Common Futures by Architect Joni Baboci

At the heart of all good collaborative open source projects there is a community. A group of like minded individuals who contribute for the intrinsic value of bringing forth a product which often cannot be realized by a single individual. A similar mindset might apply to kickstarting the economy of the future. In this context I believe there’s a case to be made that Christopher Alexander, Jane Jacobs and other “qualitative” urban thinkers are echoing a deeper complex order, which we are not yet able to comprehend and might never be able to decode. I suspect however that there are fantastic opportunities in merging desirable urban patterns, sustainable circular economy and various levels of community control. This could transform communities from lethargic participants in tokenistic public consultations, to proactive agents of change - which access the deeper order of cities by excelling at community-driven local interventions. A distributed but well-coordinated exercise in urban acupuncture which might allow cities to access that higher order that Alexander hints at without the need to fully comprehend it. An organized and coordinated distribution of local governance might have a much higher effect on cities than current cartesian attempts of imposed order and legibility. 

In the context of East Asian philosophy and East Asian religions, Tao is the natural order of the universe whose character one's human intuition must discern in order to realize the potential for individual wisdom. This intuitive knowing of "life" cannot be grasped as a concept; it is known through actual living experience of one's everyday being. 

A tolerant, diverse and engaged community can coalesce around an identity andincrease the sense of ownership as well as active collaboration. Apprenticeship andmentoring programs are crucial in cultivating community and educating a newgeneration of makers. Alexander in one of his patterns discusses the university as amarketplace rather than as a closed off insulated building:

Alexander’s ideas become even more relevant in the context of fostering a community: amarketplace of higher education, where everyone can give or take a course in somethingspecific in which he or she is a scholar - even at a very young age. It also signals aswitch from emphasis on teaching to emphasis on learning by generating anenvironment that fosters professional collaboration and growth while preserving andeven democratizing academic excellence.

The publicness of the open source community often means that products are not launched at the end of the process. Rather they are co-created in tandem with users. Building in public has been a feature of open source software for decades but it has lately trickled to the physical economy through platforms like kickstarter. Crowdfunding allows makers to illustrate their ambitions, and then include the feedback and ideas that are generated from fans and future customers. The process is about engaging, educating and involving as many people as possible in the creative process. It’s a perspective that not only makes better things, but also allows people to network and collaborate with their peers. It opens up new opportunities for a global network of makerspaces where anyone can join in learning skills, building projects, collaborating (remotely or in person), sharing ideas, meeting like-minded makers and ultimately starting their own project. 

Designers and crypto-natives will play a key role in reimagining the future of cities. The creative community has always been attracted to independence and the localist mindset. In Europe, Freetown Christiania or Metelkova enforce clear but permeable barriers around their communities. Typically these communities hold individual freedoms in the highest possible regards - at the same time these same freedoms can not have a net negative effect on the community. What might start out as an urban island of total freedom - mostly known as artists hangouts with a flourishing drug consumption scene - might transform them into the focal points of digital activists. These few permanent urban spaces might provide a constant location for virtual conversations that have been brewing for decades. These beta versions of decentral cities could provide a safe space for Millennials and Zoomers to discuss their financial plight. Despite being the most educated generation and having had native access to the internet they are the poorest generation of the century; with the global economic system and financialized real-estate providing an insurmountable barrier owned by what Andrew Leonard calls the “me” generation: 

An alternate approach in envisioning an ecosystem that can drive novelopportunities might be a switch from the typical waterfall approach to an agileone. In imagining the circular economy maybe we should not be thinking aboutone particular proposal, zoning matter, or industrial sub-sector, but rather atsetting up an interconnected network of synergetic elements with no single pointof failure and multiple intermediate outcomes.

In such an ecosystem the recyclable waste outputs of one business might be the inputs of another thus creating an industrial symbiosis improving both economic and sustainability outcomes. These cross-dependencies can create a complex and highly interconnected network which works with very little outside intervention: akin to an ant colony or a city – a self-organized system with the governance structure as a mentor, enabler and curator of the whole. 

In a large sense, the tragedy of the commons is nothing more than a tragedy for mankind. When you combine individual greed with communal interests, you often get a situation where the good natural instincts of people are compromised. This might happen even subconsciously to a certain degree. Individuals often feel that their individual decisions do not have an outsized impact on their environment. Add to this the fact that the tragedy of the commons emerges when there is a relatively long lag in consequences and you get a situation in which things are not easy to diffuse. One might think that not paying the taxes for one year might not have a big impact on getting governmental services, but the moment every individual starts thinking and acting on that idea, public funding starts to collapse. One interesting approach and solution to the the tragedy of the commons is provided by Taleb and Ostrom and typically defined as a problem of scale rather than one of incentives: 

Ultimately all of these tools provide a fantastic existing framework on which to start building a new economy. An economy based on the individual, on local production, on sharing and craftsmanship. An economy based on advanced manufacturing and therefore a system which might not sacrifice excellence and comforts we are used to in the goods and services we consume everyday. An economy that rewards giving and sharing, but at the same time provides the right financial incentives for each contribution. Finally an economy which empowers individuals and allows them to actively participate in the governance of the system they are the protagonists of. Building such a framework is not easy, but it is becoming simpler by the day. The imminent advent of the circular economy might probably not be a consequence of technological innovation but rather a consequence of a paradigm shift in how we collaborate, coordinate, cogovern, codesign and most importantly, how we think about ourselves.