valley of the commons

via michel bauwens tweet [https://x.com/mbauwens/status/2085288835823358037?s=46]:

Join me here: [https://x.com/higrowfi/status/2084979653668737479] (also links to recording)

Join us this Friday August 7th at 3pm CET as we connect with @mbauwens of the p2p foundation to discuss cosmolocalism, peer production, and bioregional commoning in the age of planetary regeneration as we head into @VotC2026

notes/quotes from twitter podcast (arrived 20 min late):

m: how to we coord local and global

tech as nonjudgmental expo labeling

growfi: how have local add up to global where it starts compounding

the expo part of above allows a global leap.. we’re missing what tech could legit be used for

m: not like we can’t extract.. we need things.. we have to create whole new infra for this

need 1st/most: means (nonjudgmental expo labeling) to undo hierarchical listening – so we can hear what’s already on each heart as global detox in order to org around legit needs

spoke: @SterlinLujan – said governance is an unsolved problem

nothing yet has gotten to the root of problem

legit freedom will only happen if it’s all of us.. and in order to be all of us.. has to be sans any form of measuring, accounting, people telling other people what to do

the thing we’ve not yet tried/seen: the unconditional part of left to own devices ness

[‘in an undisturbed ecosystem ..the individual left to its own devices.. serves the whole’ –dana meadows]

others: @MycelFi @TigerWhitehead @Polis_Labs @mollymysliwiec @_ECVM_ @Ruskim @greenpillbrasil @jpalopcasado @claragromaches @growecosystems (at very end and even after michel left more joined who i didn’t get added on)

growfi: ‘the thing is are people willing to change behavior’

this is why we need means for a global detox leap.. otherwise we’ll keep perpetuating the same song.. the whac-a-mole-ing ness of sea world.. of not-us ness.. of part\ial ness..  perpetuating survival triage.. for (blank)’s sake..

spoke: @suzanne_polis – what can we measure, put on balance sheet.. but loses things that can’t be measured

so much deeper.. any form of measuring already comprises us, our legit needs, a cancerous distraction.. and so back to same song

michel: ‘need to look at concrete regen communites and see what tools they need.. need transform of strategy toward regen communites.. (rather than tools first)

we did concrete on the ground ness first to come up with a legit use of tech (nonjudgmental exponential labeling; tech as it could be; ai as augmenting interconnectedness

(@DanyelaRojo reposted the above)

we found that even talking/thinking ‘willing to change behavior’ compromises the conditions to org around legit needs

needs to be ie: whatever for a year.. a legit sabbatical ish transition

again.. otherwise we’ll keep perpetuating the same song.. the whac-a-mole-ing ness of sea world.. of not-us ness.. of part\ial ness..  perpetuating survival triage.. for (blank)’s sake..

on valley of commons via michel bauwens tweets ie [https://x.com/mbauwens/status/2085333599306297741?s=20]:

Remember to join us the week of August 23, the whole month of the Valley of the Commons is going to be a constitutive, ‘extitutional’, moment, but we start with the historical, ontological, epistemological basis of the current civilizational transition in the first week, with the extraordinary @adamerica70 author of the best book on the digital revolution that I have read so far, and myself:

* Return of the Commons. Aug 24 – Aug 30

https://valleyofthecommons.com

“To set the scene, we (i.e. @VotC2026 ) open with

< a five-day intensive led by Michel Bauwens and Adam Arvidsson — two of the most insightful and engaging contemporary thinkers on the commons. >

Expect a wide-ranging journey through history, economics, and social theory, peppered with anecdotes, examples, and hard-won insight. The week moves from grand narrative to grounded orientation: where commoning comes from, why it is resurfacing now, and what it asks of the people who practice it. Through lectures, guided discussion, and long conversations over shared meals, we build a common vocabulary for the weeks ahead — peer production, generative ownership, the partner state, post-capitalist transition. By Saturday you won’t just have heard the theory; you’ll have argued with it, tested it against your own work, and begun to read the valley itself as a live experiment in the ideas. This is the conceptual ground every later module builds on.”

notes/quotes from site:

15 collaborators include: adam arvidsson (https://x.com/adamerica70): Adam Arvidsson is Professor of Sociology of Cultural and Communicative Processes at the Università Federico II di Napoli. His research explores emerging forms of cooperation enabled by digital media and their economic and political potential, with a particular focus on the evolving relationship between capitalism and the commons.. and michel

Four weeks of commons-building in the Austrian Alps. Live, learn, and build together with practitioners, researchers, and community builders shaping life beyond extractive systems.

Aug 24 – Sep 20, 2026Höllental, Austrian Alpsfrom €120 / week

Four immersive modules

Each module builds on the last, taking you from theory to practice across the four pillars of a thriving commons.

1\ foundations – MODULE 01

Return of the Commons

to me.. haven’t had legit commons ness since that day.. so we keep ‘returning’ to same song..

Aug 24 – Aug 30

To set the scene, we open with a five-day intensive led by Michel Bauwens and Adam Arvidsson — two of the most insightful and engaging contemporary thinkers on the commons. Expect a wide-ranging journey through history, economics, and social theory, peppered with anecdotes, examples, and hard-won insight. The week moves from grand narrative to grounded orientation: where commoning comes from, why it is resurfacing now, and what it asks of the people who practice it. Through lectures, guided discussion, and long conversations over shared meals, we build a common vocabulary for the weeks ahead — peer production, generative ownership, the partner state, post-capitalist transition. By Saturday you won’t just have heard the theory; you’ll have argued with it, tested it against your own work, and begun to read the valley itself as a live experiment in the ideas. This is the conceptual ground every later module builds on.

‘insight ‘we need: quiet enough to hear what’s already on each heart

history ness is keeping us not us

2\ economics – MODULE 02

Local Production & Value Accounting

Aug 31 – Sep 6

In the second week we shift from macro-narrative to *mechanism: how a village economy could actually function day to day. Through theory sessions and hands-on workshops, participants explore how a global knowledge commons and local production capacity can together sustain a resilient local **economy. We dig into cosmo-local manufacturing — design global, produce local — and prototype it in the on-site fablab and atelier. Participants map real material flows, experiment with open-source machines, and confront the **hard question every commons economy must answer: how do you account for value that markets ignore? We work through contributory accounting, mutual credit, and complementary currencies not as abstractions but as tools you operate by hand. Expect to leave with a working intuition for designing an economic layer that rewards care, maintenance, and contribution rather than extraction — and a first draft of a ****ledger for the valley’s own emerging economy.

*mech we need 1st/most: means to undo our hierarchical listening to self/others/nature as global detox/re\set.. so we can org around legit needs

**econ we need: bachelard oikos law

cosmo local ness et al.. fablab ness et al.. need something via gershenfeld something else law.. ie: a sabbatical ish transition

***if still accounting ness.. still ignoring ness.. rather.. still cancerous distraction

****ledger we need: nonjudgmental expo labeling..

3\ design & living – MODULE 03

Future Living

Sep 7 – Sep 13

Week three turns toward how we might actually live together — architecturally, legally, ecologically, and socially. We explore cooperative housing concepts, survey the valley’s unused buildings, and read the land itself as a site for long-term habitation. Working alongside architects and land-as-commons practitioners, we walk the Höllental site and inventory what is already here: dormant villas, factory shells, water, forest, slope, and light. We sketch retrofit and co-housing scenarios, examine commons-compatible legal wrappers for holding land in trust, and weigh the ecological limits and potentials of the place. The week pairs design-studio energy with fieldwork boots — measuring, drawing, and arguing about thresholds, shared space, and privacy. The outcome is a set of concrete, sited proposals for permanent living in the valley, grounded enough to take to owners, planners, and future residents.

on the ground ness et al.. city sketchup ness et al..

4\ governance – MODULE 04

Governance & Funding Models

Sep 14 – Sep 20

The final week brings everything into the domain of stewardship: how we organize, decide, invest, and protect what we build together. We explore participatory governance frameworks, cooperative legal structures, and long-term investment models. Building on the economy of week two and the design proposals of week three, we move from sketches to a governable structure. We compare sociocratic and assembly-based decision-making, draft cooperative and foundation forms suited to multi-stakeholder stewardship, and design mechanisms for holding shared assets in trust across generations. We also confront funding head-on: blended capital, patient and recoverable finance, community ownership, and the trade-offs each carries for autonomy. The week — and the four weeks — closes by assembling the threads into one coherent proposal for the Valley of the Commons: a place, an economy, a way of living, and a way of deciding, ready to outlast the pop-up that seeded it.

cancerous distractions

The Return of the Commons

Across Europe and beyond, digital workers, post-corporate professionals, and remote-friendly entrepreneurs seek grounded, cooperative ways of living, beyond the isolation of the metropolis and the fragility of atomized nomadism.

This turn toward intentional communities is a structural process enabled by remote work, motivated by a longing for connection and nature, and driven by the need to hedge against rising volatility from climate shocks, fragile supply chains, precarious employment, and social or environmental degradation.

As corporate capitalism fails harder and harder, the urgent need for socio-technical systems, resilient enough to endure the coming decades, becomes apparent. The concepts are here, but we need real places, shared practices, and long-term structures to anchor them in daily life. This is why we build the Valley of the Commons.

aka; the dance via tech as it could be – augmenting interconnectedness

ie: imagine if we listen to the itch-in-8b-souls 1st thing everyday & use that data to connect us (tech as it could be.. ai as augmenting interconnectedness)

the thing we’ve not yet tried/seen: the unconditional part of left to own devices ness

[‘in an undisturbed ecosystem ..the individual left to its own devices.. serves the whole’ –dana meadows]

there’s a legit use of tech (nonjudgmental exponential labeling) to facil the seeming chaos of a global detox leap/dance

ie: whatever for a year.. a legit sabbatical ish transition

otherwise we’ll keep perpetuating the same song.. the whac-a-mole-ing ness of sea world.. of not-us ness.. of part\ial ness..  perpetuating survival triage.. for (blank)’s sake..

Venue: Commons Hub

As an experimental playground for regenerative systems design, the commons hub explores the liberatory potential of emerging technologies and social techniques that facilitate horizontal communities.

nothing to date (ever since that day) has gotten to the root of problem

legit freedom will only happen if it’s all of us.. and in order to be all of us.. has to be sans any form of measuring, accounting, people telling other people what to do

Drawing on years of experience in managing creative chaos, it provides the stability and freedom to let emerging communities bloom. Its facilities – versatile event spaces, a fablab, atelier, and outdoor gym – are complemented by self-organizing practices, gently guiding creative energy into productive flows.

In short, this village does not start from zero. It sprouts from a living, breathing center of the commons movement that offers an economic engine, a platform for entrepreneurship, and a beacon for metamodern thought and praxis.

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• commons\common\ing
  • commoner’s catalog
  • common on rev in 21
  • commoning city
  • commonism
  • commons – care as commons
  • commons – city as commons (policy reader)
  • commons – corona & commons
  • commons – crisis to commons
  • commons – ecology of the commons
  • commons house
  • commons – 1 yr to try commons
  • commons – magisteria of commons
  • commons – managing the commons
  • commons – michel on commons ness
  • commons – michel on resurgence of commons
  • commons – p2p commons manifesto
  • commons – pulsation of the commons
  • commons – the commons (doc)
  • the omni commons
  • commons – reality as commons
  • commons – stroud commons.. stroud commons site
  • commons – tragedy of commons
  • common\s – tragedy of the non common
  • commons transition
  • commons transition primer
  • commons – value in the commons econ
  • commons – valley of the commons
  • commons – walking the commons – city sketchup via walking the commons

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