Peer production and Marxian communism: Contours of a new emerging mode of production
In: Capital & class, Band 37, Heft 3, S. 397-416
ISSN: 2041-0980
This article argues that communism is currently emerging as a new mode of production, namely, peer production (PP), which produces commons instead of commodity. In PP, producers produce commons through voluntary participation in distributed network-based communities of production. Each volunteer chooses the tasks she performs, the amount of time she devotes to the collective production, and the place and time of her productive activity. In terms of distribution, the digital commons are available for free on the net. The rights to relatively scarce commons are still emerging, but they might be relatively restrictive compared with rights to digital commons. Analysing this new mode of production, the article attempts to show why and how it can replace capitalism.