This essay is extremely well-crafted and provides a framework for a kind of social education (a modern take on the fundamentals). It is as much a way to understand the generation of power as it is its proper use and the necessary rebalancing that occurs. In this sense, I would say it’s a way to embody the concept of generative justice (not the only way, but a form that resonates with it). It also serves as a foundational presentation for teachers, and I believe it could even be used to train young students (perhaps with some slight vocabulary adjustments depending on their age). What is truly high-quality is the nuanced synthesis of the various possibilities.
In my opinion, this presentation could become a social safeguard by moving from stated principles to participatory action. I am therefore going to discuss it with teachers to gather their interpretations and see how they might adapt it for their classrooms. Thank you for this particularly inspiring share.
In a recent survey of 1409 surviving Indigenous governance communities (primarily in sub-saharan Africa), Baldwin and Holzinger (2019) found that there were thriving mechanisms for democratizing the central authority (elections, rotation, recall). More importantly, 40% did not have any centralized authority at all. They were instead organized as quasi-autonomous “band” structures (somewhat like the democratic potential of online decentralized autonomous organizations described in Nabben et al., 2021).
Baldwin K and Holzinger K (2019) Traditional political institutions and democracy: Reassessing their compatibility and accountability. Comparative Political Studies 52(12): 1747–1774.
Nabben K, Puspasari N, Kelleher M, et al. (2021) Grounding Decentralised Technologies in Cooperative Principles: What Can Decentralised Autonomous Organisations’(DAOs) and Platform Cooperatives Learn from Each Other? Available at: SSRN 3979223.
Yay I didn't get a “but what about…” .... but i also like your "but what abouts" ... they help a lot.
Your paper on computational reparations and generative justice is great: reparations as making systems generative again (by restoring unalienated circular value flows across labor, ecology, and social life), and computation as support for bottom-up restoration rather than top-down allocation.
and I love the living catalogue of “power-with” designs (accountability without enclosure) that maps well to the safeguards - I'm thankful to live around these or I would just be lost.
Nabben et al. (2021) link is a great bridge to the digital layer: DAOs and platform cooperatives facing similar governance and capture problems (and DAOs learning from cooperative principles to strengthen governance design and inter-institutional relationships).
so granted my four-interface description of CPP is intentionally simplistic (elegant)... used as a minimal “cell” so readers can see how the same coordination machinery can either circulate value back to communities (generative justice) or become cancerous when governance, valuation, limits, and enforcement are bent toward domination.
Great article Will! Filled with a sense of balance and rational expectation. CosmoLocal.Credit. I will check it out. Thanks!!
This essay is extremely well-crafted and provides a framework for a kind of social education (a modern take on the fundamentals). It is as much a way to understand the generation of power as it is its proper use and the necessary rebalancing that occurs. In this sense, I would say it’s a way to embody the concept of generative justice (not the only way, but a form that resonates with it). It also serves as a foundational presentation for teachers, and I believe it could even be used to train young students (perhaps with some slight vocabulary adjustments depending on their age). What is truly high-quality is the nuanced synthesis of the various possibilities.
In my opinion, this presentation could become a social safeguard by moving from stated principles to participatory action. I am therefore going to discuss it with teachers to gather their interpretations and see how they might adapt it for their classrooms. Thank you for this particularly inspiring share.
Thanks Will, great article! See my LI for my slightly extended commentary.
I usually have some commentary that goes "but what about...". No chance of that here! You really covered every contingency, qualified every claim. So let me contribute just by supporting the positive side. This is a quote from our paper https://www.researchgate.net/publication/377261702_Computational_reparations_as_generative_justice_Decolonial_transitions_to_unalienated_circular_value_flow
In a recent survey of 1409 surviving Indigenous governance communities (primarily in sub-saharan Africa), Baldwin and Holzinger (2019) found that there were thriving mechanisms for democratizing the central authority (elections, rotation, recall). More importantly, 40% did not have any centralized authority at all. They were instead organized as quasi-autonomous “band” structures (somewhat like the democratic potential of online decentralized autonomous organizations described in Nabben et al., 2021).
Baldwin K and Holzinger K (2019) Traditional political institutions and democracy: Reassessing their compatibility and accountability. Comparative Political Studies 52(12): 1747–1774.
Nabben K, Puspasari N, Kelleher M, et al. (2021) Grounding Decentralised Technologies in Cooperative Principles: What Can Decentralised Autonomous Organisations’(DAOs) and Platform Cooperatives Learn from Each Other? Available at: SSRN 3979223.
Yay I didn't get a “but what about…” .... but i also like your "but what abouts" ... they help a lot.
Your paper on computational reparations and generative justice is great: reparations as making systems generative again (by restoring unalienated circular value flows across labor, ecology, and social life), and computation as support for bottom-up restoration rather than top-down allocation.
and I love the living catalogue of “power-with” designs (accountability without enclosure) that maps well to the safeguards - I'm thankful to live around these or I would just be lost.
Nabben et al. (2021) link is a great bridge to the digital layer: DAOs and platform cooperatives facing similar governance and capture problems (and DAOs learning from cooperative principles to strengthen governance design and inter-institutional relationships).
so granted my four-interface description of CPP is intentionally simplistic (elegant)... used as a minimal “cell” so readers can see how the same coordination machinery can either circulate value back to communities (generative justice) or become cancerous when governance, valuation, limits, and enforcement are bent toward domination.
Really appreciate you.