The Cosmolocal Reader features 50 chapters documenting and discussing theory and practice. From modular automotive manufacturing, to agri-robotics and peer to peer farming, community driven wind power and housing construction… to biohacking, furniture fabrication, upcycling, prosthetics, and disaster relief, 38 cases and examples from around the world provide a foundation to consider what exists and what could be.

Humanity is at a crossroads, and the challenges we are facing, with the climate emergency, ecological overshoot and an equity crisis, are asking for bold and transformative thinking and strategy.

Cosmolocalism stands for a revolution in how we produce the stuff of life. Cosmolocal strategies and approaches have the potential to address many of these challenges. But it is a contested space with no guarantees. There are patent wars and appropriations of IP, the challenges in building and financing open source and open design start ups, creating ecosystems of value exchange, and in transforming urban forms. But we see the possibilities for change being born. We hold new technological potentials, creative human labor that can be globally mutualized, and new modes of economic, political and cultural organization. The ingredients for transformation are sitting before us. In this book we bring many of these ingredients together for us to consider how to use these to shape the world we want to be.

Register for the launch event

Event Speakers

• Jose Ramos – Futures Lab / Action Foresight
• Michel Bauwens – P2P Foundation
• Gien Wong – Stop Reset Go
• Sharon Ede – Audacities
• Kathy Peach – Nesta
• Gilbert Rochecouste – Village Well
• Raji Ajwani – IIT Bombay Centre for Policy Studies
• Ron Eglash – School of Information, University of Michigan
• Helen Norberg-Hodge – Local Futures

Table of Contents

Introduction by the Editors

José Ramos, Sharon Ede, Michel Bauwens and Gien Wong

Essay Section

Cosmolocal Framings

• A Genealogy of Cosmolocalism
  Alexandros Schismenos, Vasilis Niaros and Lucas Lemos
• “Do-It-Together”: Towards the Factories of the Future
  Laurent Dupont, Fedoua Kasmi, Joshua M. Pearce, Roland J. Ortt
• Evolving Systems for Generative Justice: Decolonial Approaches to the Cosmolocal
  Ron Eglash, Audrey Bennett, Michael Lachney, and William Babbitt
• The Pulsation of the Commons: The Temporal Context for the Cosmolocal Transition
  Michel Bauwens and José Ramos

Building Cosmolocal Ecosystems

• Making Room for the Community-Based Circular Economy
  Sharon Ede
• Cosmolocal Questions: From Tech Trend to Protocol Commons
  José Ramos
• Fab Cities and the Urban Transformations of the 21st Century
  Tomas Diez
• Financing Cosmolocalism
  Andrew Ward
• Cosmolocalism, a Tool for the Social Appropriation of Knowledge and Rural Development
  Willmar Ricardo Rugeles Joya

Challenging Cosmolocalism

• Repositioning Cosmolocal In A ‘Beyond’ Space-Place
  Michael McAllum
• Cosmolocalization & Localization: Towards a Critical Convergence
  Helena Norberg-Hodge, Alex Jensen, Steven Gorelick and Henry Coleman
• An Interview with Paul Wildman: the Australian Bush Mechanic and her Potential in Helping to Save the Planet
  Paul Wildman with Michel Bauwens

Cases Section

Cosmolocal Stories

• Let there be light: IIT Bombay’s SoUL Project to Energize Rural India
  Raji Ajwani Ramchandani and Snehal Awate
• Rural Dynamism in the Digital Age
  David Li
• An Open Source Preemptive Strike in the Coming War Over The Freedom to Make Your Own Products
  Joshua M. Pearce
• Utopia Maker
  Chrystèle Bazin
• AgOpenGPS and DIY Open Farm Innovation: An Overview
  Chris Bennett
• Chang’an: 3D Printing Cyberpunk Town on Pearl River Delta
  Vicky Xie, David Li, and Kangkang Zhang

Cosmolocal Explorations

• Wind Empowerment, Pico-hydro and Nea Guinea
  Vasilis Kostakis, Kostas Latoufis, Minas Liarokapis, Michel Bauwens
• Farm Hack: A Farmer-Driven Platform for Knowledge Exchange
  Chris Giotitsas
• L’atelier Paysan: Peasants Building Their Own Tools
  Chris Giotitsas
• Open Bionics
  Vasilis Kostakis, Kostas Latoufis, Minas Liarokapis, Michel Bauwens
• Sensorica
  Michel Bauwens and Vasilis Niaros
• Tzoumakers
  Alekos Pantazis and Morgan Meyer
• MuSIASEM: Accounting for material/energy flows and their limits
  Michel Bauwens and Alex Pazaitis, with additions from Gien Wong
• FabChain: Linking advanced research to urban metabolisms and mainstream production and manufacturing
  Michel Bauwens and Alex Pazaitis
• FairCoin and FairCoop: Tools for a cosmo-local, open cooperative ecosystem
  Michel Bauwens and Alex Pazaitis
• Envienta
  Gabor Kiss
• Holochain: An alternative to a global distributed ledger, based on biomimicry
  Michel Bauwens and Alex Pazaitis
• AbilityMade
  Jose Ramos and Melissa Fuller

Cosmolocal Q&A

• bHive Cooperative
  Ian McBurney, in response to questions by Jose Ramos
• Open Motors
  Yuki Liu, in response to questions by Jose Ramos
• Wikifactory
  Carolina Portugal in response to questions by Jose Ramos

Cosmolocal Snapshots

• Appropedia
  Sharon Ede
• Cosmolocalism
  Vasilis Kostakis
• FarmBot
  Michel Bauwens and Jose Ramos
• Field Ready
  Sharon Ede
• GLIA
  Jose Ramos
• Hexayurt
  Christina Priavolou
• LEKA Restaurant
  Sharon Ede
• Multifactory
  Michel Bauwens
• Open Source COVID-19 Medical Supplies
  Sharon Ede
• Open Source Ecology
  Jose Ramos
• OSE Microhouse
  Christina Priavolou
• Open Desk
  Sharon Ede
• Open Food Network
  Sharon Ede
• Open Insulin
  Jose Ramos
• Precious Plastic
  Abril Chimal
• RepRap
  Jose Ramos
• Wikihouse
  Christina Priavolou