From Socialism to Open Cooperativism: Convergences and Divergences in the Work of Castoriadis, Olin Wright and Bauwens & Kostakis

Global Journal of HUMAN-SOCIAL SCIENCE: F Political Science Volume 18 Issue 4 Version 1.0 Year 2018 Type: Double Blind Peer Reviewed International Research Journal Publisher: Global Journals Online ISSN: 2249-460x & Print ISSN: 0975-587X From Socialism to Open Cooperativism: Convergences and Divergences in the Work of Castoriadis, Olin Wright and Bauwens & Kostakis By Dr. Papadimitropoulos Evangelos Free University of Amsterdam Abstract- This article attempts at integrating core socialist elements, analyzed through the prism of Castoriadis’s and Wright’s work, into a model of open cooperativism between Commons- based peer production, ethical market entities and a partner state, introduced by Bauwens and Kostakis. It concludes with a critical appraisal of Bauwens and Kostakis’s model. Keywords: socialism, castoriadis, wright, bauwens and kostakis, open cooperativism. GJHSS-F Classification: FOR Code: 160699p FromSocialismtoOpenCooperativismConvergencesandDivergencesintheWorkofCastoriadisOlinWrightandBauwens Kostakis Strictly as per the compliance and regulations of: © 2018. Dr. Papadimitropoulos Evangelos. This is a research/review paper, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/3.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.  From Socialism to Open Cooperativism: Convergences and Divergences in the Work of Castoriadis, Olin Wright and Bauwens & Kostakis Dr. Papadimitropoulos Evangelos Abstract- This article attempts at integrating core socialist I build on Castoriadis’s and Wright’s work by 2018 elements, analyzed through the prism of Castoriadis’s and introducing Bauwens and Kostakis’s model of open Wright’s work, into a model of open cooperativism between cooperativism, which, I argue, integrates some core Year Commons-based peer production, ethical market entities and a socialist elements penetrating both Castoriadis’s and partner state, introduced by Bauwens and Kostakis. It Wright’s work. I make the case that, in comparison with concludes with a critical appraisal of Bauwens and Kostakis’s Castoriadis’s project and Wright’s socialist 7 model. transformation strategy, Bauwens and Kostakis’s model Global Journal of Human Social Science ( F ) Volume XVIII Issue IV Version I Keywords: socialism, castoriadis, wright, bauwens and of open cooperativeism carries the advantage of kostakis, open cooperativism. sketching out some more concrete pathways towards a post-capitalist society built on the premises of information and communication technologies. The Internet and free/open source software/hardware can T his paper is an attempt to rethink the content of mutatis mutandis sustain glocal mutual coordination of socialism under the conditions of the neoliberal Commons-based peer production that has the potential hegemony today. To this end, I begin by critically demonstrating two versions of socialism, developed by to force capitalism to adjust to a Commons transition in two ostensibly disparate thinkers, Cornelius Castoriadis the long run. However, Bauwens and Kostakis’s model and Erik Olin Wright. Castoriadis was a greek-french does not come without deficiencies. They seem at times philosopher, best recognized for his articles published in to stick to a technocratic and economistic vision of self- the journal Socialisme ou Barbarie from the period of institutionalization. To address this limitation, it is crucial 1949 till 1965. His thought flourished in the midst of the to give a more vibrant political spin to their technical and French intellectual milieu marked by the currents of bio-economic rationality with the aim to reverse the current tide of individualism towards a voluntary existentialism, phenomenology, post-structuralism, cooperative political ecology. It is essential to reinvent psychoanalysis, and Marxism. In the 40 issues of the the political to face the big challenges lying at the journal, Castoriadis developed a radical critique of both capitalism and Marxism, resulting in the redefinition of intersection of technology, economy, and society. - the content of socialism as crystallized in his project of individual and collective autonomy. Later on, the evolution of his thought will culminate in his magnum opus The Imaginary Institution of Society and the Castoriadis is an emblematic figure of subsequent six volumes of the Crossroads in the continental philosophy, influenced by a heterogeneous Labyrinth. Erik Olin Wright, on the other, is a current of thought, including ancient Greek philosophy, contemporary social theorist whose work has developed post-structuralism, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, in the aftermath of the collapse of the so-called “really and Marxism, to name just a few.He joined the existing socialism” in the Eastern bloc regimes, followed communist party in Greece in 1941, but he abandoned it by the current expansion of neoliberal capitalism. in 1942, accusing it of chauvinism, authoritarianism, and Similarly to Castoriadis, he has articulated a critique of centralism. He then joined the Trotskyist group of Agis “orthodox” Marxism, envisioning a socialist utopia within Stinas, but he left it also to form together with Claude and beyond capitalism. Despite their different Lefort an autonomous group in France, which published conceptual and historical contexts, the work of Cornelius the journal Socialisme ou Barbarie from 1949 till 1965. Castoriadis and Eric Olin Wright share a common trait: In the 40 issues of the journal, Castoriadis the theoretical elaboration of a socialist society. developed his project of individual and collective autonomy, which epitomizes his conceptualization of Author: Post doc fellow (Free University of Amsterdam), fellow visitor socialism. Castoriadis’s radical approach manifests, for (University of Limerick). e-mail: vagpap78@hotmail.com instance, in his article Socialism and Autonomous © 20 18 Global Journals  From Socialism to Open Cooperativism: Convergences and Divergences in the Work of Castoriadis, Olin Wright and Bauwens & Kostakis Society, published in 1979, where he emphatically presupposition of freedom and vice versa. He conceives argues, already in the first page, that we should equality not in a “natural” or “metaphysical” sense, but abandon both the terms “communism” and “socialism”, in a political sense of duties and rights equal for all. for they have become ambiguous and mystified both in However, in Castoriadis, equality transcends the liberal the totalitarian regimes of the Eastern bloc and the so- rights of modernity – which he considers partial and called socialist democracies of the West. 1 The term incomplete– by expanding into the freedom of all to “socialism” seems “value-laden” since it attributes to participate in power, that is, the capacity of “…bringing society a substantive primacy over the individual.2But, someone to make/do what they would not have for Castoriadis, the concept of the individual is equally otherwise, in full knowledge of the relevant facts, willed ambiguous. What is the individual? Castoriadis holds to make/do”.7 Castoriadis distinguishes between two that the individual has been a product of heteronomy in kinds of power: the instituted power, identified as the most of history. In archaic societies, the individual is political, and the instituting power, identified as politics. formed by the rules established by ancestors and The political consists in the existing laws of society 2018 religion. In the so-called liberal societies, a small created by tradition, religion and established authorities, minority of individuals exploits the vast majority of whereas politics signifies the freedom of the polis to Year individuals while representative democracy is a constantly question and remake its laws a new through semblance of democracy dominated by the rational public deliberation.8 Politics refers to the deliberate self- 8 mastery of capitalism. In the so-called socialist institutionalization of society. Since there is necessarily societies, the individual is oppressed and exploited by a power in society, inequality of power translates into Global Journal of Human Social Science ( F ) Volume XVIII Issue IV Version I Communist bureaucracy.3 inequality of freedom. To overcome this inequality, In contrast to heteronomy, Castoriadis argues Castoriadis conceives of socialism as the self- for the autonomous development of the individual, the institutionalization of society by collective management first instance of which dates back to the birth of introduced first and foremost at the level of production philosophy and democracy in ancient Greece. 4Thus, the and expanding accordingly on all levels of society. individual develops in tune with a self-reflective and Socialism consists in the abolition of the division autonomous collectivity. Whence, the definition of between directors and executants, which penetrates socialism by Castoriadis: liberal democracy, capitalism and “orthodox” Marxism, What was intended by the term ‘socialist society’ we and the expansion of individual and collective autonomy henceforth call autonomous society. An auto- on all levels of society.9Socialism is thus a form of nomous society implies autonomous individuals- collective management, operating in terms of individual and vice versa .Autonomous society, autonomous and collective autonomy. But how can this collective individuals: free society, free individuals. Freedom- management function at the level of economy and but what is freedom? And what freedom?5 society as a whole? To answer this question, we need first to revisit Freedom is neither an autonomy deriving from a some basic points of Castoriadis’s relation to Marxism, moral imperative nor the unobstructed exercise of some which has been thoroughly examined in a series of basic liberal rights, but the equality of all in the creation works thus far.10 Castoriadis argues that Marx was of the law governing society. Freedom is the sedated by the dream of positivism to discover the precondition of individual and collective autonomy, for it - eternal laws of nature and society in terms of “the permits the participation of all citizens in the formation of rational mastery of the unlimited expansion of the rules regulating private and public sphere. technology and economy on nature and society.” 11Marx Castoriadis notes: attempted to become the Newton of history by What is at issue is not inner freedom, but effective, developing a “final” theory of historical materialism social, concrete freedom, namely, to mention one based on technological determinism. He reversed the primary feature, the largest possible space for Absolute Spirit of his teacher Hegel into the matter of movement and activity the institution of society can nature, transformed by the productive forces of human ensure for the individual. This freedom can exist only species, as they develop in technoscience and apply as dimension and mode of the institution of society furthermore to the industry. Consequently, he was led to […] A free society is a society in which power is narrow down enormously the field of self- actually exercised by the collectivity, but a institutionalization to the level of production and collectivity in which all effectively participate in economy, thus leaving aside the political question, that equality. And this equality of effective participation, is, the question of power itself, on the assumption that as goal to attain, must not remain a purely formal the latter will spontaneously resolve in the higher phase rule; it must be insured, as much as possible, by of communism, after the main theorem of revolution will actual institutions.6 have applied to society as a whole.12 In contrast to the antithesis of freedom with Marx was equally sedated by the economism of equality in liberalism, Castoriadis considers equality as a capitalism in placing the economy at the center of © 2018 Global Journals  From Socialism to Open Cooperativism: Convergences and Divergences in the Work of Castoriadis, Olin Wright and Bauwens & Kostakis politics, thereby adopting capitalism’s model of homo concentric spheres, expanding from the workplace into oeconomicus. He failed to see, at least to a full extent, society as a whole. Socialism establishes thus a form of that the crisis of capitalism lies in the contradiction of centralized decentralization based on two-way production itself and not just in the ones surrounding information flow between centers and the base.17 production such as “the anarchy of the market”, Socialism implies the abolition of the capitalist division “overproduction” or the “falling rate of profit.” 13Marx of labor using the horizontal cooperation of experts and failed to recognize that technique itself is bound with the workers, the rotation of tasks, and, finally, the mutual contradictions of capitalism; that technique itself is the coordination of work by workers themselves. 18 incarnation of the relations of production, and, therefore, Thus, technology will be subordinated to human infused with class struggle .Finally, Castoriadis argues needs by a conscious and deliberate transformation that the work of later Marx took dominance over the intended to liberate man from toil and drudgery. revolutionary element of younger Marx. In the so-called Technology will be humanized to turn robotization of socialist states of former Eastern Bloc regimes, Marx’s work into poetry. Work should not be a chore, an activity 2018 project was transformed into the political dogma of of misery, boredom, and alienation, but the outcome of Leninist-Stalinist Marxism. creation, self-fulfillment, and cooperation. Workers Year Castoriadis holds that the basic contradiction of should be masters of machines instead of slaves. The capitalism between capitalists and the proletariat humanization of technology can, therefore, contribute to resides on a more fundamental flaw of capitalism lying turning work into a meaningful and joyful activity. 19 9 within the field of production per se in which workers are Castoriadis notes that the real problem of Global Journal of Human Social Science ( F ) Volume XVIII Issue IV Version I obliged to participate insofar as they do not interfere society consists in abolishing the distinction between with the planning process itself. The division between production and leisure. “The problem is to make all time directors and executants results in the alienation of labor a time of liberty and to allow concrete freedom to and an enormous waste due to untapped capacities.14 embody itself in creative activity. The problem is to put The contradiction between directors and executants poetry into work. (Strictly speaking, poetry means expands from the economy into society as a whole. creation.) Production is not something negative that has People experience their lives as alien since they cannot to be limited as much as possible for mankind to fulfill participate in the decision-making affecting both the itself in its leisure. The instauration of autonomy is also ‒ public and private sphere. They are treated as mere and in the first place ‒ the instauration of autonomy in objects, when they ought to be the sole subjects of their work”.20The reduction of the working day would combine own lives and pursue their aspirations to the fullest. The with the redistribution of the social product by the solution to this contradiction is not the abolition of abolition of the hierarchy of salaries, wages and private property, the nationalization of production and incomes21, and the subsequent establishment of a truly the planning of economy by the State, which according democratic market based on the sovereignty of the to Castoriadis re-establishes a new inequality between consumer. the state and the workers, but the management of economy and society in toto by citizens themselves.15 In contrast to the neoliberal mantra claiming that Socialism is not the teleological endpoint of history, socialist planning is inevitable due to the practical crystallized in the application of a “final” sociopolitical inability of controlling dispersed information, Castoriadis - theory represented by a party of supermen, but the argued that computers could support the overall unleashing of the free creative activity of the masses. planning of economy by breaking down essential The question of how such a model of socialism could be information into a manageable set of variables. realized naturally arises. Computers can store and update all data necessary for For Castoriadis, the primary principle of decisions concerning management, investment, socialism is direct democracy, applying first and consumption, production, and so on. 22 And, indeed, this foremost at the level of production and expanding sounds true today to some extent if one considers the accordingly into all spheres of society.16Direct capacity of states and corporations to control big data democracy operates through councils established at through sophisticated machine learning and software each enterprise, in which workers equally participate mechanisms. after information being disseminated in a transparent Given the full availability of data, discussions and simplified manner. On conditions of global would be held at the assemblies of each enterprise, interdependence and decentralization of economy, proposals would be submitted, and decisions would be worker councils form the base of an assembly of all taken in terms of majority vote. 23 Castoriadis yet councils represented by central governments. Both emphasizes that no plan, however perfect, can be a worker councils and governments are composed of panacea for all problems. No technical rationality can revocable delegates, who guarantee the implementation replace human imagination. The plan will provide only of decisions taken at the base of each enterprise. with a framework necessary for serving the ever- Analogous types of councils form the center of changing human needs.24 © 20 18 Global Journals  From Socialism to Open Cooperativism: Convergences and Divergences in the Work of Castoriadis, Olin Wright and Bauwens & Kostakis Castoriadis was also one of the first thinkers of how this trans-mutation of individuals and collecti- who mentioned the devastation of the environment by vities could occur in contemporary societies. Therefore, the capitalist economy and stressed the need for techno the feasibility of Castoriadis’s project is undermined not science to be subject to democratic and ecological by the complexity of contemporary societies, but by the deliberation.25 His theory of direct democracy develops lack of the alternatives necessary to nurture the transfor- in contrast to liberal procedural models of democracy, mation of the central imaginary significations of society which conceal the rational mastery of capitalism under towards individual and collective autonomy. To this end, the pretext of neutrality and legality. Procedures cannot Erik Olin Wright’s work can offer us some valuable insig- but be “value-laden” by the central imaginary hts, echoing Castoriadis’s project in several respects. significations of the social-historical. Castoriadis does not dismiss procedures, but he incorporates them into the free deliberation of the anonymous collective infused The work of the sociologist Erik Olin Wright with the magma of the social imaginary significations. In represents one of the most contemporary attempts to 2018 his later writings, democracy is supplemented with a formulate an emancipatory social science aiming at the psychoanalytical element, emphasizing the conscious socialist transformation of society. The normative Year self-reflective renewal of the social-historical. Demo- principle of this transformation is a radical democratic cracy becomes the regime of novelty par excellence. egalitarian conceptualization of justice, according to The essential problem of democracy then is the which all people should have equal access to the 10 combination of some basic rules with the most possible necessary material and social means to live flourishing Global Journal of Human Social Science ( F ) Volume XVIII Issue IV Version I diversity of cultural creation, lifestyles, and needs. 26In lives (social justice); and the necessary means to this sense, Castoriadis’s project is an attempt to participate in collective decisions affecting one’s life as integrate the private sphere of the individual, that is, a member of a community (political justice).31 Freedom is negative freedom, into the public sphere of the demos, the power of making decisions over one’s life, and where the deliberation over the content of positive democracy is the power of participating in collective freedom affects both public and private sphere. decision-making. Wright defines power as the capacity Castoriadis, however, did not develop a systematic of actors to generate effects in the world. 32He holds that theory of democracy. This corresponds to the non- freedom presupposes equality as the capacity of all systematic character of his magmatic logic-ontology. people to participate in collective decision-making. Nonetheless, Castoriadis’s theoretical incarnation of Wright’s egalitarian understanding of freedom is both socialism in his project of individual and collective “negative” and “positive” since the liberal ideal of autonomy has often been criticized as impractical given freedom as non-interference combines with the capacity the immense complexity of contemporary societies.27 of all people to participate in democratic processes. 33It Castoriadis, yet, was one of the first thinkers to foresee becomes evident then that Wright’s work bears some the potential of technology, that is, the very existence of striking similarities with Castoriadis’s project of individual computers, to facilitate rather than render infeasible a and collective autonomy. socialist project.28 Moreover, I will show in the third Wright has developed a systematic critique of section that Castoriadis’s foresight on technology has both Marxism and capitalism, which intersects on many developed today into a clear vision of a post-capitalist points and levels with Castoriadis’s critique. He argues - ethical economy, supported by the Internet and free and that Marx proposed a highly deterministic theory of the open source software/hardware. demise of capitalism and a relatively voluntaristic theory But, still, Castoriadis’s project raises at least two of the construction of its alternative.34 Like Castoriadis, major concerns. Hans Joas rightly claims that it is highly he identifies some essential problems of traditional contestable whether citizens would consent to a Marxism. redistribution of their income.29 Therefore, the principle Marx’s law of the falling tendency of the rate of of the abolition of the hierarchy of salaries, incomes, and profit seems inadequate since crises within capitalism wages is problematic. do not appear to have an inherent tendency to become Castoriadis argues for the mutation of the ever more intense over time. On more theoretical current homo oeconomicus towards the values of grounds, the labor theory of value, on which Marx’s individual and collective autonomy. It remains an issue theory of crisis intensification is based, seems no longer as to how such a radical shift of mentality could occur sustainable, at least in full extent. “While the idea of today, especially when Castoriadis rejects the current labor as the source of value may be a useful device for political system as a whole, relying solely on the autono- illustrating the idea of the exploitation of labor, there is mous movements of collectivities. Castoriadis was no persuasive reason for believing that labor and labor critical towards any political reform, since he held that alone causally generates value”.35Thus, for the moment this would lead to the assimilation of the project of there is no good reason to hold that the internal socialism by the current political system.30 Castoriadis contradictions of capitalism make it unsustainable in the also abstained from articulating any concrete proposal long run.36 © 2018 Global Journals  From Socialism to Open Cooperativism: Convergences and Divergences in the Work of Castoriadis, Olin Wright and Bauwens & Kostakis Class structures have become more complex economic resources, state power based on rule making over time, rather than being simplified through a process and rule enforcing over territory, social power based on of homogenizing proletarianization. 37 What we are voluntary collective action. He then assigns these three witnessing today is the differentiation of the working powers to capitalism, statism, and socialism class, evidenced by the growth of freelancers, self- respectively.46 Of particular importance is the distinction employed and small employers. Most importantly, Wright makes between the terms “power” and managers and supervisors attain properties of both “ownership”. He attributes “ownership” to the right over capitalists and workers, thus reproducing anew the property and surplus, and “power” to the capacity to basic contradiction of capitalism epitomized by direct the means of production. Capitalism, statism, and Castoriadis in terms of the division between directors socialism are differentiated according to the ownership and executors. Therefore, the collective capacity of the over means of production and the type of power exerted working class to challenge capitalism seems to decline over economic activities.47But capitalism, statism, and within mature capitalist societies.38 socialism can also combine according to multiple 2018 Ruptural strategies of social transformation, settings of ownership and power over the means of even if they were capable of overthrowing the capitalist production and economic activities. Year state, do not seem to provide a social-political setting In contrast to traditional statist versions of for sustaining democratic experimentalism. In socialism, Wright’s socialist transformation strategy is agreement with Castoriadis, Wright holds that the grounded on the distinction between state and social 11 empirical cases of ruptures with capitalism (e.g., the power, state and social ownership, and the possibility of Global Journal of Human Social Science ( F ) Volume XVIII Issue IV Version I Eastern bloc regimes) have resulted in authoritarian partnerships between the market and socially owned state-bureaucratic forms of an economic organization and controlled enterprises.48Therefore, capitalism, rather than a truly democratic regime.39 statism, and socialism should be considered as Wright agrees with Castoriadis that the relations coordinating variables of socialist transformation. 49 of domination within capitalist workplaces constitute Wright’s socialist transformation strategy is geared pervasive restrictions on individual autonomy and self- towards three principle directions: (1) social direction, thus blocking the full realization and exercise empowerment over the way the state affects economic of human potentials. Exploitation, alienation of labor, activity;(2) social empowerment over the way capitalism large economic inequalities, the uncontrolled social shapes economic activity;(3) social empowerment externalities of technological change and profit- directly over economic activity. In short, socialism points maximizing competition perpetuate eliminable forms of to the social empowerment of the civil society over the human suffering, thus impeding the universalization of state and the market. conditions for expansive human flourishing. 40 To this end, Wright illustrates seven different Wright differentiates from Castoriadis when he pathways50: employs a liberal egalitarian critique of capitalism. He argues that capitalism is fundamentally incompatible 1. Statist socialism: in contrast to central planning of the economy, statist socialism could be oriented with a strong notion of equality of opportunity related to towards deepening the democratic quality of the “brute lack”, meaning risks that are beyond one’s state with the aim to open a genuine pathway to control and therefore over which one bears no moral social empowerment. - responsibility.41Wright locates six sources of inefficiency 2. Social democracy: in contrast to the state regulating in capitalism: (1) the underproduction of public goods; capital in ways that empowers capital, social (2) the underpricing of natural resources; (3) negative democracy could regulate capital in ways that externalities; (4) monitoring and enforcing market enhance social power. contracts; (5) pathologies of intellectual property rights; (6) the costs of inequality.42 Like Castoriadis, he 3. Associational democracy: in contrast to criticizes consumerism with regards both to moral and associations being heavily manipulated by elites environmental issues.43Wright argues that capitalist and the state, associational democracy could commodification threatens human values such as child promote open and deliberative decision-making care, product safety, the arts, community, religion, and processes highly representative of civil society spirituality. Last but not least, he points out that interests. In an associational democracy, labor capitalism fuels militarism and imperialism and limits unions, business associations, organizations or civic democracy.44In agreement with Castoriadis, he holds groups directly engage in various aspects of that representative democracy is rigged by corporate political decision-making and governance. influence.45 4. Social capitalism: in addition to associations of In contrast to both capitalism and traditional workers or unions exerting power over corporations Marxism, Wright develops a socialist transformation through co-determination of funds, bargaining over strategy. He initially distinguishes between three forms pay and working conditions, etc., the union of power: economic power based on the control over movement could create venture capital funds, © 20 18 Global Journals  From Socialism to Open Cooperativism: Convergences and Divergences in the Work of Castoriadis, Olin Wright and Bauwens & Kostakis controlled by labor (like in Canada), to provide The design principles of this countervailing power are equity to start-up firms that satisfy particular social the following: bottom-up participation, pragmatic criteria. Consumer-oriented pressure on corpora- orientation, deliberation, state-centered decentralization tions would be an additional form of civil society to local units of action such as neighborhood councils, empowerment over economic power. Fair trade and local school councils, workplace councils, and so on. equal exchange movements aiming to connect Participatory democracy differs from spontaneous consumers and producers by building alternative activist efforts or projects led by nongovernmental global economic networks could also potentially organizations or social movement groups, for it aims to disrupt the economic power of multinational change the central procedures of state power rather corporations. than occasionally influencing them. Wright cites as an 5. Social economy: voluntary associations, NGOs, co- example of participatory democracy the municipal ops, community-based organizations, all subsidized participatory budgeting applied in the case of Porto through donations, charities, grants, and taxes, Alegre in Brazil. Finally, Wright argues that direct 2018 directly organize economic activity, e.g., Wikipedia, democracy cannot stand alone, but it needs to connect the Quebec economy. An unconditional basic to representative democracy and associational Year income provided by the state through taxation could democracy.53 furthermore enhance social economy. To enhance the democratic quality of 12 6. Cooperative market economy: instead of worker- representative democracy, Wright introduces proposals owned cooperative firms operating in isolation and for egalitarian public financing of politics, and randomly Global Journal of Human Social Science ( F ) Volume XVIII Issue IV Version I thus forced to bend to the capitalist competitive selected citizen assemblies. He also claims that political pressure over time, worker-owned cooperative firms institutions can be designed in such a way as to enable could be incorporated into a cooperative market secondary associations – labor unions, business economy that could provide finance, training, associations, organizations or civic groups – to play a problem-solving services and all kinds of mutual positive role in deepening democracy. Centralized support. administrations are good at imposing uniform rules over 7. Participatory socialism: the combination of statist homogeneous contexts, but when it comes to socialism (1) and social economy (5) with the heterogeneous economic and social conditions, mission to jointly organize the production of various centralized command and control process is much less goods and services. The state is more pervasive by effective.54One-size-fits-all regulations are rarely directly getting involved in the organization and satisfactory for example in the context of environment production of economic activity. Social power and workplace safety, given that ecologies and expands from its participation in representative workplaces are diverse and complex. Associations democracy into the productive activity itself. could solve this problem and complement public regulatory efforts by gathering local information, Similarly to Castoriadis, Wright advocates a monitoring behavior and promoting cooperation among pluralistic and heterogeneous socialist transformation private actors. Instead of associations simply providing grounded on a centrally-coordinated decentralization of external pressure by lobbying politicians and agencies power. But contrary to Castoriadis who was against any for specific rules, they would thus be included - type of state or market-driven reformism, Wright’s systematically in the central tasks of governance: policy- socialist transformation strategy is premised on the formation, coordination of economic activities, and radical democratization of both the state and economy monitoring, administering and enforcing regulations. by civil society. Four of the seven pathways to socialism The possibilities of an expanded and deepened involve the state. But for socialism to be fully realized, associative democracy are not limited to the role of Wright holds that state and economic power have to be encompassing associations in neo-corporatist peak- subordinated to social power on the model of economic level public policy formation. Associative democracy can democracy.51 also function at the local and regional level to solve As regards the social empowerment over the problems and to design and implement detailed rules state, Wright advocates a combination of pathways (1), and standards of various sorts. Associations must be (2), (3) and (7). In contrast to Castoriadis, Wright claims relatively encompassing, representing a substantial that a radical egalitarian democracy does not identify proportion of the relevant social category; second, the with direct democracy replacing representative association leadership must be accountable to democracy, but with the deepening of democracy in all membership through meaningful internal democratic three varieties of democratic governance (direct processes; and third, the associations must have democracy, representative and associational). 52 He significant powers to sanction members. Wright cites the introduces participatory forms of direct democracy that example of the Quebec in Canada, which illustrates an could create countervailing power against the ordinarily exemplary showcase of deepening the associational powerful groups and elites influencing state governance. dimension of democracy in the domains of skill © 2018 Global Journals  From Socialism to Open Cooperativism: Convergences and Divergences in the Work of Castoriadis, Olin Wright and Bauwens & Kostakis formation within regional labor markets, habitat funds, worker-owned firms. In short, the social conservation for endangered species, child and elderly empowerment of the civil society over the state and the care, cooperative housing, education, energy economy is reminiscent of Castoriadis’s politics as the production, and many more.55 deliberate self-institutionalization of society. As regards the social empowerment over the Wright acknowledges himself a number of economy, Wright envisages a sort of market socialism potential critiques of his transformation strategy, similar developing in a combination of pathways (4), (5), (6) to those of Castoriadis.58 An initial point of criticism is and (7).56 He employs the term “social economy” to that models of participatory democracy are non- specify economic activities rooted in the associational functional, since people are too apathetic, ignorant or life of civil society. Two prominent examples are the busy to participate. Secondly, a multitude of Wikipedia and the Quebec social economy. Concerning associations, networks, and communities does not the Quebec experience, Wright suggests four guarantee for the creation of the social power necessary institutional designs to enhance social empowerment: to effectively control the state and economy. On the 2018 (1) state subsidies targeted to the social economy (2) contrary, this could lead to conflicts of interest or, as development of social economy investment funds (3) conservative critics of socialism have argued, to the Year governance through associational democracy (4) tyranny of the majority. Thirdly, according to the critique participatory democratic forms of organization. With the posed by the revolutionary socialists, it is not possible to term “social capitalism” he refers to a wide range of create such a socialist transformation in a society 13 institutional mechanisms and social processes directly dominated by capitalism. Any socialist transformation Global Journal of Human Social Science ( F ) Volume XVIII Issue IV Version I impinging on the exercise of capitalist power. Some will sooner or later confront the problem of competition examples he mentions are labor solidarity funds and with the capitalist economy, and the dependency of the share-levy wage earner funds, both pushing capitalism social economy on capitalism for financial resources. towards a structural hybrid within which social power And, indeed, this seems to be by large the case in the has greater weight. Finally, a cooperative market cooperative market economy where 90% of coops are economy consists of an association of worker-owned coops in name only, meaning that the main owners are firms such as Mondragon in Spain. not workers themselves. Even in worker-owned Wright conceives of the state, capitalism and cooperatives, workers are often not co-op members. civil society as coordinating variables of his socialist Therefore, many co-ops are co-ops in name only. They transformation, since society as a whole is a hybrid are market entities that have adopted capitalist practices structure comprised of potentially interchangeable since their main interest is to get a higher selling price or overarching powers: economic, state and social. While it lower buying price in the market.59 is analytically useful to distinguish capitalism, statism, To address these criticisms, Wright argues that and socialism according to the power dominant each moving along the pathways of a social empowerment is time, neither of them constitute purely independent not a guarantee of success, but a more favorable terrain powers. The same applies to all units of analysis within of struggle.60 He conceives of the predictions of the each power, be it a firm, a government, a labor union, revolutionary socialists as pessimistic. They exaggerate an association, a cooperative, and so on, where the power of capital and they under-estimate the social complex configurations of capitalist, statist and socialist spaces available for social innovation. 61 He also claims - elements combine. Thus, Wright notes: that there is empirical evidence showing that when there are opportunities for people to get involved in decision- This has critical implications for our understanding making directly affecting their lives, they do participate in of the problem of transformation: emancipatory substantial numbers.62And, indeed, both these claims transformation should not be viewed mainly as a contain consider able grains of truth, since, despite its binary shift from one system to another, but rather current dominance, capitalism is not a fixed economic as a shift in the configuration of the power relations system, but it carries cracks inherent to its operational that constitute a hybrid.57 logic, which can potentially lead to alternative economic Wright’s central thesis is that the realization of a and societal patterns. Wright’s seven pathways to radical egalitarian democracy presupposes the social socialism provide a rough map of the direction of social empowerment of the civil society over the state and the empowerment, which is highly dependent on the economy. To achieve this, he introduces a flexible historical settings. However, Wright does not see clearly strategic pluralism based on multiple pathways of social in these settings what Castoriadis saw in a glimpse empowerment, embodied in a variety of structural trans- before decades: the potentially significant role of formations: participatory forms of direct democracy, technology in the socialist transformation of the state egalitarian public financing of politics, randomly and economy.I show in the following that Bauwens and selected citizen assemblies, associations, organizations, Kostakis extend the socialist paths opened up by the Quebec social economy, unconditional basic Castoriadis and Wright by building especially on the role income, labor solidarity funds, share-levy wage earner of information and communication technologies in the © 20 18 Global Journals  From Socialism to Open Cooperativism: Convergences and Divergences in the Work of Castoriadis, Olin Wright and Bauwens & Kostakis creation of a post-capitalist Commons-oriented ethical 1983 has disrupted one of the main pillars of capitalism, economy. that is, private intellectual property. Stallman, in cooperation with other software programmers, created an operating system called GNU, made up of free software consisting of open code that could be Bauwens and Kostakis are neither philoso- accessed, ran, modified and distributed freely under the phers nor sociologists. They both come from a business General Public License (GPL).69 What the General Public management environment highly shaped by information or “copy left” License allows for is the freedom of and communication technologies. They do not intend to anyone to access, run, modify and distribute the develop a normative political theory akin to the ones of program under the same terms. The GPL is an inversion Castoriadis and Wright. Rather their goal is to offer a of traditional copyright law, aiming to protect collective more techno-pragmatic pathway towards a post- forms of ownership alongside individual ones. In other capitalist economy supported by information and words, the GPL ensures that the free software cannot be communication technologies. They build on the work of 2018 privatized. Yochai Benkler who first coined the term Commons- Jeremy Rifkin rightly argues that the General based peer production to describe the effect of the Public License could be considered a digital version of Year Internet and free/open source software on the flourishing the regulation of the limited access Commons, of a nonmarket sector of information and cultural inasmuch as it incorporates many of the Ostrom’s 14 production, which is not treated as private property, but design principles, such as the conditions of inclusion, as a mode of social production based on open sharing the restrictions of exclusion, the rights governing access Global Journal of Human Social Science ( F ) Volume XVIII Issue IV Version I and cooperation.63 Social production is not limited to and withdrawal, enhancement and stewardship of the public goods or limited access Commons, which are resources, etc.70 necessarily self-managed by stable communities of The Internet and the free software/hardware are individuals interacting on a regular basis and knowing pivotal to the development of the Commons, since they each other.64 Social production expands into the digital allow for the autonomy of distributed networks that are Commons on the model of peer production, which is not controlled by hubs, that is, centralized choke-points. considered to enhance individual and collective On that basis, peer production is developed in terms of autonomy by establishing a more participatory political equipotentiality, holoptism, and stigmergy. Equipo- system, a critical culture, and social justice. 65 Benkler tentiality opens up equal opportunities for everyone to mentions two basic forms of digital Commons: participate according to his/her skills. Participation is distributing computing (e.g., Wikipedia, Open Directory conditioned a posteriori by the process of production Project, Slashdot) and file-sharing (e.g., Gnutella, itself, where skills are verified and communally validated Project Gutenberg).66 in real-time. Holoptism contrasts panopticism that Bauwens and Kostakis combine Benkler’s penetrates the modern systems of power 71 in that it theorization of the digital Commons with the natural allows participants free access to all information Commons scrutinized by Elinor Ostrom, who was necessary for the accomplishment of the project in awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2009 for question. Holoptism allows for stigmergic processes of analyzing numerous successful cases of self-managed mutual coordination where the participants can match - limited access Commons such as forests, fisheries, oil their contributions to the needs of the system.72 fields, grazing lands, and irrigation systems. Limited Stigmergy is thus a form of self-organization based on access Commons are neither public nor private, but indirect coordination. they are managed collectively on the basis of, among Commons-based peer production is neither a others, three interlinked principles: a well-defined shared hierarchy˗less nor structure˗less mode, but a rather resource, a community of peer-to-peer producers mixed form of hierarchy, cooperation, and autonomy. creating value on the premises of the resource, and For instance, Wikipedia is a mixed form of democracy, certain rules regarding the sharing of value, and the aristocracy, and monarchy. Democratic voting imposing of sanctions on free-riders.67 concerning the content is accompanied by the Bauwens and Kostakis define Commons-based aristocracy of the most reliable users and the monarchy peer production as a third mode that differs from for- of the founder/leader in cases when neither democracy profit or state production in that it produces value nor aristocracy works. through the free cooperation of users having access to In contrast to capitalism, Commons-based peer distributed “fixed” capital or common property production favours, in principle, decentralisation over regimes.68 By “fixed capital” they refer basically to central control, democratic self-management over computers and software/hardware. The architecture of hierarchical management, access over ownership, Internet has allowed for autonomous communication transparency over privacy, and environmental between multiple computer users, while the sustainability over growth at all costs. Profit is not development of the free software by Richard Stallman in central, but peripheral to the social and environmental © 2018 Global Journals  From Socialism to Open Cooperativism: Convergences and Divergences in the Work of Castoriadis, Olin Wright and Bauwens & Kostakis goals of the community. As such, Commons-based intellectual rights and employ large-scale production on peer production is divided into global and local the basis of national or global supply chains, DG-ML Commons. inverts this mode of production by adopting open Local Commons refer to autonomous peer-to- intellectual property rights, whether open source or peer projects developed by resilient communities in creative or copyfair80, thus allowing for everyone to ways that resemble Wright’s pathway of social become a manufacturer and producer, whether an economy. Some striking examples are the Quebec individual, a community or an enterprise. Global (digital) economy, degrowth ecological and permculture Commons can connect with local Commons via movements, Transition Towns, the Bologna project, car Transition Towns, decentralized communities and sharing, interest-free banks, autonomous energy fablabs/makerspaces based on free/open source production, and many more73But, despite the software/hardware and renewable energy systems empowerment of the local governance and the distributed through micro grids on the Internet of Things. optimization of local assets and infrastructures, Thus, the DG-ML model introduces an on-demand 2018 Bauwens and Kostakis recognize that local Commons distributed mode of production that can significantly seem more like centripetal lifeboat strategies that cannot lower production and transaction costs, while reducing Year but conform in the long run to the capitalist mainstream. the environmental impact of production through the use For this reason, they attempt to connect local peer-to- of readily available supplies and the recycling of waste peer production with global Commons.74 material. The DG-ML technologies promote openness, 15 The key factor in the development of global sharing, and abundance of resources, bottom-up Global Journal of Human Social Science ( F ) Volume XVIII Issue IV Version I Commons is free software/hardware that has disrupted innovation, creativity, sustainability, resilience, and the capitalism in the last decades. Whereas the latter is global scaling up of small group dynamics through based on profit maximization and top-down glocal governance. Some illustrative case studies have management, the former can sustain a peer production been examined by the literature so far, such as L’Atelier aiming at the distribution of value through hybrid forms Paysan, Farm Hack, Ability Mate, Wikihouse, RepRap, of governance where hierarchy, autonomy, and Osvehicle, Open Bionics.81 cooperation coexist on different degrees and levels.75 To enhance Commons-based peer production, Some examples of global(digital) Commons are Bauwens and Kostakis integrate the DG-ML model into Wikipedia, Wikispeed, Open Source Ecology, a broader model of open co-operativism between a LibreOffice, Linux, Goteo, Farm Hack, Arduino, Espiral, partner state and ethical market entities 82, with the aim Loomio, Sensorica, etc.76Blockchain technology77can to gradually replace the accumulation of the capital with potentially foster the Commons development inasmuch the circulation of the Commons. Platform cooperativism as it can provide decentralized and transparent self- can be incorporated into a Commons-based peer management of eco-systemic networks (holoptism), production on the model of an open cooperativism the operating through mutual coordination (equipotentiality central axis of which would be the multistakeholder and stigmergy) on the basis of open design, open cooperative that crystallizes the values of a self- manufacturing, open distribution, open book managed democratic community of investors, produsers accounting, open supply chains, open finance, etc. and prosumers. Multistakeholder cooperatives would Blockchain technology already supports platform serve as the transition business model until ethical - cooperativism on the Internet and mobile applications market entities adjust to the Commons in the long term. through which several groups (taxi drivers, Finally, Bauwens and Kostakis’s model of open photographers, farmers, designers, programmers, cooperativism forms a new ecosystem that comprises teachers, researchers, innovators, investors, web three institutions: (1) the productive community of glocal developers, etc.) are joining forces on the mission to Commons; (2) the entrepreneurial coalition built around work together in a self-managed, decentralized and the glocal community; (3) the for-benefit association autonomous manner78It still remains an issue as to what supporting both the glocal community and the degree the Commons can still remain autonomous from entrepreneurial coalition (see Figure 1). big banks, corporations, and governments. 79 The productive community consists of all To address this issue, Bauwens and Kostakis members, users, and contributors of Commons-based introduce a new economic model called “Design Global- peer production, who produce the shareable resource Manufacture Local” (DG-ML) or “Cosmo-localization,” either paid or volunteering. The Commons-oriented which combines open global design based on free/open entrepreneurial coalition consists of generative software with local production. In a nutshell, DG-ML enterprises that add value to the scarce common follows the logic that what is not scarce becomes global resources. Generative enterprises contrast extractive (e.g., global commons of knowledge, design, software), enterprises in that they do not seek to maximize profits and what is scarce (e.g., hardware, resources, without sufficiently re-investing surplus in the infrastructures) is local. In contrast to traditional maintenance of the productive communities (see Figure corporate enterprises that operate under closed 2). The best example of the difference between © 20 18 Global Journals  From Socialism to Open Cooperativism: Convergences and Divergences in the Work of Castoriadis, Olin Wright and Bauwens & Kostakis extractive and generative enterprises is industrial striking examples of extractive corporations are agriculture and permaculture respectively. Whereas in Facebook, Uber and Airbnb, which do not share any the first case the soil becomes poorer and less healthy, profits with the co-creating communities they depend on in the latter it becomes richer and healthier. Some for their value creation and sustenance. 83 Year 2018 Figure 1: The three institutions that shape the model of open cooperativism 84 16 In the best of cases, generative enterprises abundance. Whereas the former identify a problem and identify with the productive community which forms a Global Journal of Human Social Science ( F ) Volume XVIII Issue IV Version I provide a solution for that, the latter maintain an meta-economic network based on the transition from infrastructure of cooperation between productive community-oriented business to business-enhanced communities and commons-oriented enterprises, communities. Some prominent examples are the protect the commons through licenses, manage Catalonian Integral Cooperative or CIC (Catalonia conflicts, fundraise, etc.86 Spain), The Mutual Aid Network (Madison, Wisconsin At the macro-level, the three institutions of USA) and Enspiral (New Zealand). 85 productive communities, entrepreneurial coalitions and The third institution that binds together the for-benefit associations could apply to the evolution productive communities and commons-oriented of the civil society, the market entities and the state enterprises is the for-benefit association, which supports respectively (see Figure 3). The for-benefit association the infrastructures of Commons-based peer production. could be presently considered as a snapshot of a future In contrast to traditional non-governmental and nonprofit partner state, which could facilitate the Commons-based organizations that operate on conditions of scarcity, for- peer production of civil society and ethical market benefit associations operate on conditions of entities.87 - Figure 2: The differences between extractive and generative ownership 88 © 2018 Global Journals  From Socialism to Open Cooperativism: Convergences and Divergences in the Work of Castoriadis, Olin Wright and Bauwens & Kostakis A partner state could boost the transition from found in the Bologna Regulation for the Care and capitalism to Commons-based peer production through Regeneration of the Urban Commons or the Barcelona a de-bureaucratization and commonification of the En Comú citizen platform.91 public sector on the basis of a bottom-up self- Bauwens and Kostakis hold that the model of management, establishing an open co-operativism open cooperativism should scale up from regional to between the Commons and ethical market entities national and transnational level to establish a willing to minimize negative social and environmental hegemonic counter-power against and beyond externalities. To this end, taxation of social/ predatory capitalism and neoliberalism. To this end, they environmental entrepreneurship, ethical investing and advocate the creation of three additional institutions productive labor could be minimized, whereas taxation operating at a translocal and transnational level: (1) of speculative unproductive investments, unproductive Chambers of Commons, locally representing commons- rental income and negative social and environmental oriented entrepreneurial coalitions; (2) Assemblies of the externalities could be increased.89 Also, education and Commons bringing together commoners and citizens, 2018 publicly funded research and innovation could be also locally; (3) Commons-oriented Entrepreneurial aligned with the Commons-oriented economic model.90 Associations, connecting commons-oriented enterprises globally.92 Year Early examples of the partner state approach can be 17 Global Journal of Human Social Science ( F ) Volume XVIII Issue IV Version I Figure 3: The evolution of Commons-based peer production into social life as a whole 93 To sum up, Bauwens & Kostakis’s model of conditions of the current expansion of neoliberal open cooperativism constitutes a strategy, which is both capitalism globally. Wright’s seven pathways to a reformist and revolutionary, since it aims to transform socialist transformation can indeed provide a plausible the current politico-economic system towards the strategy. Bauwens and Kostakis follow in the footsteps creation of a global Commons-oriented ethical economy of both Castoriadis and Wright by building, among based on a democratic self-institutionalisation of others, on a core socialist element mentioned by society. It is a model based on open cooperation with a Castoriadis but largely neglected by Wright: the friendly capitalism willing to adjust to a Commons- technological support of individual and collective centric society in the long run. autonomy. Bauwens and Kostakis’s model of open cooperativism points to an ecological self- institutionalization of society that incorporates almost all - Castoriadis’s project of individual and collective pathways illustrated by Wright – the social state, autonomy has exerted a pervasive influence over associational democracy, the social economy, the social political thought in the last century, and it still resonates capitalism, the cooperative market economy –into a within collectivities and movements across the globe. centrally-coordinated decentralization of power One of its main shortcomings is that Castoriadis was supported by the Internet and free/open source against any state or market-driven reformism in fear of software/hardware. The DG-ML sub-model has, indeed, socialism being assimilated by the political system. the potential to sustain a glocal mutual coordination of Castoriadis’s postulate of the abolition of the hierarchy Commons-based peer production supported by a broad of salaries, incomes and wages is highly inapplicable institutional alliance of a partner state (parties, today, at least as a general rule. Castoriadis also institutions, and organizations) and ethical market concentrated in his later writings on more philosophical entities (corporations, NGOs, social enterprises, credit issues, thus abstaining from introducing any concrete banks). This is evidenced today by numerous empirical proposals of how his project could materialize in casessuch as the Quebec economy, the Bologna contemporary societies. project, Wikipedia, Wikispeed, L’ Atelier Paysan, Wright’s and Bauwens and Kostakis’s work FarmHack, Arduino, Espiral, Loomio, Sensorica, the could offer some corrections to these deficiencies by Catalonian Integral Cooperative or CIC (Catalonia introducing some proposals that could render Spain), the Mutual Aid Network (Madison, Wisconsin Castoriadis’s project somewhat feasible under the USA), Linux Foundation, and many more. © 20 18 Global Journals  From Socialism to Open Cooperativism: Convergences and Divergences in the Work of Castoriadis, Olin Wright and Bauwens & Kostakis Thus, the advantage of Bauwens and Kostakis’s peer-to-peer initiatives; and how to relate to established model of open cooperativism over Castoriadis’s and social systems and power relations in the market, the Wright’s work is the concrete demonstration of a post- state and civil society at large. Therefore, it is essential capitalist society built on the premises of information to reinvent the political, to face the challenges lying in and communication technologies that can mutatis the intersection of technology, society, and economy. mutandis promote self-governance, cooperation, creativity, sustainability and distribution of value. But Bauwens and Kostakis’s model of open cooperativism This article examined the potential of integrating is also to some degree limited. Despite them attempting core socialist elements, analyzed through the prism of to avoid any form of techno-determinism or techno- Castoriadis’s and Wright’s work, into a model of open fetishism, they stick at times to a technocratic and cooperativism, introduced by Bauwens and Kostakis. economistic vision of self-institutionalization. They intend Castoriadis’s project of individual and collective to beat capitalism on its own ground by competing in autonomy has been enormously influential over political 2018 terms of self-management fostered by technological thought in the last century, and still resonates within and economic hacks, which might indeed develop into a movements and collectivities getting active in the plausible strategy. Bauwens and Kostakis’s project Year emerging collaborative economy. But Castoriadis was combines a bio-techno-economic rationality with a highly skeptical of any state or market-driven reformism concrete plan and strategy. Yet this is not enough. 18 in fear of socialism being co-opted by the political One of the major problems of social change is system. In addition, he abstained from articulating any Global Journal of Human Social Science ( F ) Volume XVIII Issue IV Version I how to reverse the current tide of individualism towards a voluntary cooperative political ecology. This amounts concrete proposal of how his project could be realized to the need already stressed by Castoriadis to alter the in contemporary societies. central imaginary significations of contemporary In contrast to Castoriadis being skeptical of societies by creating a novel anthropological type not reformism, Wright introduces a flexible strategic driven by self-interest and profit maximization. This goal, pluralism based on seven pathways of social however, stumbles upon its own foundations. The empowerment, employing both state and market collaborative economy illustrated by Bauwens and mechanisms. Wright’s seven pathways can indeed Kostakis is still in its infancy and faces numerous sustain a plausible strategy for a socialist transformation barriers and contradictions owning to the global of society. But Wright has downgraded the significant dominance of a neoliberal capitalism colonizing role of technology, already foreseen by Castoriadis democracy. To put it simply, there are no easy exits from decades ago. already existing capitalism. Bauwens and Kostakis follow in the footsteps of The virtue of Bauwens and Kostakis’s work is both Castoriadis and Wright by building, among others, that they have introduced a model of a radical self- on the technological enhancement of individual and institutionalization of civil society, comprising both state collective autonomy. They introduce a model of and market mechanisms along democratic, ethical and Commons-based peer production, supported by ecological lines. They advocate an open, decentralized information and communication technologies. The and flexible cooperativism facilitated by information and Internet and free/open source software and hardware - communication technologies. Their model, however, can sustain a DG-ML model that connects local with requires a more vibrant political spin to form an inter- global Commons-based peer production. The DGML compatible strategy aiming to engage a critical mass in model integrates into a broader model of open the collaborative economy. Human-computer interaction cooperativism that forms an ecosystem comprising and digital platform design deal with complex concepts three institutions: (1) the productive community of glocal of political theory, already embedded in algorithmic Commons; (2) the entrepreneurial coalition built around design, the examination of which is still nascent both the glocal community; (3) the for-benefit association empirically and normatively. The research on how social supporting both the glocal community and the relations are shaped by information and communication entrepreneurial coalition. These three institutions could technologies, and how the latter relate to our social correspond to the evolution of the civil society, the systems and institutions is still preliminary. market entities, and the partner state respectively. This Some of the big challenges lying ahead in the way, Bauwens and Kostakis’s model of open collaborative economy are how to tackle issues of cooperativism could establish a hegemonic counter- concentration of power and conflict; how to reconcile power against and beyond predatory capitalism and individuality and pluralism with community and unity; neoliberalism. how to combine hierarchy and competition with self- But Bauwens and Kostakis’s model of open management and cooperation; how to analyze the cooperate-vism also does not come without interweaving of meanings and practices cross-cutting deficiencies, since they stick at times to a technocratic diverse social imaginaries; how to coordinate dispersed, and economistic vision of self-institutionalization. Their © 2018 Global Journals  From Socialism to Open Cooperativism: Convergences and Divergences in the Work of Castoriadis, Olin Wright and Bauwens & Kostakis model should be given a political spin that would push 37 Eric Olin Wright, Classes (UK: Verso Books. 1985); Eric Olin Wright, towards the examination of the complex social relations Approaches to Class Analysis(US: Cambridge University Press, 2005). embedded in the algorithmic design of information and 38 Wright, Envisioning Real Utopias, 67. 39 communication technologies, and the relation of the Ibid., 69. 40 latter to social systems and institutions in general. I Ibid., 26-34. 41 Ibid., 35. argued for the reinvention of the political on a mission to 42 Ibid., 37-43. transform the current anthropological type of homo 43 Ibid., 44-47. 44 oeconomicus into a homo cooperans. Ibid., 47- 57. 45 Ibid., 56-57. Notes 46 Ibid., 73-74. 47 Ibid., 76. 48 1 Ibid.,80. Cornelius Castoriadis, Political and Social Writings Vol. 3, translated 49 Ibid., 82. and edited by David Ames Curtis (Minneapolis, MN: University of 50 Ibid., 86-92. Minnesota Press, 1993), 314. 51 Ibid., 92. 2018 2 Ibid., 315. 52 Ibid., 108-109. 3 Ibid., 315-316. 53 Ibid., 117. 4 Ibid., 316. 54 Year 5 Wright, Envisioning Real Utopias, 127; Cohen and Joel, Associations Ibid., 317. and Democracy, 42-44. 6 Ibid., 317-318. 55 Wright, Envisioning Real Utopias, 127-133. 7 Ibid., 318. 56 Ibid., 135-189. 8 Cornelius Castoriadis, “Power, Politics, Autonomy” in Philosophy, 57 19 Ibid., 226. Politics, Autonomy, edited by David Ames Curtis (Oxford: Oxford Global Journal of Human Social Science ( F ) Volume XVIII Issue IV Version I 58 Ibid., 93-95. University Press, 1991). 59 Sam Gin din, “Chasing Utopia”, in Jacobinmag. Retrieved May 16, 9 Cornelius Castoriadis, Political and Social Writings Vol. 2, translated 2016. https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/03/workers-control-coops- and edited by David Ames Curtis, (Minneapolis, MN: University of wright-wolff-alperovitz; Trevor Scholz, Platform Cooperativism. Minnesota Press, 1988), 92-95. Challenging the Corporate Sharing Economy (New York: Rosa 10 Cornelius Castoriadis, The Imaginary Institution of Luxemburg Stiftung, 2016). Society(Cambridge: Polity Press, 1987), 9-110; Cornelius Castoriadis, 60 Wright, Envisioning Real Utopias, 93-95. A Society Adrift, Interviews and Debates 1974-1997(New York: 61 Ibid., 95. Fordham University Press, 2010a). 62 Ibid., 114. 11 Castoriadis, The Imaginary Institution of Society,56-68. 63 Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production 12 Castoriadis, Political and Social Writings Vol. 3, 323. Transforms Markets and Freedom (New Haven, CT: Yale University 13 Castoriadis, Political and Social Writings Vol. 2, 106. Press. 2006),7-18. 14 Ibid., 93-94. 64 Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions 15 Castoriadis, Political and Social Writings Vol. 3, 296-297. for Collective Action (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990). 16 Castoriadis, Political and Social Writings Vol. 2, 95-100. 65 Benkler, The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms 17 Ibid., 99-101. Markets and Freedom, 7-8. 18 Ibid.,113-114. 66 Ibid., 59-90. 19 Ibid., 103-104. 67 Ostrom, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for 20 Ibid., 107. Collective Action. 21 Castoriadis, A Society Adrift, 162. 68 Vasilis Kostakis and Michel Bauwens, Network Society and Future 22 Castoriadis, Political and Social Writings Vol. 2, 121. Scenarios for a Collaborative Economy (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 23 Ibid., 129-130. 2014). 24 Ibid., 130-131. 69 Richard Stallman, Free Software, Free Society(Boston, MA: GNU 25 Cornelius Castoriadis and Daniel Cohn-Bendit, From Ecology to Press, 2002), 3-7. - Autonomy (Athens: Kedros-Rappas, 1992) (in Greek). 70 Jeremy Rifkin, The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of 26 Cornelius Castoriadis, Démo cratieetrelativisme [Democracy and Things, The Collaborative Commons, and The Eclipse of Relativism], edited by Enrique Escobar, MyrtoGordicas and Pascal Capitalism(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 175. Vernay(France: Mille et unenuits, 2010b), 119. 71 Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (New York: Vintage, 1997). 27 FerencFehér, “Castoriadis and the Re-definition of Socialism”, in 72 Michel Bauwens, “The Political Economy of Peer Production, inC- Autonomieet Auto transformation de la Société, la Philosophie Militante Theory. Retrieved May 16, 2016.http://www.ctheory.net/articles. de Cornelius Castoriadis[Autonomy and Autotransformation of Society, aspx?id=499, 2005. the Militant Philosophy of Cornelius Castoriadis], edited by Giovani 73 David Bollier and Silke Helfrich, Patternings of Commoning (US: The Busino (Genève: Librairie Droz, 1989), 401-402. Commons Strategy Group, 2015). 28 Castoriadis, Political and Social Writings Vol. 2, 144. 74 Kostakis and Bauwens, Network Society and Future Scenarios for a 29 Hans Joas and Raymond Meyer, “Institutionalisation as a Creative Collaborative Economy, 48. Process: The Sociological Importance of Cornelius Castoriadis’ 75 Ibid., 52;Benkler, The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Political Philosophy”, in The American Journal of Sociology 94, 1989 Transforms Markets and Freedom. (5): 1184-1199. 76 Bollier and Helfrich, Patternings of Commoning. 30 Castoriadis, Political and Social Writings Vol. 3, 11; Castoriadis, 77 Melanie Swan, Blockchain. Blueprint for a New Economy Political and Social Writings Vol., 228. (UK:O’Reilly, 2015). 31 Eric Olin Wright, Envisioning Real Utopias (UK: Verso Books, 2009), 78 Scholz, Platform Cooperativism. Challenging the Corporate Sharing 7-8. Economy; Trevor Scholz,Ours to Hack and to Own, The Rise of 32 Ibid., 73. Platform Cooperativism, A New Vision for the Future of Work and a 33 Ibid., 12. Fairer Internet (New York and London: Or Books, 2016). 34 Ibid., 64. 79 35 Manuel Ortega, The Block chain is a Threat to the Distributed Future Ibid., 66. 36 of the Internet. Retrieved May 18, 2016, https://english.lasindias.com/ Ibid., 65-67. blockchain-is-a-threat-to-the-distributed-future-of-the-internet, 2016. © 20 18 Global Journals  From Socialism to Open Cooperativism: Convergences and Divergences in the Work of Castoriadis, Olin Wright and Bauwens & Kostakis 80 Open source license allows software to be freely used, modified, and shared. Similarly, Creative Commons License permits a more agile copyright protection. Copy fair differs from both in that it allows for the commercialization of Commons knowledge in exchange for rent. 81 Vasilis Kostakis, Vassilis Niaros, George Dafermos and Michel Bauwens, “Design Global, Manufacture Local: Exploring the Contours of an Emerging Productive Model”, in Futures 73, 2015: 126-135. 82 Michel Bauwens, “Towards the democratization of the means of monetization: The three competing value models present within cognitive capitalism”, in The Journal of Peer Production, Issue#4 Value and Currency, 2014. http://peerproduction.net/issues/issue-4-value- and-currency/invited-comments/towards-the-democratization-of-the- means-of-monetization/ 83 Michel Bauwens, Vasilis Kostakis, Stacco Troncoso and Anne Marie 2018 Utratel, Commons Transition and P2P: a Primer (Published by the Transnational Institute, 2017). 84 Ibid., 13. Year 85 Ibid., 14-15. 86 Ibid., 15. 87 Ibid., 26. 20 88 Ibid., 13. 89 Kostakis and Bauwens, Network Society and Future Scenarios for a Global Journal of Human Social Science ( F ) Volume XVIII Issue IV Version I Collaborative Economy, 66-67. 90 Ibid., 68. 91 Bauwens, Kostakis, Troncoso and Utratel, Commons Transition and P2P: a Primer, 27-28. 92 Ibid., 39-43. 93 Ibid., 26. - © 2018 Global Journals