Prophets and Advocates of Peer Production
George N. Dafermos · 2020
Since the beginning of the 21st century, peer production has been theorized by various thinkers as an alternative model of production, governance and property which can antagonize and subvert capitalism. This chapter discusses the enabling conditions for the emergence of the phenomenon of peer production in the 1990s, as typified by the development of online projects such as Linux, in connection with the theoretical works that prepared the ground for the development of peer production theory in the next decade. It looks at how peer production was theorized in the 2000s through the work of its main proponents in this period: Yochai Benkler, Michel Bauwens’ P2P Foundation, and the Oekonux Project. Following on from this historical background, the chapter also discusses the wider effect that peer theorists have had in the current decade on the community of scientists, policymakers, and collaborative economy actors.