Introduction : Peer to Peer

This introduction introduces the basic concepts and argument of the book. It explains that the book tries to answer three fundamental questions: what is peer to peer (P2P); why is P2P essential for building a commons-centric future and how can it be brought about? It illustrates how P2P is simultaneously a type of social relations, a technological infrastructure, a new mode of production and property and that it creates the potential for a transition to an economy that can be generative towards people and nature. This chapter also addresses the concern over whether P2P technologies lead to positive or negative social outcomes, how P2P relates to capitalism and how P2P might be implemented in practice in relation to different forms of social and political organization. It concludes that all aspects of P2P may be combined to assist in the creation of a new post-capitalist model and argues that the ‘commons’ may be made into a core institution that ‘guides’ all other social forms to achieve the greatest common good.