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‘Bear ye one another’s burdens’: friendly societies for social welfare
I’d heard of friendly societies – small groups of local people who would put some money into a shared pot every week, and use it to look after families when the breadwinner was unable to work, for any reason. I thought that these little local insurance schemes were socially useful, but marginal. I was wrong.…
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Free sociocracy training for community activists, Nov 19, Trinity Rooms
This workshop is primarily for people working on various aspects of Stroud Commons, but we’ve opened it up to anyone working to build community resilience – first come, first served.
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Decentralising power: the why, what, how and who of growing the commons economy
Why we need to replace capitalism with a commons economy; who will do it and how.
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Launching a ‘Climbing commons’: a community-owned climbing centre
We’re following the exploits of Stroud Commons, in trying to build a commons economy for the town, and helping groups to launch in other towns. As well as a core group, there are now groups forming for various sectors of the economy, including housing, energy, land/food/water, community spaces – and now, climbing!
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New commons group and public event: Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire
Llandeilo commons: invitation to join a formative group and public event in West Wales.
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Building a water commons for Stroud, Part 2
part 2 of an interview (see video below for more details – well worth it!) with Julian Jones, a water engineer and distinguished fellow of the Schumacher Institute, who has worked and provided consultancy for water companies, NGOs, the Environment Agency, universities and governments.
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Building a water commons for Stroud, Part 1
Here’s a summary of part 1 of an interview (see video below for more details – well worth it!) with Julian Jones, a water engineer and distinguished fellow of the Schumacher Institute
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Forming a ‘commoners’ group for every sector of the economy
This is the latest on our group’s attempts to build the commons economy in Stroud, in a way that can be implemented in other towns, and connected together to build the foundations of a new, commons economy. It covers what we’ve done so far, and how people can get involved.
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We’re putting our house into the ‘commons’ – Follow our progress
Housing is the ‘rock’ on which the commons economy can be built. Everybody needs it, it’s non-technical and it’s in a mess. Last year, my wife and I were selling a house in London and moving to Stroud. We were hearing stories from people in their 30s that we knew in London about the impossibility…
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Why we need the commons
My wife and I recently got chatting to a group of three 19-year olds in the garden of the Golden Fleece. After the initial pleasantries, things got deep quite quickly. One of them said that they’d decided not to have children, because there were horrors on the way that they didn’t think it fair to…