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As the human populations of our small planet exceeds 7 billion on its way potentially to 9 million or 10 billion by the mid-21st Century, migrations of millions are becoming common place -- some out of desperation, others out of seeking opportunity and a better life. According to a large percentage of climatologists and other scientists that are studying global change, the social ecologies of many large cities will become non-viable for their human populations and many other species due to climate change, the drying up of water supplies, the lose of food sources, natural disasters, wars, and other factors. In other cases, new cities of opportunity or attractive culture will draws those seeking a better life and way of being.
Tens of millions, and perhaps hundreds of millions will be forced to leave their homes in search of more viable communities. Millions more will create new communities with intentionality, exploring new economic, social, and political models that improve health, human security, resilience and sustainability for the new citizens. In some cases, simple shared principles will shape new, fast growing economies, and, in other cases, rules and conditions will be imposed on inhabitants of new communities and cities.
What will be the political economies be of these rapidly emerging cities of refugees, internally displaced persons, and those just seeking more intentional community? Will they be supplied from the outside by the largesse of the U.N., humanitarian 1.0 organizations, and other donors? Will they emerge as market-based economies, or gift economies? What are the factors that will make some rapidly emerging communities resilient and sustainable, while others leave their inhabitants with only despair and a hopelessness about their life and the future of their children?
Please add articles or comments that you feel are pertinent to exploring the economics of rapidly emerging cities, by clicking on the comment button below.
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Gift Economies: The Economics of Burning Man
Burning Man has, for over a decade, been a refuge for urbanites seeking an respite from their comfortable, patterned lives. What motivates tens of thousands to move to and create an instant anarchic city in the desert? There may not be a simple answer.
Whatever the reason for the yearly pilgrimage to Black Rock City, there are principles underlying the functioning of this city. For example, one of the cultural elements of this intentional city is an environmental ethic to never allow a piece of trash to touch the ground. Another is that money cannot change hands. No corporate promotions or sponsorships are allowed.
So what is the economic model? Is Black Rock City and the Burning Man Festival truly running on a gift economy? Or is there some other financial model running beneath the surface?
Is Burning Man just a "free" carnival for urban pagans, artists, and anarchists shaping their own social ecology; or is there an underlying form of governance and economic model that attracts tens of thousands of self-sufficient revelers to Burning Man each year?
The article below sheds more light on the economics and governance of Burning Man and Black Rock City.
The Changing Face of the Burning Man Festival
TENS of thousands of volunteers are gathering to build a city in a Nevada desert that is notorious for triple-digit temperatures, high winds and blinding plumes of dust. Their organizer is a for-profit company that has collected millions in revenue over the last decade, largely because of this donated labor. At a distance, it’s easy to wonder: why are these people working so hard — in the blazing heat, no less — for a company they don’t own?
That’s one of the paradoxes of Burning Man, the annual arts festival whose attractions include colossal art installations, all-night dance parties, marathon kite-flying sessions, off-kilter fashion shows, and classes where revelers can learn things that range from Hula Hooping to playing the ukulele to making absinthe.
The short answer is simple: the company behind Burning Man doesn’t act like a traditional business. Although it derives its revenue from ticket sales, festivalgoers don’t see themselves as customers. Rather, they are Burners, part of a cultural movement governed by 10 principles that include communal effort, self-reliance, gift-giving and fostering a social environment that is “unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions or advertising.”
For More Information:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/business/growing-pains-for-burning-man-festival.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1