Glossary: Key Terms in Commons, Cosmolocalism & Web3

Bioregionalism
Organizing society and economies around natural ecological boundaries (like watersheds or forests), rather than nation-states.

Civilizational Transition
A deep societal shift in how humans organize themselves Michel Bauwens argues we are moving from extractive, state/market-dominated systems toward commons-based, cosmolocal ones.

Commons
Shared resources (knowledge, land, code, culture, etc.) managed collectively by a community with rules for access and contribution.

CopyFair Licensing
A licensing model where knowledge and designs are free for everyone to use non-commercially, but commercial users must give back value to the community (ensuring reciprocity).

Cosmolocalism
“Design global, produce local.” A model where knowledge and designs are shared worldwide (cosmo), while production happens locally (local) with sustainable, distributed methods.

DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization)
A blockchain-based organization that uses smart contracts and community voting to coordinate resources, projects, or governance without centralized control.

Extractive Economy
An economy that depletes resources or exploits communities like gig platforms that profit from users without sharing value back.

Generative Economy
An economy that regenerates resources and communities, adding long-term value for people and nature (e.g. permaculture, open-source collaboration).

Mode D Economy
A new “mode of exchange” (a concept from Kojin Karatani, used by Michel) where societies recreate commons-based cooperation at a higher scale beyond markets (Mode C) and states (Mode B).

Mutual Coordination
An economic model where people and organizations coordinate production and distribution through shared ledgers, open-source systems, and DAOs instead of relying only on markets or states.

Peer Production
The creation of goods, services, or knowledge by open, voluntary contributions (e.g. Wikipedia, Linux, Arduino).

Peer-to-Peer (P2P)
Direct collaboration between individuals or groups without intermediaries like corporations or governments.

Platform Capitalism
When corporations (like Uber, Airbnb, or Facebook) capture value created by users and communities, but extract all profits instead of redistributing them.

Seed Forms
Emerging practices or institutions that prefigure a future social system. Early models that “seed” transformation (e.g. free software communities, ecovillages, DAOs).

Stigmergy
A method of coordination where individuals act by observing signals left by others (like open-source developers building on each other’s code, or ants following trails).

Universal Ledger
A blockchain-enabled system of transparent, shared accounting that tracks contributions, exchanges, and ecological impact in real time.