Peer2Politics

"Throughout the globe there is a blossoming of interest in the old idea of ‘the commons’. For many, it offers a radical escape from the all-too-apparent devastations of capitalism and the impoverishments of a world possessed by the idea of possession. For these commoners, the commons were not all lost with the European land enclosures of the sixteenth century, but continue to be produced, enclosed, and reclaimed today. For them, commoning implies an abandonment of the rule of ‘the economy’ that reduces us to hyper-individualised consumers, and more and more of the natural world to resources that can be bought and sold. It carries promises of more convivial, communal and enspirited relationships and transformations in the material quality of people’s lives. Defiantly utopian, as a first step, these commoners call on us to ‘clean our gaze’ so we can see existing commons and, more importantly, see the quiet revolution that is underway in actual movements of the common people.

A cursory glance at the comment section of the UK's leading newspapers suggests that democratic engagement is at an all time low; we are generation apathetic. In their annual health check, the Audit of Political Engagement, the Hansard Society paint a bleak picture of participation trends in Britain. Only 41% of those surveyed are committed to voting in the next General Election. Moreover, less than 1% of the population is a member of a political party. However, 38 Degrees, the political activist movement, bucks these downward trends. In the four years since their foundation in 2009, 38 Degrees have amassed a membership of 1.8 million individuals—more than three times the entire combined memberships of all of Britain’s political parties.