Introduction
This vision plays a large role within ZCom, inspiring our own organization and policies, informing our politics, etc. Parecon was born nearly two decades ago and has been slowly gathering support since then - a long and difficult process for diverse reasons. Now, however, as we initiate the new ZCom site in early 2008, parecon has arrived at a level of support, in the U.S. and around the world, enabling a serious basis for continued growth and now, at last, for activism as well. This question and answer facility is meant to help people "get into" parecon a bit...both as beginners, and also for those familiar but not yet totally comfortable with the model. There are other ways to learn about and explore parecon, of course, including the subsite of ZCom devoted to parecon, whole books on it, including online, etc. But many people like a question and answer approach, so we offer this compenium. Q/A Origins and Purpose This q/a was compiled in part by ZCom Sustainer John Krumm from forum posts by Michael Albert & Robin Hahnel, in part from excerpts from the book Realizing Hope, in part from excerpts from the book Parecon: Life After Capitalism, in part from various articles and interviews, and In part directly for this Q/A by Michael Albert. Though already huge, this q/a is, nonetheless, a work in progress undergoing continual refinement. Please send ideas for new questions that you think we should address, or for enlarged or refined answers that you think we should incorporate, to sysop@zmag.org. The many questions and answers in this q/a cover considerable ground, some introductory, some going more deeply. In sum, this Q/A attempts to motivate and introduce parecon, and then, to a degree, to explore some of its aspects. Materials about Parecon more generally, including summary presentations, longer presentations, discussions of criticisms by other economists and responses to them, debates, essays, extensive interviews, and even whole books, are all available from the rest of the Parecon offerings you can find via the tabbed menu system and also, for example, the search facility on this site.
Q/A Navigation To navigate the questions and answers, just choose any item from the menu to the left. The new page will explore the issue. Some items lead to just one question and an answer, other items lead to a few questions and answers. Some answers have just a few paragraphs of content, or even only one. Other answers, howeer, offer quite a lot of material, sometimes many questions and long answers, sometimes there is also an appended article or book excerpt exploring the issues raised in further detail. Please, if you have suggestions for new questions to be addressed in this q/a, or for text changes in answers to make things clearer, more accurate, or more compelling, or for additions or deletions, etc., or even for different graphics that might be used, please send your views to sysop@zmag.org. If you have other reactions, please write about them as well to sysop@zmag.org To discuss content, however, please use the forum system. Please also note that the items preceeded by --> are not yet in place...don't bother clicking those, yet. For
additional sources, please use the tabbed menu system, the search facility, and among others please consider the following: Some Related Links Within ZCom
Related Instructionals Some Related Books
Parecon in Many Languages Some Parecon in Practice
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