Cosmo-local work: Organisational practices for equitable and sustainable living*

What is Design Global - Manufacture Local?

By Chris Giotitsas, Nikos Exarchopoulos, Alex Pazaitis, Vasilis Kostakis

* It should be noted that this essay is a reworked excerpt from the “Giotitsas, C., Exarchopoulos, N., Pazaitis, A., & Kostakis, V. (2019). Cosmo-local work: Organisational practices for equitable and sustainable living.”, a deliverable of COSMOLOCALISM, a project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No. 802512).

Rising inequality and an unprecedented environmental degradation may be the most pressing issues of our times. Empowered by modern information and communication technologies, individuals and communities around the globe have engaged in activity that exceeds traditional forms of activism. Instead they have devised novel configurations of working and producing together within a framework of openness, equity and sustainability. This type of production is aggregated under the term commons-based peer production and the organisational model is codified as Design Global - Manufacture Local.

What is commons-based peer production?

Commons-based peer production (hereafter CBPP) describes a production system, powered by information and communication technologies, in which individuals are free to co-operate and co-create. Their creative output is a commons. Meaning communal resources, administered by its users based on mutually agreed upon regulations and customs.

The commons could potentially be considered “rivalrous goods” (like fisheries) that cannot be attained by more that one person at a time or “non-rival goods”, where use may be simultaneous by multiple individuals without any value depletion (in fact, value is increased like for instance open source software whose code is improved upon by multiple users). Here, the focus is placed primarily on the latter category. Meaning that the creative output of the cases presented is primarily digital commons.

There is a growing ecosystem of CBPP initiatives: from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia to open source software projects, to open hardware communities, which produce from low-cost 3D printed prosthetic arms to agricultural tools and machines, to small-scale wind and hydro-electric power generators. While the term was originally introduced to describe internet-based intellectual work, it has greatly expanded in scope over the years. Only one of the cases presented in this handbook engages in this sort of activity specifically. The rest produce predominantly (but not exclusively) open source hardware. This illustrates the adaptability of this model of production through various configurations. One of the configurations is presented next.

What is Design Global - Manufacture Local?

Design Global - Manufacture Local (hereafter DG-ML) is an organisational and production configuration which encapsulates the common features identified in all CBPP initiatives. These features are briefly mentioned in its name. Contrary to the industrial logic of limiting intellectual property and transnational supply chains that enable massive economies of scale, it promotes global access to industrial knowledge and localised physical construction. Meaning that design of technologies and products may take place collaboratively, with the assistance of information and small-scale fabrication technologies (both precision tools like 3D printers and laser cutters and traditional low tech equipment), in a global scale while at the same time adapted for local manufacturing according to specific needs and preferences.

This type of configuration is complementary to the concept of circular economies as it makes smaller, regional cycles or production/repair/recycling possible. Furthermore, it rejects the decontextualisation of inputs – outputs in the industrial process and their related externalities, which may harm communities and the environment alike, as it is geared towards sustainability and well-being rather than financial growth.

Illustrating the various innovative ways that initiatives geared towards the commons and the social good manage to navigate the often hostile environment in the markets. To be sure, these tactics are highly attuned to the regional and national socio-economic context of either case. But, if we peel away some of the contextual layers, we can pinpoint certain core elements that are compatible with CBPP. Commons based peer production as a production mode and DG-ML as an organisational framework present an optimistic vision in a seemingly desperate time. It is not only a different mode of economic relations with regards to resource allocation but also, potentially, a radically different way to exist as a society. For this to happen, however, novel tactics for the transition from the destructive capitalist mode need to be devised.

This section of the book brings distributed design ideas for the world around us: Tzoumakers, Grouu, and Vivihouse study cases showcase the concept with concrete examples.