AMASS: Towards an Economy of the Commons

Saturday, 16 April 2011, 2:00–5:00pm, Chisenhale 64 Chisenhale Road, London E3 5QZ In the face of mass cuts to public services, emerging forms of governance rampantly colonizing intellectual resources in the digital domain, and new narratives of the Big Society in the UK, what does the commons mean for us today? How can we approach a new protocol for the commons under such circumstances? AMASS (derived from the verb, 'to amass') is an open platform for roundtable discussions exploring new models and practices for sustaining the commons today. AMASS invites organisations, collectives and individuals working within the cultural sector and creative industries to contribute by presenting past experiences, present practices, and future ambitions concerning mutual aid, pooled knowledge, networked infrastructures and modes of self-organisation. These case studies can be drawn from personal experiences in various sectors, geographical locations both provincial and international, or through accounts of historical manifestations. Through these exchanges we wish to collectively investigate our strategies, successes, and failures, considering the obstacles and potentialities for the development of the commons. Following the event, all materials will be collated into an open online archive, which will serve as a generative research database for future endeavours.

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