Brilliant book. inspired me to interview the author
She's a deep bottom-up systems thinker who has a vision of a world that is very different. ( )

Although I started it all the way back in the spring, I just wrapped up Marjorie Kelly’s “Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution.” Marjorie is a fellow with the Tellus Institute in Boston, whom I’ve met at events hosted there.

The book draws heavily on a foundation of systems thinking, which I really appreciate.

In summary, the book explores the domain of ownership in it’s many facets, and asks how we might optimize ownership structures for a “generative economy.” To oversimplify, in the 20th century, there were two kinds of ownership - public, and private. The sweet spot is probably somewhere in between, and is being explored in a number of ways - from community land trusts to cooperatives. This book explores some case studies in a few models people are pioneering. What’s common to all of them? An emphasis first on the mission of an organization and their greater community, and only second, if ever, such traditional aims as financial profit.

It’s notable that she uses the term “generative,” especially because there is a parallel field of new economics, also based in systems thinking [permaculture design in particular] that has coined the term “regenerative.” The terms share more or less the same values, but come from different lineages. The most detailed piece of literature yet published on regenerative thinking is called “Regenerative Enterprise.”

Marjorie spends a long time looking into some of the issues with ownership today, and points out that ownership is actually a broad set of rights, a fact which we often overlook or underestimate. Ownership is never simply one thing, and because of this, it’s possible to specially tailor ownership structures for each unique scenario, and this is where a lot of the potential can be found.

I found it to be an inspiring book. I’m very excited about the possibilities within the field of ownership. A lot of people are getting very excited about the nature of money right now [like Occupy Wall Street for example]. But you can’t have a full conversation about the nature of money without looking into the backdrop - property and ownership. ( )