enclosure

Thomas Paine’s 1797 call for a Basic Income: a new paper tells the full story

"With the Covid-19 crisis, calls for a basic income are gaining new momentum. The U.S., and other countries too, could enjoy the immense society-wide benefit of a Basic Income if they are willing to set aside the sour grapes argument...of not providing a social safety net to out-groups," writes Brent Ranalli.

Only slow time can answer rapid decline

"We live firstly in families, and only expediently under hierarchies," writes Patrick Noble, drawing his argument from the writings of Fernand Braudel, Francis Pryor, Susan Oosthuizen and Adam Smith.

Mark Garavan speaking at Global Water Dances event, Cork, June 15th

Feasta's Mark Garavan will be speaking in Cork at the launch of the Oxford University Press Community Development Journal's special issue on "Water, Anti- Privatisation Struggles & the Commons", as part of the Global Water Dances event on June 15th.

What does ‘Feasta’ mean?

This year, 2018, is a special year for Feasta as it celebrates 20 years since its founding. The name 'Feasta', which translates from the Irish as 'henceforth' or 'from now on', is associated with an 18th-century poem that touches on many core themes within our organisation. By Seán Ó Conláin.

How destructive is the middle class?

Patrick Noble proposes that the gathering of rent for status - 'status enclosure' - is the central process by which we become middle class, and a major cause of the global crises we're facing. "If we remove that fixed, defensive gaze on our land and status properties, and then look up, and then, out and about, we’ll see the world expand."

The Corruption of Capitalism by Guy Standing: review by Brian Davey

This book is a powerful attack on rentier capitalism and, very explicitly, a call to revolt. Standing is at his best describing the features of crony capitalism that are totally different from the neo-liberal story of free markets that justifies it. While a very informative read, the analysis urgently needs to be expanded if the emerging commons movement is to be able to adapt to the limits to growth.

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