Chris Giotitsas’s research while affiliated with Tallinn University of Technology and other places

A reconceptualisation of technology, as a vital component of modern society cutting across all its other aspects, is required to achieve social and environmental sustainability. This paper presents a convivial technology development framework using the concept of “cosmolocal” production. The latter captures the dynamic of dispersed technology initiatives, which exhibit conceptualisations of living, working and making around the commons. It is a structural framework for organising production by prioritising socio-ecological well-being over corporate profits, over-production and excess consumption. From the vantage point of Tzoumakers, a cosmolocal initiative in which the authors participate, this paper offers an empirical account of its conception and evolution. We further examine its relation and cooperation with various similar interconnected places in urban and rural settings.

In this paper, we argue that the notion of Creative Destruction underpinning classical innovation management theory as well as having crystallised into technological determinism and productivism has come to a dead-end. Framing innovation's ultimate goal as the endless pursuit of economic growth is unrealistic if we wish to address pressing environmental challenges. We show that Creative Destruction historically emerged as an ideology from a specific set of values and worldviews at the cradle of Western capitalism and its need for valorisations. Capital valorisation imposes its logic on innovation, definition of needs, consumption, and organisation of work. The mantra of 'innovate or die' and its underpinning values represent a hegemonic view on technology aligned with the capitalist mode of production. We argue that a counter-hegemonic view emphasising conviviality and use-value is possible instead and needed to address the environmental and social challenges of our time. We posit that the (re-)emerging mode of production, commons-based peer production (CBPP) has such potential. Indicative cases show that innovation underlined by counter-hegemonic values already exists, albeit in the cracks of the dominant system and in constant danger of co-optation. Governmental institutions need to support these alternative practices of innovation.

An emerging commons-oriented mode of production that combines globally accessible knowledge with distributed manufacturing has recently been presented as a better fit for sustainable degrowth and localisation, compared to incumbent practices. To tentatively test this potential we select the case of 3D printers. The production of 3D printers varies within a spectrum from proprietary and industrially produced to open-source and locally manufactured. We compare different 3D printers within this spectrum, adopting a values-based life cycle analysis tool that allows for a critical evaluation of the sustainability of 3D printers from a degrowth perspective. An emphasis on the prospects for sustainable localisation is given at each life cycle stage. We find significant advantages of open-source 3D printers in terms of education, experimentation and maintenance, and enhanced conviviality in case parts of their manufacturing is localised. Still, to a large extent their manufacturing process remains a highly centralised process, hindering additional benefits, and coherence with sustainable degrowth and localisation. We conclude with insights on how openness in terms of materials production and proper documentation of the manufacturing process, as well as a multi-level organisation for local production could lead to more sustainable practices.

In this article, we explore the sustainability potential of an alternative commons-based mode of production called cosmolocalism. Cosmolocal production combines global knowledge production with local physical production. Such a production mode has been applied across the globe for locally manufacturing small wind turbines (SWTs) for rural electrification. We assess the sustainability of such cosmolocal SWTs in a case study of electrifying a rural community in Ethiopia. In this context, the life cycles of five SWT alternatives have been compared, ranging from conventional industrially produced turbines to open-source locally manufactured and maintained ones. Our case study indicates that the local manufacturing and maintenance of SWTs offer significant advantages and may redeem small wind turbines as a sustainable component for rural electrification. Specifically, the fully cosmolocal alternative (A1) performs better than any other alternative in technical, environmental, and social criteria, while it is close to the best-performing alternative with regard to economic objectives. For this solution to be implemented, the institutional burden cannot be neglected, but can rather be considered a sine qua non condition for locally manufactured and maintained SWTs. A set of generic institutional interventions to create favourable conditions for cosmolocal production is proposed, which needs to be elaborated in a context-specific manner.

Transitioning into a sustainable energy system is becoming ever more pressing as the reality of an anthropogenic ecological crisis becomes difficult to ignore. Due to the complexity of the matter, proposed solutions often address the symptoms of the current socioeconomic configuration rather than its core. To conceptualise possible future energy systems, this Perspective focuses on the disconnect between science and technology and engineering studies. On the one hand, this disconnect leads to social science research that passively critiques rather than contributes to tackling societal issues in practice. On the other, it produces technical work limited by the incumbent conceptualisations of economic activity and organisational configurations around production without capturing the broader social and political dynamics. We thus propose a schema for bridging this divide that uses the "commons" as an umbrella concept. We apply this framework on the hardware aspect of a conceptual energy system, which builds on networked microgrids powered by open-source, lower cost, adaptable, socially responsible and sustainable technology. This Perspective is a call to engineers and social scientists alike to form genuine transdisciplinary collaborations for developing radical alternatives to the energy conundrum.

This article examines a community producing complex space technology. We attempt to highlight which aspects of the community’s activities can help democratize high-tech development while providing a context for similar cases involved in developing and manufacturing nonhigh-technological artefacts. We discuss how this has been made possible by using a technology-determined organizational approach based on the CubeSat open platform infrastructure, blending formal and hands-on education, open communication, specific recruitment and working practices, and a genuine passion for technology. We identify as critical enablers for community-based collaborative development of space technology the open-source architecture standard called CubeSat Design Specifications, the modularization of work in subsystems and between different organizations, and the open and participatory approach work tasks distribution and decision making. Moreover, we argue that the digital/informational aspect of this technology allows the community to implement organizational practices that resemble how open-source movements over the internet produce complex digital artefacts like Wikipedia or Linux. ESTCube can shed light on community-driven complex technology development, providing lessons on what a democratized version of high technology would resemble and how open and digitalized technology can help develop the capacities of a community.

The discussions around the unsustainability of the dominant socio-economic structures have yet to produce solutions to address the escalating problems we face as a species. Such discussions, this paper argues, are hindered by the limited scope of the proposed solutions within a business-as-usual context as well as by the underlying technological rationale upon which these solutions are developed. In this paper, we conceptualize a radical sustainable alternative to the energy conundrum based on an emerging mode of production and a commons-based political economy. We propose a commons-oriented Energy Internet as a potential system for energy production and consumption, which may be better suited to tackle the current issues society faces. We conclude by referring to some of the challenges that the implementation of such a proposal would entail.

The discussions around the unsustainability of the dominant socio-economic structures have yet to produce solutions to address the escalating problems we face as a species. Such discussions, this paper argues, are hindered by the limited scope of the proposed solutions within a business-as-usual context as well as by the underlying technological rationale upon which these solutions are developed. In this paper, we conceptualize a radical sustainable alternative to the energy conundrum based on an emerging mode of production and a commons-based political economy. We propose a commons-oriented Energy Internet as a potential system for energy production and consumption, which may be better suited to tackle the current issues society faces. We conclude by referring to some of the challenges that the implementation of such a proposal would entail.