At the Festival of Commoning (Sep 13-14, in Stroud), our Stroud Commons group has a one-hour slot on the Saturday morning. I’m going to give an overview of commons ideas, and there will be representatives of the housing, land, energy and climbing groups to talk about what’s happening in their groups. Then we’ll have around half an hour to answer questions. Read more

Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org and Stroud Commons talks with Tom Woodroof of Local Loop Merseyside and Mutual Credit Services about the Credit Commons – a way to federate different groups all over the world that are building the commons economy (because you can’t get everything you need from just your community) – but it does it without centralised control. Read more

Tickets for the Festival of Commoning are now on sale. Stroud, Sep 13 & 14, 2024. Read more

Will Ruddick of Grassroots Economics talks about the French mutual aid tradition of Corvées. Read more

Dil Green is a founder member of Mutual Credit Services, who are working with Stroud Commons to design models for the commons economy for various sectors of the economy. This article first appeared on his blog 5 years ago, but it’s so relevant to the current commons movement, that we’re re-posting it here. Read more

We’ve put out requests for help before – in blog articles, at public events and via word of mouth. And they worked. In Stroud, we now have a core group of 10 people and three sector groups – housing commons, land common and leisure commons, with 8-10 people each. Read more

I was invited to be interviewed about the commons and mutual credit for a show on the radio station ‘Voice of Islam’ called ‘Beyond Capitalism: Mutual Economics’. Read more

A Festival of Commoning in the UK: Stroud, Gloucestershire, September 13/14/15 2024. The time is right for a Festival of the Commons. Read more

We were invited to give a presentation at the Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution on Jan 9th. Here’s the transcript and slides. Read more

The word ‘commons’ can mean different things to different people. We’ve been working with specialists to help build the commons economy, so we’d like to concisely describe what we mean, and how you can join us. Read more

Commons ideas have gone down well in Stroud and we have thriving groups in various sectors. We’ve been approached by formative groups in several towns in the UK and in other countries. Read more

We’d like to see the commons economy grow to allow people (especially young people) to stay in their communities, rather than having to move to big cities to work in the corporate sector and pay extortionate rents. Here, Paul Jennings (who we’re liaising with about the commons in Llandeilo) talks about the concept of ‘Restanza’… Continue reading Restanza and the cultural commons Read more

I read the first edition of this book around 12 years ago. It changed my life and put me on the path to where I am now – trying to build the commons economy. New 2024 edition, free online. Read more

Every neighbourhood had a friendly society. At their height, just before WW1 9 million people were members of friendly societies in the UK! Read more

Llandeilo commons: invitation to join a formative group and public event in West Wales. Read more

Following on from a recent post by Tom Greco, on the essential nature of money, Dil Green of Lowimpact.org and Mutual Credit Services here talks about its apparent scarcity, how that negatively affects our communities and our well-being, and how it could be different – based on mutual credit and the commons economy. Read more

This article from Tom Greco contains the basics of what you need to know about money, currency, credit and exchange. Read more

Matthew Slater reports on the first Collaborative Finance Gathering at the Commons Hub, Austria, May 22-28, 2023, where the concept of ‘co-fi’ was born. Read more

Building the commons may be hard in wealthier countries, where traditions of mutual aid were lost many years ago. But they’re still alive and well in other parts of the world – as this article by Janet of Grassroots Economics / Sarafu Network shows. I interviewed the director of Grassroots Economics, Shaila Agha, who told me about ‘chamas’ in Kenya – mutual savings groups, built on trusted relationships in local communities. Read more

Stroud Commons now has a website – stroudcommons.org. Please tell anyone you know in Stroud about us. We’re looking for people to get involved. Read more