems first,to make peer production an autonomous and fullmode of production which can sustain itself and itscontributors; and the reconstruction of social andpolitical power which is associated and informedby this new social configuration. The organicevents will unfold with or without these forces,ready or not, but if were not ready, the humancost might be very steep.Therefore the motto should be: contribute to thephase transition first; and be ready for the com-ing sparks and organic events that will requirethe mobilization of all.

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